- 8 



When people came together to trade and transact business they also 

 wanted to exchange news and culture in an atmosphere of gaiety and live- 

 liness. Today too many business people make the situation more and more 

 impersonal, cold and drab. Your sales presentation, your approach, your 

 communication should be new and interesting each time you wait on a cus- 

 tomer. Your service and your approach should take the consumer out of 

 the rut, away from the sameness of everyday life, and bring some meas- 

 ure of drama and glamor into the situation. Think about the things you 

 say to customers. If we want to motivate we ought to put people in the 

 right mood. 



Remember, the typical woman shopper. "Drawn" from some 12,000 in- 

 terviews, she has been profiled as follows: 



"She is 35 years young, has two children and brings them with her 

 to shop about half the time. Her husband makes a little under $6,000 

 a year. She spends about $1,200 of this on food. She drives two miles 

 to the food store, passing another supermarket on the way, because peo- 

 ple there don't seem helpful or polite enough. 



"She does not carry a shopping list but uses the market itself as 

 a reminder of what to buy. She changes brands often for no reason, and 

 is a pushover for new items, whether foods or household gadgets. She 

 lives to buy items that have recipes on the package. She changes stores 

 from time to time to be a good shopper and for the excitement of trying 

 something new. 



"She loves trading stamps, coupons, and games of chance to satisfy 

 her desires and needs for achievement, hoarding or gambling. She is an 

 eye-level to waist-level shopper. Merely by moving a product 18 inches 

 higher on the display rack, the merchandiser can increase its sales--and 

 sometimes its price. 



"Also, she likes to buy from filled rather than partially filled 

 shelves. Except for those items she uses constantly, she cannot remem- 

 ber prices from day to day and her arithmetic is terrible. She invari- 

 ably goes for lO*? items sold three for 29<?. But she will also buy more 

 of a 33<: item if it is offered three for 99(1:." 



This is a quick profile of the consumer. 



Roadside merchandisers, part of your job is to lie awake nights 

 dreaming up new ways to woo and beguile the consumer. Set some tender 

 traps for her and put an element of romance, glamor and excitement into 

 the prosaic roadmarketing business. If your wife thinks you're being 

 overzealous with these consumer women tell her you only love them for 

 their money. 



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