00:00 This is Berwick Street Market in tough cosmopolitan Soho.
00:08 Any shop near this market must be run on very down to earth lines if it's to make a profit.
00:14 We want to tell you about a shop less than 50 yards away that does make a profit.
00:19 It sells everything that you'd expect to find in a shop of its size.
00:23 It's not privileged or pampered in any way.
00:26 It's the LPE Super-Ed and it's run by John Beasley here, who's in charge of the LPE's
00:32 merchandising and marketing company.
00:35 As self-service stores go, this is very small, but it's big enough to carry a good range
00:40 of the usual products and all the usual special offers and displays.
00:45 Above all, it's big enough to give the LPE authentic first-hand experience.
00:51 For example, of how to design, style, price, pack and merchandise goods so that they have
00:58 the best chance of coming off the shelves into the basket.
01:02 The LPE Super-Ed has taught us a lot and because it's run on strictly business lines at a profit
01:08 in the face of tough competition, these lessons are valid.
01:12 I'd like to tell you about some of the things we've learned.
01:15 I'll start with a simple, in fact, an elementary point.
01:20 Point number one, don't take anything for granted.
01:25 See this dummy of an outer?
01:27 When it was sent to us to be turned into a piece of display material, we first took it
01:31 to the Super-Ed and found that it would fit nowhere except on the top shelves, a very
01:36 poor position.
01:38 So, we just lopped an inch or two off its height and here's the finished job fitting
01:44 nicely onto the best-selling shelf.
01:47 Point number two, we know that sheer size and display is valuable, but how valuable?
01:54 Can it really topple a national brand leader off its pedestal?
01:57 We proved that it can.
01:59 We changed this arrangement to this and in six weeks Campbell's outsold Heights.
02:07 Facts like these, facts proved to be facts, can be very useful in keeping a sales force
02:12 on its toes.
02:14 Point number three, look at things from the retailer's point of view.
02:19 Because we were and are retailers ourselves, we were able to improve the terms of a special
02:25 promotion for peak-free shortcakes and to try out the idea and the display material
02:30 under real-life conditions so that our client salesmen could go into the field with the
02:36 sort of true story that a retailer likes to listen to.
02:41 But perhaps our most valuable lessons have been learned over the difficult field of personal
02:47 relationships.
02:48 The relations between the wholesalers or manufacturer's salesmen and the retailer and between the
02:54 retailer and the customer.
02:57 We've learned how welcome is the salesman who not only knows his own business through
03:02 and through, but takes the trouble to see things from the special standpoint of the
03:06 individual retailer.
03:09 We've learned that the salesman who sets out to bring back the biggest possible order is
03:13 often his employer's worst enemy.
03:16 And we've learned that even in a self-service store the friendliness of the staff and their
03:22 willingness to help rarely matter.
03:25 These things show up when the cash takings are recorded.
03:31 For as we've said before, the Superette has to run like any other store at a profit.
03:38 The Superette is only one of our sources of knowledge.
03:42 Our retail advisory panel is another.
03:45 And the pins on this map show how this is made up of shops spread round the country.
03:51 What we've learned, and are still learning from them, added to what the Superette has
03:55 taught us, makes us confident that we have acquired a lot of insight into the problems
04:01 of retailers and have sharpened up our practical judgment all round.
04:05 We found that getting the feel of the retailer operation is something you either get first
04:10 hand, as in the Superette, or not at all.
04:13 What is good at the age-old ideas of the marketplace, we can adapt to fit into the retail scene
04:19 of today.
04:20 This is what the Superette, just one part of our marketing and merchandising activities,
04:26 helps the LPE to give to its clients.
04:28 Thank you.
04:39 [MUSIC]
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