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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 12, 1977)
■ 1 I i i ■ THE BATTALION Page 9 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1977 Pbppe T.M. SYLVANIA SOFT WHITE BULBS REG. 83 c HROIATURDAY, OCTOBER 15 4ARLHPS ONBCAN GET SI 0Pf[ S LOCATION SCOUNT i College Station KUDAK INSTAMATIC X-15F CAMERA > ^ 1 OUTFIT | REG. 19.57 5" 1 GIRS0N INTERIOR LATEX WALL PAINT m REG. 4.99 GAL. 4 d |.75 I RED DEVII LATEX £ | CAULK U q 1 REG. 97* R.C. DRY CHEMICAL FIRE I EXTINGUISHER ■ REG. 8.17 5" 1 G.E. ELECTRIC #7299-002 ALARM OA9 CLOCK J% I REG. 4.77 FORCE GUP DURO SUPER GLUE UNIVERSAL SPARK PLUG WIRE SET REG. 3.67 RAY-O-VAC HEAVY DUTY BATTERIES REG. 69 e X' OR ‘D’ SIZE PACKS FOR $ 1 MINI VENUS LITE “GLARE FREE” BLUE EYE BEAM REG. 11.57 12 99 MOD 29 NICKEL .44 MAG 6” 8%’ SMITH & WESSON [ 450 00 450°° 299" 229" 269" 229" 229" GARCIA ABUMATIC 350 MOB 27 357 MAG REG. 24.95 18 88 EAGLE CLAW “TOM MANN” CASTING ROD WITH CERAMIC GUIDES HOPPES EAR PHONES REG. 19.95 14 95 PROTECT YOUR EARS THIS FALL MOD 59 9 MM BLUE NICKEL THESE COUPONS GOOD FRIDAY ONLY THESE COUPONS GOOD SATURDAY ONLY 99 MOD 19 357 MAG BLUE NICKEL MANY OTHER SMITHS COLTS, ROGERS IN STOCK. GIBSON CAMP FUEL MRS. BSIRB’S DONUTS POWDERED SUGAR OR GRANULAR GOOD FRL, OCT. 14 ONLY CLOROX GAS TREATMENT 12 OZ. REG. 99* 1 PER PERSON WITH COUPON Collectors may earn book prize Aspiring book collectors have until Oct. 28 to enter the University Li brary’s fifth Student Book Collectors Contest. An entry includes a description of the collection, an annotated bibliog raphy of 25 books from it, and an application. Semi-finalists will be asked to bring the 25 books for the final judging. Winners will be announced and $850 in prizes will be awarded Nov. 11, according to Dr. Irene Hoadley, director of libraries. The ceremonyf in Room 226 of Sterling C. Evans Library will feature Jay Belloli of the Fort Worth Art Museum. Belloli will speak on “Our Visual Literacy.” Student Book Collectors Contest entry forms are available at service desks throughout Evans Library. More information can be obtained from David Chapman, archives; Linda Dreier, acquistitions; Evelyn King, special collections; Sharon Smith, technical reports, or Dr. Hoadley, administrative offices. Hi-fi business growing fast, students help j CQo 1 Kri (rfm. mL m GAL. V W I GOOD SAT. f OCT. 15 ONLY ABUS #78 REG. 1.69 Hi ];,!:] I Til [IK CORDELL bigo REG. 1.53 HEILMAN’S REAL MAYONNAISE C 1 PER PERSON WITH COUPON QUART G00P FRI., OCT. 15 ONLY LOCK REG. 2.27 79 HAWAIIAN WIGGLER 29 '/«0Z. REG. 1.67 JOHNSON’S DISPOSABLE DIAPERS 99 1 PER PERSON WITH COUPON 18 OVERNIGHT GOOD SAT., OCT. 15 ONLY GIBSON’S By LeROY POPE United Press International Business Writer NEW YORK — The faster an in dustry grows, the quicker its market can become a jungle. This observation seems to apply to the high-fidelity music machine business, which has achieved $2 bil lion a year volume without sign of letup. The hi-fi jungle grew when the fair trade laws ended, said Harry Elias, vice president of JVC Elec tronics, a distributor of Japanese made hi-fi equipment. JVC pushed its sales from $8 million to $25 mil lion in a single year and expects to do $40 million in business in 1977. But the very growth of a glamour industry attracts overproduction, excessive competition and price- cutting. “The little producers that attempt to serve the inass outlets get hurt the worst,” Elias said. “They get raped or killed, and the end of the fair trade laws hit a lot of the pro ducers who were selling in the more prestigious markets. The mass out let retailers began to sell their prod ucts at discount prices and ruined the profitability of their merchan dise for their regular dealers.” Elias and Philip Stogel, the owner of a medium sized advertising agency, hit on a solution. They pul led JVC’s line of hi-fi equipment out of the mass markets altogether. They traveled around the country and set up a tight, selective network of dealers to sell JVC products and maintain substantial dealer profit margins. In effect, they restored fair trad ing on a strictly voluntary and legal basis. “But that wasn’t enough,” Elias explained. “We had to help them sell.” This was largely Stogel’s job. He began a concentrated advertising drive in the music magazines and such style and status conscious pub lications as Playboy, Esquire and Sports Illustrated. Next Stogel and Elias set up what they call the “sales stimulator quar tet, (SSQ),” two English-speaking Japanese engineers and two sales executives. This group visits dealers periodically and conducts sales and engineering seminars for the store staff. Then, backed by full page news paper ads, the SSQ takes over the hi-fi sales floor in the store. An example of the results is sales of $24,000 worth of JVC products in two days at Finger Furniture Co.’s store in Houston. It made the Finger salesmen so enthusiastic they now are selling JVC products at a rate of $150,000 a year, Elias said. Next a traveling show that fits into a trailer truck was booked in college student unions and played before 125,000 youngsters. “The college kids are the fastest growing segment of the hi-fi mar ket,” Elias said. That brings up the question of what is the real psychological basis of the high-fidelity music boom. Is it love and appreciation of music, the herd or status instinct, or fascination with electronic technology? Elias and Stogel said they doubt if there is any easy answer to that. All the customers are interested in music but relatively few can ap preciate the tonal subtleties of hi-fi. So, as with motorists who buy jspeeifie ears for a variety of reasons, every hi-fi customer probably has an individual motivation. Memo From The Department of Hassle Engineering and Efficiency Negation Drive Carefully