• MANAGEMENT

General Mills uses the technical seminar to stir up interest in its Versamid series of resins. In New York, 300 research

and development people turn out to Hear Harold Wittcoff, a member of the traveling team, talk about the product

Seminar to Stimulate Sales General Mills holds technical seminars to spread the word on Versamid; attendance runs high

X N KANKAKEE, I I I . , and Minneapolis, Minn., eight weary men from General Mills are relaxing this week after a whirlwind tour of four one-night stands. The men—research, development, and sales executives from th? company's chemical division—have just wound up a series of technical seminars on Versa­mid, General Mills' polyamide resin.

General Mills held the seminars in New York, Chicago, Boston, and Phila­delphia. Altogether, they attracted nearly 1000 technical people from the chemical, paint, ink. and adhesive in­dustries. The seminar approach is General Mills* answer to a tough mar­keting problem: how to stimulate in­terest best in the Versa mids. a relatively new series of resins which have scores of potential applications in a large

number of widely separated fields. Eventually, the success of the sem­

inars will be measured by the slope of the Versamid sales curve. But as the final meeting in Chicago came to a close. General Mills felt sure it had come up with a winner. Attendance was high, and listeners had suggested ideas for several new uses. Comments from those who attended ran from a simple "well done," to "the finest meet­ing of its kind I have attended during 25 years in the coatings field."

Besides the benefits General Mills may reap from the seminars, sales manager Howard Von Oehsen looks for another possible result-wider use of the seminar technique by industry. Says Yon Oehsen: "Seminars have, of course, been used before bv other corn- P lenty of samples and visual aids hel

3 8 C & E N FEB. 17. 1958

pa nies to introduce a new product or to create added interest in existing ones. But we believe that our seminars are the first to cover such a broad field. W e aren't talking about a single prod­uct with several uses, but a series of products with a broad spectrum of uses. Other companies may follow our lead in using a wide-range semi­nar."

The General Mills seminars are part of the company's stepped up sales activity on Versamids. General Mills has made Versamids since 194S. About two years ago the compounds were moved from the firm's soybean oil di­vision to the newly formed chemical division. Early in 1957 the Versa mid plant a t Kankakee was expanded, and Von Oehsen put together a chemical sales force. Before this, General VIills sold i ts chemical products through agents.

When he set out to sell Versamids, Von Oehsen felt that the company's best sales tool was the wealth of techni­cal da-ta built up during 10 years of research. This information hadn't been widely distributed, and since i t touched on many fields it presented a problem in communication. How could this material best be presented to customers and potential customers was Von Oehsen*s problem.

• How It Started. Last April, a technical discussion between several

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MANAGEMENT

How To Repoir α Damaged Fender W . R. Price, assistant to the manager of sales, shows seminar audience how to make a body solder for auto repair. H e mixes Versamid with epoxy resin in first photo, then applies solder to metal ( 2 ) . He cures it (3 ) in one to two minutes with heat from blow torch, and after curing, he smooths the solder with a file ( 4 ) . He finishes the job b y spraying a coat of paint on the sheet of metal (5 )—good as new now

General Mills people and researchers from a paint company suggested that an open seminar might be used to give out information on the Versamids. Von Oehsen *s sales force then sur­veyed 2000 accounts to find out ex­actly what kind of material would be most helpful to potential Versamid users. After this, work began in earnest on preparing a seminar pro­gram.

Though sales manager Von Oehsen was in charge of the whole affair, emphasis was placed on factual tech­nical data, not selling. Don Floyd, head of General Mills' chemical appli­cation section, Harold Wittcoff, di­rector of chemical research, M. S. Herban, Versamid product manager, and R. B. Kron, technical service mana­

ger, were responsible for the talks which would present the Versamid story. They set up a program which gave about 4 5 minutes to each of the general uses for Versamid resins—ad-hesives, inks, paints, coatings, etc.

General Mills* advertising depart­ment helped on visual aids to make the program more interesting. And the talks were organized so that two or three people spoke on each topic, thereby making a fast moving program which held the interest of the audience. Time was allowed for questions which were put t o the Versamid panel in writing. Four cities were picked as sites for the seminars to make attend­ing as convenient as possible for Versa­mid prospects.

• Response Excellent. About 900

invitations to research and develop­ment people went out by mail early in January, and everybody held his breath while waiting for the response. Mak­ing up the mailing list was fairly easy, since General Mills regularly uses di­rect mail advertising for its chemical products. And response was excellent. Those who wanted to bring along a friend equaled those who declined, so total attendance numbered about the same as the invitation list. New York and Chicago drew the most, about 300 each, while 160 came to Philadelphia and 100 to Boston.

The seminars ran smoothly, says Von Oehsen, but not without much behind the scenes activity. The meetings were held in the three eastern cities on three consecutive days which led to some

4 0 C&EN FEB. 17, 1958

tight scheduling. The General Mills team met in New York on a Sunday, rehearsed all day at the Chemists Club, and moved on for the Tuesday opening in Philadelphia. The speakers were aU up early to assemble their material and worked late after the meeting to pack things away. A rented station wagon carried the props to New York, while the group caught an evening train. The procedure was the same in New York as the show loved on to Boston. Only after Boston did the "cast" have

MANAGEMENT

a chance to rest before the last per­formance in Chicago.

As a follow-up, General Mills will mail to those who attended copies of all talks. Also, there'll be a list of the questions asked after each talk along with answers. Von Oehsen calls the seminars a complete success and esti­mates that they saved the company one or two years timein reaching customers and prospects with detailed information on the Versamids.

Make or Buy? This is a hard one for management to decide, but weighing certain factors makes the task easier

JL HE "MAKE OR BUY" DECISION is one

of the toughest management must make. Whether to make a product the company needs in its processes or buy it from another firm stands as a per­plexing problem, particularly in the chemical and allied industries where big money is involved.

The analytical businessman's mind seems to lean to the make side for some reason or other, and according to T. G. MacGowan, director of advance plan­ning, Firestone Tire & Rubber, the deci­sion to do it yourself is more often wrong than not. Also, sometimes, it's not a matter of doing one or the other, but a combination. It might pay, de­pending on the case, to make a product and also buy it on the outside, Mac­Gowan told a joint meeting of the Chemical Market Research Association and the Chemical Buyers' Group of the National Association of Purchasing Agents in Washington, D . C. *

He told the buyers and market re­searchers they can help management make the right decision by funneling needed data to it. Such data include:

• A forecast on how much of the de­sired product will be needed over the long range.

• A list of companies which make the product.

• An estimate on the chances of other companies entering the field to make the item.

• A forecast on the price of the prod­uct over months or years.

Information like this finally boils down to a figure for the cost-per-unit to buy and how much of the product

will be available from outside sources. When management weighs this against the cost-per-unit to make, the decision comes. MacGowan claims that straight cost analysis spurs the decision, what­ever it is, 90% of the time. However, certain less tangible factors, such as produce quality, delivery dependability, and the over-all economic picture, bear on the decision 1096 of the time.

In large companies, and when large outlays are called for, top management often sets up a formal agency ( a com­mittee usually) to gather data and make recommendations on make or buy. The assistant to the president is the logical man to coordinate the job.

"When Firestone considers making a product it hasn't made before, it asks itself certain questions, says Mac­Gowan. Something like this:

• D o e s the new product have an affinity for the company and its opera­tions? If it does, okay, but if it doesn't Firestone will not make it.

• Is the product something almost anybody can make easily? If it is, Firestone doesn't fool with it.

•Wi l l producing the item lower or raise the return on stockholders' capi­tal? If it lessens the return already established, the company would not make the new product.

• What is the outlook for the indus­try now making the product? If it's dark, steer clear of the product in ques­tion, MacGowan warns.

• Do other companies intend to en­ter the field? How many? You don't want to get into something that's over­crowded, says the Firestone planner.

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