Merchandising and Sales Aids

Summary: Guides, mostly disbound, containing merchandizing information, policies and aids for district sales managers.

National Sales Conference Books: Arranged chronologically by date of the sales meetings.

Unbound books of merchandizing information for distribution at Lenox national, and occasionally regional, sales conferences and meetings. The sales books, spanning from 1968-1978 and 1989-1997, include descriptions of new products and patterns, advertising campaigns, training programs, product specific promotions, display units, promotional films and consumer demographics, as well as product photographs and samples of order forms and pamphlets. Beginning in 1994, the sales books also cover Kirk Stieff, Gorham and Dansk, and exhibit a more tabular emphasis.

Books from 1996 and 1997 include supplemental books comprised entirely of program notification forms for various sales programs. Several other books, from 1976, are the personal copies of national field sales manager Chuck Thompson; they include heavy annotation, handwritten notes and other non-distributed information such as expense reports, hotel reservations and meal information.

Among the books are several that are subsidiary specific, including books for Kirk Stieff (circa 1990) and Hartmann Luggage (1991 and 1995).

Merchandising and Sales Aids: Arranged chronologically by distribution date.

Unbound books of sales aids, spanning from 1959 to 1996, for distribution to district sales managers. The books, which primarily cover china dinnerware, giftware and crystal, are comprised of mixtures of price lists, product and service pamphlets, radio advertisement scripts, advertisement mats, product and display photographs, catalogs and order forms for the various sales aids, as well as instructional memoranda.

Among the books are several that are product line specific, including one that exclusively covers Temperware (1972) and one for the Lenox Classics line of collectible figurines (1996). One other book, from 1982, is promotion specific, relating only to bridal fairs.

Sales Policy Manuals: Arranged chronologically by date of issuance.

Unbound manuals, primarily from 1987, detailing Lenox sales policies. The manuals include sections on company history, marketing policies (with sample forms such as the application for authorization to sell Lenox products), marketing data, advertising guidelines (such as guidelines on newspaper advertisements and how to respond to customer correspondence) and standard procedures and reports (such as for travel expenses and company supplied vehicles). Included with the manuals are the index from a 1968 policy manual and a single page insert from a 1991 manual.

Records of Sales and Potentials: Arranged alphabetically by title.

Records, formerly bound, of figures for actual sales to local retailers (1962) and sales potentials for dinnerware, giftware, Oxford and crystal (1962 and 1966-1968), both organized by sales district. Included are spreadsheets, smaller format sales figure tables and occasional memoranda. Although centrally-housed copies, the records represent data that would have been distributed to district managers.

District Specific Documents: Arranged alphabetically by district name.

Market studies, primarily of the bone china market, drafted for specific retailers. The studies, dating from circa 1968, were drafted for Broer-Freeman Company and Lasalle and Koch Company of Toledo, Ohio, J. W. Knapp of Lansing, Michigan, and Wright Kay and Company and J. L. Hudson Company of Detroit, Michigan, all from sales district twenty-four, as well as two studies for Bamberger's in 1975 and 1978. Included are market studies, miscellaneous pages from other district reports and a set of page dividers from a report for the west coast sales district.

The reports for Bamberger's relate to general profitability and sales growth, rather than focusing specifically on the bone china market.