3 minute read
Cowarr Progresses
H. V. Couan
We used to say that "one dip in the sea of modern merchandising and you are ready for a swim." It's been that way with Virgil Cowan in his efforts to create and market a line of standardized and practical built-ins to be sold through the lumber dealer.
He has been in this game only a little over a year, yet every month that passes shows so many marks of progress as to convince him that there is a great and glorious work to be done with the building industry along this specialized line.
Right now they are issuing their newest and most pretentious catalogue. As a matter of fact his business has been outstripping his catalogues from the day he started, and his year of merchandising his built-ins has been a quick succession of constantly growing and developing catalogues, showing his rapidly broadening and improving line of wares.
The new catalogue is a hummer. Let no dealer's desk be without it. "It shows the most complete and modern line of built-ins to be found anywhere on earth, every one a profit-maker for the live lumber dealer who wants to sell something besides two-by-fours," says Mr. Cowan, of the new H. V. Cowan, Inc., Catalogue, just off the press.
The new catalogue is handsomely bound, most attractive in appearance being printed on heavy enamel paper with every page profusely illustrated with pictures of Cowan products. There are 76 cuts used in the book. Also there are terse detailed descriptions of every item shown, a list of general specifications, specific directions for orderrng, etc.
A very interesting editorial in the front of the book headed "Standardization Applied to Built-In Cabinets," reads as follows:
"The story of America's industrial progress is a story of standardization. Quantity production on a standardized scale has improved the quality and lowered the cost of virtually every product of popular use. Cowan cabinets offer one of the most striking examples of the advantages of standardization. By the application of the most efficient methods of manufacture known to the cabinet-making industry, our organization is able to produce the highest quality cabinets for the home at costs actually lower than most cabinets of ordinary quality. Throughout our factory, with its more than 28,66 feet of floor space, every operation is standardized. Many of our machines are espe- cially designed for quantity production of standardized parts. Every operator is a specialist in his particular op- eration. Every step, from the lumber to the finished product, is highly systematized. The result is the production of a standardized cabinet of incomparable quality. All the experience and facilities of our entire organization have been centered for years on a single purpose-to build the finest cabinets it is possible to make. That architects, builders, and home owners recognize the superior quality of Cowan cabinets, and the advantages of using them rather than having ordinary cabinets built on the job, is clearly indicated by a steadily increasing volume of business. Only products of sheer superiority could win the acceptance that has been accorded the products of our organization."
The catalogue contains several pages of photographs of actual installations of Cowan's kitchen cabinets. that show clearly how wqnderfully these products look when in actual use, and how perfectly they fit every nook and corner desired.
Another department shows the various types of buildings, from the cozy California bungalow, to the biggest and most pretentious apartment, all equipped with Cowan Standardized Built-Ins.
One thing Mr. Cowan is particularly proud of and finds a great assistance in tying up with their dealer distributors, is their. Plan Service Department for assisting their customers in laying out their built-in arrangements, and properly presenting them to their customers.
This concern has equipped and will continue to equip their customer lumber dealers whenever and wherever desired with a wonderful display of Cowan built-ins for the lumber office or display room. A large number of these displays are in use today, and the dealers find them a great help in selling their customers "through the eyes."
Cowan has just contracted to equip with his built-ins the new Town House Apartments at Wilshire and Commonwealth, in Los Angeles, a wonderful apartment building containing 127 apartments. There will be Cowan built-ins in every department, demonstrating the high regard in which which these products are held.
Standardized, machine-made, perfectly constructed and jointed and fitted cabinets, are rapidly taking the place of the saw and hatchet products made-on-the-job that used to be so common. The standardized products, such as Cowan's, are immeasurably superior in quality, super- ior in appearance, and more economical to all concerned, at the same time giving the lumber dealer a better profit than he could possibly make on his raw lumber for madeon-the-job stuff.
