The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 69

r- r' i "far i i 0 THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION 3 TTv SECTION Indicators; AMEX Index Prime Rate 380.36 20.5 15.122 4 5 6 7 NYSE Amex OTC 1 TodayTV Dow Jones Ave ran 9 944.35 26-Week T-Cs Friday, August 14, 1931 NYSE 42.46 miSr.on Gold In New York $403.60 B(DIlielic Sales iBcrease 29 Percent- From Prtu DhwidM .1 by the Big Three automakers were "the hammer on the knee." Corp. sold an estimated 2,700 cars In the period, a CM Is offering its customers new-car loans at 17 percent decline from last year's 5,259. 13.8 percent annual interest, while Ford's program AMCs figures must be estimated because the waier inccnuves can passed aiong 10 cuswm-jany reports its sales only on a monthly basis. of P5? taterest reports its sales only on a monthly company Oliver Marketing DETROIT Sparked by rebates and other General Motors Corp. led the surge with sales incentives, new car sales by U.S.

of 100,111 cars in the period, up 34 percent from jumped 29 percent during the first 10 days of An- .75,510 last year. CM grabbed 65.7 percent of the gust from the same period last year, according to domestic market in the period its best market company reports Thursday. penetration since mid-March. rates, uirysier is ouenng 1 juu- to rebates on most of its models. The industry'i early Aueust sales volume Tfie live major domestic manuiacturers saia 1 rora Motor lo.

saies 01 su.ujd can were up they sold 153,372 cars in early August, against "Obviously the sales figures are good and the percentage increases are gratifying, even account-. ing for last year being a poor base," Jouppi said. "The consumer has proved he will buy there's a Beed for cart, ks kl CM, Ford arid Chrysler launched their incen-tive programs during the first 10 days of the month in an attempt to boost sales that had been down sharply since the middle of June. translated into a seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of 7.4 million cars, up from 8.1 million last 'lt For the year, Chrysler is the only automaker with improved sales over 1980., The No. 3 auto-, maker has sold 476,234 cars so far this year, up 22 percent from 591,937 last year.

55 percent from 24,076, while Chrysler Corp. posted a 24 percent gain, selling 17,009 cars ia the period, against 13,682 last year. y. 1 Volkswagen of America said it sold 2,318 of its U.S.-built Rabbits, an increase of 3.2 percent from 2,728 in the 1980 period, and American Motors 065 in the 1980 period. "The consumer always comes through, almost with a knee-jerk reaction," said Arvid Jouppi, a Detroit-based auto industry analyst He said rebates and other Incentives introduced during the period Mr and Loyalty tyast Eroding, rs Show Tax Help Pro posed -developer's hotel revive or destroy the spirit of Times 1 Square? Accounting Change Focuses On Old Loans-" touch difference can there be a paper towel? 1 use it and throw It away, and if I need super absorbency, I use two," was a prevailing attitude found by the prestigious Opinion Research Corp.

in two recent studies on brand loyalty loyalty that Opinion Research says is rapidly. i Opinion Research credits that culprit In so many problems inflation which "has cut such a wide and deep Swath through all family income levels that cost is fast becoming the deciding factor in determining product selec- He quality differences offered in the past by nationally advertised brands may no longer suffice to keep consumers from reaching for Brand or worse the unbranded generic product," states Frank E. Camacho, Opinion Research vice president "Inflation has forced consumers to try the generics and store Camacho explained in a telephone interview from his office in Princeton, A 'l "And consumers have found that for certain commodities, such as paper goods, household cleansers and canned Hi! 7 0 "4 WASHINGTON (AP) Federal regu-lators Thursday proposed that the nation's financially troubled savings and loan associations be given broad leeway in the way they account for sales of old, low-yield home loans, thereby giving new access to tax benefits. a'-The Federal Home Loan Bank Board set a 30-day public comment period for the proposal, which board chairman Richard T. Pratt said would be a major step toward "unfettering management to improve the circumstances of their associations," A major problem for thrift Institutions is that they must pay 1981 interest rates of IS percent or more to attract new deposits while collecting interest of 8 percent to 9 percent on old home loans.

The new proposal is intended to encourage to unload those loans at a loss by giving them an economic incen-'vtive permission- to defer reporting losses for tax purposes and requiring them to invest the proceeds "so as to im- Erove future profitability, and-or reduce iterest-rate risk." SALs would be' excused from keeping L0STM i GUR! it "i 1 i irt 'i i i ends, there isn't that much differ" ence," Camacho sail I Nat AscVs Cafe Zicgfdd (Inset above) and the iMoroico Theater (above) are to be demolished, along with area shops (photo at right). (Staff Graphic Bill Eolbrook; Associated Press Photos) While there may be a difference be -tween branded products and said, consumers are finding their books on sales of old mortgages jnere is- very; little difference between advertised products and More brands! which 'are usually" na- I jtional brands -packaged under a store's oject: Still QphtrbWersial 'M; 'Bv Robin Schats- jw oossible and a kevstone for further develonment ac- tvblock the demolition in court and a rulineis ex- possible and a keystone for further development ac block the demolition in court and a ruling is ex ame. nTla ouality is comparable be- ause it's basically the same," he said. ContllMkKi Slid Wrllv appearance of eenerics pected soon from U.5. District Judge Kevin Duffey on a motion to dismiss the actors' union's suit A second plaintiff, New Yorkers to Preserve the Theaters, is petitioning for a rehearing of a similar suit that was dismissed.

According to Glenn Isaacson, development director for Portman Properties, the remaining law- suits will not delay the project 1 ft who include City HalL business as- cording to city officials. And to its developer, Port-' man Properties, the hotel with its characteristic Portman atrium, theater, restaurants, lounges and sidewalk cafe, would be a true public building and tourist attraction. more than eight years since' Portman first proposed his convention hotel, then estimated to cost $175 million, the project appears nearly ready to move off the drawing board, with work on under rules known as the "generally ac-: cepted accounting i called tt.Ja rules "relatively arbitrary" in requiring that profits and losses be reported as of the time every deal is closed. In the case of long-term, fixed-rate mortgages, "the actual gain or loss really occurs at another time," he said. proposal also would ease the board's own requirements concerning regulated net worth, allowing such totals to fall below current reserve standards while the institutions are selling off old loans and reinvesting the pro-' ceeds more prof itably.

ii: 'Both the bookkeeping and reserve-requirement changes would allow some to time the losses they suffer on loan sales in such a way as to qualify for more tax benefits "without getting in trouble with the board," said Susan Kek sey of the board's office of policy and economic research. NEW YORK In this city's legendary Times "-Square, drug dealers and businessmen, theatergoers and prostitutes all find reason to frequent Broadway and the surrounding where thriving legiti-' mate theaters can be found only blocks from the -worst porno movie houses, and new cafes and reno- vated hotels clash with cheap discount shops. Ike 'dty'ioveniment' has launched a massive redevelopment plan for Times Square, aid if it has -its way, good uses will ultimately overwhelm the bad ones and beauty will dilute seediness and blight And leading that whole renaissance would be a new $300 million luxury hotel by Atlanta architect-developer John Portman. Rising SO stories on Broadway between 45th and 46th Streets, it would be an emblem of things sociations, neighborhood churches and the city's the site expected to begin uus tau. Rut it th nmiewt moves throueh the last three main daily newspapers, point out that the stages of approval in the environmental-review Portman project will provide thousands of new jobs.

Drocess. ooDosiuon continues irom me mosi vocai oi ibi wijr, oiuati wuuu uu give the whole area a facelift dissenters: the actors and actresses who decry the loss of three Broadway theaters to be demolished on the site. The Actors' Equity Association is still trying to "It's very important to the psychology of more Investment in Times Square that Portman make it" See PORTMAN, Page SD All-News Competitor May Hurt CNN 'iiiitiMete By Steve Johnson CanHHutkM SMI WrMr 1... ft all news coverage even though the new cable channel will at times compete head-to-head with WSB's own local news shows and Its broadcasts of the ABC Evening News, WSB-TV news director Dick Mallary said. Since WSB's local news updates will be received on cable systems throughout Georgia, the station will be forced to be- come more regional in its coverage than at present, Mallary said.

will have the advantage of a two-year head start over the competition. vv Some cable systems may even sched-, ule both news channels, Mrs. Cook said, perhaps offering the ABC-Westinghouse "news headlines" as basic service, and providing CNN's more detailed coverage as an option for a small monthly fee. Atlanta's WSB-TV will be the ABC-Westinghouse affiliate in Georgia. That relationship should improve WSB's over-' ABC-Westinghouse is offering its cable news channel free to cable systems, earning its revenue on the sale of advertising.

In contrast Turner's CNN charges Cable system owners 15 cents per sub scriber for the all-news In smaller markets, where many of the cable systems have only 12 the free ABC-Westinghouse service may be more attractive than CNN, Mrs. Cook said. But in larger cable markets, CNN fect Turner's ability to sell his network to lucrative big-city cable systems, said Bonnie Cook, an analyst with Atlanta- based Robinson-Humphrey Company Inc. The ABC-Westinghouse channel scheduled to begin next spring will offer news' summaries on a 24-hour basis, repeated approximately every 18 minutes, with an additional five minutes 1 of local news each hour provided by local affiliate stations, The all-news cable television channel announced earlier this week by ABC and Westinghouse may mean trouble for Ted Turner's Cable News Network in smaller' markets, according to local stock analyst But the cable TV market is changing so rapidly that it is impossible to predict how the additional competition will af Jas elevated store brands from the bot-; iom rung to a middle position in the I inarketing spectrum, Camacho "Food processors are going to have 40 chose between three alternatives," Camacho predicted. "They can con- iinue selling off their excess capacity j(by packaging store brands) and suffer jnore brand loyalty erosion, which will give them even more excess capacity.

They can stop selling off excess ca-; pacity. Or they can do what Green Giant is doing de-emphasise plain Jreen beans and emphasize mlied -beans and green beans in a butter sauce." Even as generics and store brands ere squeezing the domain of branded products, Camacho said, the branded products that carry an ego involvement -r such as designer Jeans are widening the spectrum. "People will pay a premium price, but for something that means some--thing to them," Camacho said, r- "They're: taking it out of beans and putting it into jeans," he quipped. Another "study blames insulting Advertisements for adding to brand dis-. loyalty.

Rena Bartos, senior vice president and director of communications development at the J. Walter Thompson writing in the current issue of the Harvard Business Review, says, "The erosion of advertising credibility may, In turn, be undermining consumers' trust si advertised brands." I She, too, finds a sharp decline in brand loyalty as well as a "real challenge from unbranded, generic products." The problem with insulting advertising is greatest in the case of inglamorous products such as paper towels and household cleansers. According to conventional advertising wisdom, these goods are most effectively sold with a certain amount of irritation in the ad. That means loud sales pitches and grating scenes. The decline of brand loyalty greatly concerns producers and advertisers, Camacho said.

"This is their bread and butter," he explained, predicting that as brand loyalty continues to decline, as it surely will, advertisers will be pres -if CPAs Build Big Business Healing Small Hospitals A I fa as the nation's seventh largest proprietary hospital company. Its revenues for the fiscal year ended March 1981 were $36 million, more than double the $14 million recorded in the previous year. Turner, president of Southern Health Services, Schyberg and Richard White, another CPA who joined the company a year; after its formation as the third determined early on to seek out the small-town, rural hospitals of 50 to 150 beds which larger hospital management firms tended to ignore. With the elimination in 1976 of the Hill-Burton program, which provided federal funds for the construction or renovation of municipal non-profit hospitals, Southern Health Services saw an opportunity in outright purchases of and long-term management contracts for small hospitals. "The end of Hill-Burton program forced those hospitals to go into the market and compete for funds at a time when capital was completely dried: up," Turner said.

'That created an enormous need for capital to renovate these small By John Maynard CoMlllulton Staff WrIMr i When Ron Turner and Bob Schyberg, both certified public accountants, de-' dded three years ago to start a hospital management company, they picked Atlanta's Physicians and Surgeons Hospi-1 tal to prove they had What it takes to heal a hospitati The 181-bed hospital on Bolton Road was built in 1974 by a group of doctors. It went bankrupt the following year. The five savings and loan institutions that took it over didn't have any better luck at cutting its losses. "When we took Over the management of the hospital in 1978, with an option to purchase it later, Physicians and Sur- geons was losing $150,000 to $200,000 a month. It had one of the worst reputa-.

tlons in the city, state and: possibly the. South," Turner said. "We believed that if we could turn it around, it. would be the genesis of the company." They turned it around, purchased it in 1979, and true to Turner's prediction, gave birth to Southern Health Services Inc, a closely held Atlanta-based companywhich today owns or manages more hospital beds, ranking it sured to differentiate between products tnat are actually indisunguisnabie. "We may get One grand flurry of innocuous advertisements, but 10 years from now marketing will be different," Camacho concluded.

Stan PttrJo Bnton hospitals, most of wnicn were getung Mrs. Bartos also that we it may not See HOSPITALS, Page I-D Ron Turner: IlospitaPs Recovery Was Genesis Of Management Company's Success survive into the next decade.".