Dead Men Tales: Quiet May

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Quiet May

The May Oil Burner Company made an oil burner they called Quiet May during a time when just about everyone in America who had central heating was burning coal. To overcome this obstacle they didn’t just sell an oil burner. They sold intangible things such as better health, a cleaner home, more free time, more family togetherness, peace of mind, convenience, and more living space.

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Paul Pollets

So appropriate with the current trends of focusing on selling at the lowest price and watching the bidding wars for buying a heating system.

Jamie Hall

It was a good burner, too. Cedric's great grandfather had one, must have been one of the first, installed in 1930. Both it and the boiler -- a huge Weil-McClain -- were still going strong in 1972. Efficiency... well, maybe not. But it just plain worked.

But the basic point is still valid -- what will it do for and how does it benefit the customer?

Steamhead

May was located in Baltimore, like Fluid-Heat, General Automatic and maybe some others. Once in a while I still see these names on older controls or emergency-switch plates.

ayetchvacker

Such a great name! Quiet May... Love it!

DanHolohan

Thanks so much for listening!

reggi

Jamie Hall said:

It was a good burner, too. Cedric's great grandfather had one, must have been one of the first, installed in 1930. Both it and the boiler -- a huge Weil-McClain -- were still going strong in 1972. Efficiency... well, maybe not. But it just plain worked. But the basic point is still valid -- what will it do for and how does it benefit the customer?

The oil embargo ended that ??

Jamie Hall

reggi said:

Jamie Hall said:

It was a good burner, too. Cedric's great grandfather had one, must have been one of the first, installed in 1930. Both it and the boiler -- a huge Weil-McClain -- were still going strong in 1972. Efficiency... well, maybe not. But it just plain worked.

But the basic point is still valid -- what will it do for and how does it benefit the customer?

The oil embargo ended that ??

No -- it gets complicated, but the previous managers to me tried to downsize the heating and put in a smaller boiler. Didn't work. We're back to where it should be... but with a much newer boiler, of course.

Alan Muller

Very interesting. Thank you. Of course, being a gearhead, I got curious about the burner itself and found this: https://archive.org/details/SweetsCatalog1931Vol.D0014. But it seems that they did not have long term success in the business and it would be interesting to know more about that.....

cross_skier

Nice example of what is now called target customer development and psychographics.  Should be a case study in a Product Marketing class.