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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
The Public Will Not Be Fooled.
Advertising Should Be Truthful—The Puzzle-Coupon-Gold-Bond Advertising Has Had the Effect to
Throw Discredit Upon the Piano Business—The Opinions of a Man Who Abandoned This
Plan for Good Reasons—The Quality of Business Secured Did Not Pay Him Aside From
Public Condemnation—Truth Should Be the Dominant Feature in All Advertising—The Pub-
'
lie Are Becoming Keener Judges and Do Not Accept Gold Brick Schemes With the Same
Eagerness As of Yore—Advertising Which Misleads Injures the Establishment Putting It
Forth—The Story of the Poor Woman Who Received a Coupon Certificate—The People
Are Too Enlightened to Believe in Advertising Which is Untruthful.
S
OME of the piano merchants of the country have realized the
results of adhering too strictly to ultra-sensational methods in
their campaign for business.
The public will not be fooled all the time, and while the absurd
puzzle-coupon-gold bond schemes worked well for a while, they
have not been satisfactory in ultimate results.
A member of the trade who formerly took exceptions to the
attitude of this publication on the puzzle scheme plans remarked a
while ago: "I believed that the proposition itself was legitimate.
We entered into it with the belief that we could build business in a
way that was impossible along regular lines. I felt that we were
. justified in doing anything to forward trade so long as there was
no actual fraud perpetrated upon the public. But we have found
out that not only has it injured our regular business in some cases,
but we have found that some of the dealers who formerly were
closely tied up with us have withdrawn.
"That was one loss -which we suffered and then another was
this: In many localities we found that our piano leases secured
on the guessing contest plan were not good. We developed in some
localities a class of customers that did not keep up their deferred
payments. In fact, we have been put to a great deal of expense
and annoyance which we did not count upon when we entered upon
that particular kind of business.
"So there are two ways in which that plan did not work out to
our satisfaction, and I believe to-day that the firms who continue
to keep up this line of work to capture trade will ultimately lose.
They lose the respect of the public and they are bound to lose their
dealers, because the dealers will not stand for this sort of work.
There are other ways in which business can be developed without
going into lines which to-day bear the strong stamp of public dis-
approval as well as (iovernmental condemnation."
There is no question but that there are many people who have
had similar experiences.
If advertising has strength—and it is conceded that it has—it
must be truthful.
In other words, publicity if of value must be truthful and its
importance is in winning public confidence and holding it.
There should be one dominant feature in all advertising and
that is truth.
Advertising devoid of truth cannot beget confidence and with-
out confidence there can be no progress.
Why many seemingly successful men practice misrepresenta-
tion in the wild hope that it will not be discovered is beyond com-
prehension.
It is a matter of record that the average intelligence of piano
purchasers is now of a higher standard than ever before and it
should, therefore, be the aim of every piano merchant to secure and
increase the confidence of the people in his community by an appeal
to their intelligence which can never be done through the adoption
of misleading methods.
Some men who have started in business with a straightforward
business policy perhaps have not been successful, and when they
wanted patronage most the business did not come to them, and they
have seen their neighbors through the adoption of flamboyant
methods grow rich.
So there is the other side!
Yet the people are becoming keener and they do not accept
"•old bricks with the same freedom which they did years ago, nor
will they be caught by the tempting baits of jewelry and corner lots
in the absurd piano puzzle contests.
They know that to find a few faces in an alleged puzzle picture
which a five-year-old child could locate in a minute and a half does
not entitle them to any beautifully engraved hundred dollar certifi-
cate. Not by a blamed sight!
They know better, and when a concern once gets the reputation
of misstatements and misrepresentations, of what value is its adver-
tising, particularly when readers do not believe in it?
Naturally, people will be skeptical about announcements put
forth by such a house and it will be especially difficult to convince
them later on that you are telling the truth at any time.
Now, advertising which misrepresents is bad—it reacts and it
will cause mistrust to the; extent which will make it unprofitable.
Advertising should attract, but it should not mislead, for sure
as fate it will react sooner or later with stinging force upon the
house putting it forth.
It should be understood that advertising is not alone to bring
people into the store. It must be taken into consideration that more
people are brought to a store by advertising than by any other
methods, and it naturally follows that anyone who is induced to visit
it by false pretenses will not only be dissatisfied with the store, but
will not hesitate to make the fact known among friends.
Take the case of the poor woman who spent her last dollar to
travel from a country town in Michigan to Chicago in response to a
puzzle advertisement.
She came into the store leading her little girl and presented
one of those beautifully engraved hundred dollar certificates sup-
posing that she would get real money for it. It is needless to add
that she was hearbroken when she learned the truth, for she had
not even car fare left for her return home.
That sad event obtained much publicity in the columns of the
papers throughout the country, and how can the advertisement of a
puzle contest assist any business institution when the people recall
this illustration!
It may be said that when the advertisement is not truthful
that very fact looks out of the paper, and how the puzzle contests
show out in the columns of the papers wherever they are published!
It is only recently while journeying on a car that we listened
to two men conversing about puzzle advertisements, which one of
them was exhibiting to his fellow traveler.
"What do you think of that offer?" he asked.
"Think! Oh, this is one of those fake offers. They cannot sell
pianos now only through such schemes. They will give you a fine
certificate and when you get down to the store it won't be worth the
price of a postage stamp. My little daughter tried it."
Now, think of the effect of that kind of advertising upon the
public mind! The result has been the piano business is descending
in public estimation. Every time one of these advertisements ap-
pears it calls down bitter criticism upon the entire piano business.
The men who practise this say the end justifies the means. In
other words, they are after business and they do not care who it
hurts so long as they accomplish what they desire. That argument
might stand in some other country, but America is too enlightened
to accept any such theory.
After all is said and done the one important point—the practi-
cal solution of the problem of advertising—is to earn the confidence
of the community bv telling the truth,