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THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Why Pianos Will Cost More to Build.
P
IANOS will cost more to build—there is no question about that.
The duty which the present administration has placed upon
tusk ivory will mean a cost of from $1.50 to $2 more per piano to
manufacture. That is one item, and we may add right here that
the ivory importers cannot guarantee the present price stationary
for any length of time.
The advance which was made a short time ago may he followed
by another within the near future, and this, added to the tariff
mark-up, will make the ivory cost a very material one in" the make-
up of the piano.
The tax on ivory may bring about new conditions entirely,
which will mean that the ivory market will be more or less disturbed
for some time and that the piano key manufacturers will have no
fixed rates on this special product. .Again, it is well known that
the cost of labor has materially increased within recent times. Then,
if we add the increased cost of the various materials which enter
into piano construction, it will be easy to see that costs are steadily
growing.
Take the question of piano boxes alone.
The much-despised piano box has become a prize in many
towns and eagerly sought.
We may as well face the situation that the rising tide of cost
is everywhere present, and it is reasonable to expect that piano
manufacturers will be compelled to make an advance in wholesale
rates within the very near future.
In our opinion there will be a good many disappointed people
during the next year, who have been working, predicting and hoping
for an immediate lessening of costs and expenses after the new
tariff was in operation.
The living cost, in our opinion, will not be appreciably reduced
and the wails of disappointment will be heard on every hand in
consequence thereof.
Now, there are certain economic conditions which are bringing
about changes throughout the world, and it is inevitable that the
cost of living, as well as the cost of doing business, will increase
rather than decrease.
Making a Musical Merchandise Department Pay.
H
OW to 11 ;ikc the musical merchandise or "small goods" de-
partment of a piano dealer's business a factor of importance,
not alone as an attractor of customers, but as a means of securing
a satisfactory profit on the space and'money invested in this de-
partment, is a question which is receiving a great deal of considera-
tion these days.
While department store competition has cut into this branch
of the business very materially, still the dealer who is giving serious
consideration to his "small goods" department—who has placed it
in charge of a competent manager, and brought the merits of the
goods handled to the attention of the public with intelligence and
vigor, is not complaining.
As a matter of fact, a great many dealers to-day are treating
the "sm: 11 goods" department of their business as they did the-
talking irachine in the early days of its introduction to the public.
It will be remembered that when the talking machine was first
introduced the retailing of these instruments was placed with piano
dealers, but the majority of men who handled these entertainers.
gave them such indifferent representation that in time the handling
of talking machines was found "unprofitable," and they were
dropped just as some small goods departments are being dropped
to-day.
In the meantime, the retailing of talking machines drifted into
the hands of specialists—of dealers who gave them then" entire
attention—who advertised them locally and concentrated public
attention on their wonderful merits, with the result that a new
interest was stimulated in the talking machine business, and gradu-
ally the very piano dealers who found the talking machine an un-
profitable factor again sought the representation of these instru-
ments. Their eves were opened to the trade and mnney-making
possibilities of the talking machine—they no longer hid them at
the back of the store, as when they formerly handled them, but
opened a special department with all the necessary accessories for
sales exploitation, placed a competent man in charge, and are mak-
ing money.
Now, the point we want to make is this, that if the "small
goods" department of a business received only a percentage of the
s me consideration that talking machines receive, a larger and
greater interest could be developed in the various musical instru-
ments handled, and the department would be made sufficiently
profitable to irake it a valuable adjunct to the business of the
dealer.
To achieve success, however, it is necessary that the jobber
or manufacturer co-operate with the dealer. While it is enough
to find fault with the dealer for being indifferent to the possibilities
that may exist in the musical merchandise field, yet, as in the case
jf the talking machine, a great many piano dealers have not been
educated to believe that there exist money-making possibilities in
the "small goods" business, hence the education must come from the
manufacturer or jobber.
Men sent out bv the jobbers and manufacturers should be com-
petent to suggest ways and means whereby the dealer may develop
the business to a much more satisfactory degree in his locality—in
the selection of stock and its proper display, the best means of in-
teresting advertisers, and other matters which can be suggested
with profit to all concerned.
Co-operation between jobber and dealer will result in material
benefits, and this was set forth very clearly in last week's Review,
in a chat with Mr. Kaffenberger, who has just returned from a
successful educational and missionary trip in behalf o1 Buegel-
eisen & Jacobson, ot New York.
His aim w;:s to assist dealers in every possible way in han-
dling and developing their small goods department, in co-operating
so as to stimulate a new interest in this department of their busi-
ness. This is the sort of a campaign that the musical merchandise
department of the business needs in order to make piano dealers
and others realize that the "small goods" department of the busi-
ness is an important asset of one's business, which, with proper
supervision by a capable manager on the staff, can be made a very
profitable adjunct of the modern piano store.
products, are the very essentials to win out in the race for success
in the commercial field. It will not do to talk about great corpora-
tions having plenty of money, etc. It must be remembered that if
a great corporation cm win public support and confidence in its
goods by the use of advertising, that the same plan is well worthy
of emulation by the merchant, no matter how small his business or
how limited his line.
You will always find that the merchant who kicks the most
about hard times, nnd worries about the success of the big fellows,
is the man who lacks the industry or the far-sightedness to get close
to the public through the use of advertising. If he is handling
pianos of reputation, he will allow the. manufacturer to do all of
the national advertising he pleases without taking advantage of this
aid to his business and capitalizing its value in a local way and to
his own benefit.
With the battle for trade getting keener all the time, it be-
hooves merchants to study the situation most carefully, and where
they have to meet the competition of mail order houses they should
battle the harder to maintain their position and no weapon is more
effective in this connection than publicity that is logically conceived
and capably presented. The steady growth of advertising alone
proves its value.