Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1914 Vol. 59 N. 22

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
THE POINT OF VIEW-(Continued from page 5).
maintenance for one year. We begin by sending player retail sales problem, whether times be boom-
with the music rolls, on the day the player is de- ing or dull.
livered, a man who shows the customer how to
manipulate the rolls, how to operate the various
devices and how to start or stop playing rightly.
The idea ot service as a part of, necessary to,
We do not leave that customer's house until we
are reasonably sure that he knows what he is and rightly included in, sales, is one to which the
doing and how to do it. Then at specified inter- world of business is rapidly waking up. Our own
vals we call again, see that the instrument is doing experiments in that direction, now fully matured
well, correct any little mal-adjustment that may and applied, illustrate this fact. Let me try to
have occurred, try to discover whether there is indicate what I mean in a very few words, apolo-
any cause for dissatisfaction, and what it is, re- gizing for the inadequate treatment of a very large
move that cause by explaining the nature of the and important subject.
On our publications you will find the words
trouble—which is generally due to ignorance—and
generally make the customers understand that we
are as much interested as they are in seeing that
they are pleased and satisfied. This we do whether
asked or not for a year free.
Of course, all this means that the dealer must
do as we did; train our practical men until we
had player mechanics as well as tuners, capable of
tuning, repairing and playing, and able to cultivate
a personal acquaintance with the customers. If a
dealer cannot afford a special man let him learn
for himself by going to the factory where his line
of players is made, studying the proposition from
the ground up and becoming familiar with it. Then
he will know it and can put himself in a position
to make his knowledge valuable.
Intelligence and its practical application are at
the basis of all this. It is simply a question of
making the public intelligently appreciative. As
long as the player is treated as merely something
to sell, of which one need no more know the origin
or construction than the department store owner
need understand the manufacture of a package of
pins, so long will the player business languish
whenever times are not booming. But if the
dealer will undertake, even now, to get in touch
with his trade, to study his proposition that he has
to sell, to concentrate his endeavors upon learning
the real sincere advantages of the player instead
Frank E. Morton.
of its meretricious talking points, he will be able to "quality and service." A full interpretation of
laugh "hard times" to scorn. The people are just these two words defines our sales policy. Every
as ready to-day as ever they were to listen to sale follows and is followed by a service which
the man who has something really good to say. apprehends and comprehends a quality consistent
And if what he has to sell is as good as what he with the purpose intended and the highest efficiency
has to say, he can sell; and sell all the time. That, obtainable in its utilization.
at least, has been our experience, through good
Under this plan the product goes forth protected
times and bad. We know that we can sell always, by a wholesome respect for its active and potential
because we always know what we are selling and qualities, a respect also extended to the salesman
why we sell it rather than another.
whose co-operation and collaboration continues al-
Intelligence, in a word, is the solution of the ways thereafter.
Intelligence, properly applied, means utimately
that conception of selling which is comprised in
the word service. And that is the bottom of the
whole matter.
THE VIEWS OF FRANK E. MORTON ON SERVICE.
Make More Money On Player-Pianos
T^VERY player-piano sale is an
^—' incomplete sale unless you also
sell a player-piano roll cabinet.
Have Udell cabinets on your floor
and complete your sales. Make
all the profit.
Catalog No. 46 pictures and de-
scribes the Udell line of cabinets—
The capacity of Udell cab-
inets varies from 50 to 200
rolls. Back of each is the
Udell guarantee. Write for
Catalog 4(i to-day.
showing the wide variety in size, wood,
style and finish.
Write for it today.
T h e U d e l l W o r k s , 1204 W. 28th St., Indianapolis
Sheet Music Cabinets, Piano Player Roll Cabinets. Disc Record Cabinets, Player-piano and piano benches.
Contrast this method with that of the past, which
consisted of adroitly securing the customer's
money and attempted palliation of the offense by
the delivery of a more or less unwelcome product.
Contrast the publication of expert treatises by
our advertising department upon the practical ap-
plication of scientific research, with the "please-
take-this-stuff-off-our-hands, we-don't-want-it" ar-
gument calling attention to a rebuilding sale
caused by a broken window; an alteration sale on
account of a new partition; or a clearance sale
caused by poor judgm.'nt of buyers.
Under the "quality and service" plan salesman-
ship includes: Ascertaining
(a) The purpose for which the product is in-
tended.
(b) The demands, ordinary and extraordinary,
upon this product.
(c) The facilities of the customer for fabricat-
ing or otherwise utilizing the product, and
(d) The financial condition and mental attitude
of the customer after the delivery of his fabrica-
tion or utilization of the product.
The salesman, in turn, is served by specialists,
and all that the efficiency of the purchaser may be
increased—that he may become more prosperous
and therefore a better customer.
The business of scientific salesmanship thus be-
comes as dignified as that of the college professor
whose teachings make possible this practical ap-
plication. A knowledge of values, the fundamental
principle upon which this operation depends for its
success is not taught in schools and colleges, but
must be inculcated as a concomitant of thrift in
childhood.
GIVING MUSIC ROLLS A VALUE.
Piano Department of J. L. Hudson Co., Detroit,
Uses Credit System as Means of Solving Free
Music Roll Problem—How Plan Operates.
(.Special to The Review.)
DETROIT, MICH., November 23.—The piano de-
partment of the J. L. Hudson Co. appears to have
solved in part the problem of placing the music
roll business, as it applies to player-piano pur-
chasers, on a more substantial basis. The depart-
ment has arranged a system whereby the purchaser
receives with the players, instead of a fixed
number of music rolls, a credit slip calling for
music rolls at the regular price to an amount
equal to three per cent, of the price of the instru-
ment bought.
The chief recommendation of the system is that
it gives the purchaser a fair idea of the cash value
of music rolls, impresses him with the fact that
they are not altogether free adjuncts to the player,
and prepares him to spend real money for rolls
when his credit allowance is exhausted.
After the amount of credit has been used the
customer may take advantage of the company's mu-
sic roll service, which provides for the delivery of
lots of twenty rolls, from which permanent selec-
tions may be made. The rolls are delivered by
automobile and are called for in three days. Rolls
kept after the trial period must be paid for.
AUTOPIANO CHRISTMAS SLIDES.
The Autopiano Co., Fifty-first street and
Twelfth avenue, New York, has been for some
time past distributing among the dealers who han-
dle the Autopiano handsome colored moving pic-
ture slides which have been used with consider-
able success throughout the country. A new series
is now ready for the dealers particularly adapted
to the Christmas holiday season and will be sent
upon request.
ENOUGH_AT HOME.
Flo—Mr. Brown has become so irreligious! I
haven't seen him at church since he married.
No—Well, you see, his wife sings in the choir.
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
The Application of an Old Principle in Meeting Present Conditions—
Time to Persuade the Public to Spend Money on Good Rather Than on
Bad Things ; to Emphasize that the Player-Piano Is an Investment.
At the present moment there is more or less talk
about wars, and prices, and rumors of more wars,
while the piano world at large looks on and won-
ders what is going to happen. Although much of
the pessimism that is expressed in some quarters
is unduly colored and altogether an exaggeration,
nobody will be willing to deny seriously that there
has been in the last few months a marked public
tendency to restrict expenditures to necessities.
This tendency is, indeed, loosening up, but its ef-
fects may extend over the Christmas period; at
least, to some extent. Now, the obvious thing t o '
do when confronted with a situation like this is to
reduce prices; that is to say, to advertise how
cheaply one can get a thing, and so try to disarm
any unfriendly feeling toward expenditure which
the public may have. In other words, the usual
thing in slow times is to come down with terms,
and, if possible, with prices, too. So we have the
papers flooded with advertisements of player-pianos
at all sorts of absurd prices and terms, with every
sort of an excuse therefor; even the silliest excuse,
that of "war-time depression." And, then, the
people who do this sort of thing seem to wonder
why they do not prosper.
cannot persuade people to buy things—especially
expensive things like player-pianos—in times when
the tendency is to think twice, by proclaiming that
hard times are forcing you to sell at low prices
and more than easy terms. For if there be so
many thoughts of depression floating around it is
obviously not the part of wisdom to increase their
number. That is one point that we are persuaded
is true.
Now, a second point is that with the approach
of the Christmas season there should be a great in-
crease in player-piano sales. If we attempt to ad-
vertise by telling people how poor we are we shall
fail, and if we tell them that there is nothing wrong
at all with things we shall be telling plain lies.
How can we consistently advertise player-pianos,
which are admittedly luxuries, without landing on
one or the other horn of the dilemma? That is the
all-important thing.
Well, it seems to us that the whole thing turns
on the one point of stating the exact truth. Does
this seem to be a most elaborate way of putting a
commonplace? Perhaps so, but telling the truth is
not so common after all. What we mean is that if
we simply take facts as they are, we shall soon see
Now, we are not going to talk psychology. that there is every good practical reason for buy-
Heaven forfend! In the first place, we do not ing a player-piano this Christmas, more reason than
know what it is all about, nor have we ever met ever, and that the public can be made to see the
anybody who did, whether professional psycholo- point if we first can see it ourselves.
Rational giving and rational spending should be
gists or not. Neither the dry bones of academic
metaphysics, so-called, nor the more entertaining the order of the day. It is no time for waste. But
Salvation Army methods of a Munsterburg have also it is no time for hoarding.
satisfied us. We frankly confess that we believe
Now, if we carry that idea in our minds we can
there is altogether too much talk about psychology
see that the right way to stimulate buying is to per-
of business, of advertising and of this or that, by
suade the public to spend their money on good
people who positively know nothing whatever about
rather than on bad things, on things permanent
the human mind, no matter how much they may
rather than on things temporary, on that which
know of James or Bergson. And so we shall
will be of some benefit to them rather than on
firmly refuse to pretend to any pseudo-scientific that which merely gratifies the stupid momentary
authority, and look at this matter with the simple
wants of the unthinking. In other words, now of
eyes of an uninstructed, nay innocent, inquirer.
all times is the time to point out that the country
needs constructive buying, buying not necessarily
We are simply venturing to point out that you
MUSIC ROLLS TRACK PERFECTLY
On THIS Player—
This is the Artistic Style C
Tri-Color Toned
iluellrr $c ^ai
For it is equipped
with the only device
that will correctly
track any roll, no
matter how badly its
edges may be muti-
lated.
Send for an explana-
tion of this great point
and the other big ex-
clusive features of
this instrument.
MUELLER
&
HAINES
1217 W. Monroe St.
PLAYER
PIANO
COMPANY
CHICAGO
or desirably less in quantity, but much better in
quality; a better distribution of buying rather than
a general blanket reduction in the quantity thereof.
It is easy to set forth convincingly the plain
truth that there is more fun, more pleasure, and
more general satisfaction to be had from the pos-
session of permanent things like player-pianos than
of temporary things like theater parties, automo-
bile rides and elaborate, wasteful dinners. More-
over, let it be further seen that the player-piano
not only furnishes permanent pleasure, but involves
no upkeep, and the argument is clinched.
It seems to us, with all due respect to everybody,
that this sort of argument would be of far greater
value than the sort of plea based on reduced prices
and on a general cry of hard times. Two wrongs
don't make a right, nor two darks a light, and if
we try to remedy one evil by offering another in
place of it we shall simply be in the unhappy posi-
tion of Cadmus, who found that every time he
chopped off one of the dragon's heads two more
grew instantly in its place. What, on the other
hand, will cure evil is its opposite, positive good.
And positive good is certainly to be found in all
true constructive work; that is, in all work which
is based upon truth. In the present case it is posi-
tive good to argue constructively about buying;
that is, to show where the buying power should be
expended and how it should be distributed.
Let us then sec a better quality of advertising
this Christmas time. Let us have piano and player
advertising that will be constructive, that will give
some real arguments for the preference of the
player as an object of Christmas expenditures over
other things less permanent, less valuable, more
troublesome and more expensive. Let the slogan
of our Christmas advertising be, "Buy the player-
piano because it is the most economical thing you
can buy. For economy is simply wise, as distin-
guished from foolish expenditure. Economy is
wise buying, not unwise hoarding. Therefore, buy
wisely, by buying what will return to you a thou-
sandfold. Buy player-pianos."
SUGGESTIONS _FOR CHRISTMAS
For
Piano Dealers, by the Jesse French &
Sons Piano Co. Worthy Consideration.
The Jesse French & Sons Piano Co., New Castle,
Ind., with its customary enterprise, has just sent
out to the trade in postcard form a Jesse French
& Sons player-piano advertisement prepared ex-
pressly for Christmas display work and designed
to enable dealers win the attention of the public
to the line of instruments which they handle.
Tt also contains an offer of co-operation on the
part of the Jesse French advertising department in
putting into sale-producing shape the ideas sent by
dealers, no matter if only in outline or rough
draft.
This co-operation work on the part of the Jesse
French & Sons Piano Co. is admirable. And as
it takes two to win success, it is to be hoped that
dealers will respond so that they may have in hand
seasonable publicity properly illustrated and argu-
mentatively set forth to win the attention of the
buying public. A return postal card is attached,
so that there can be no excuse for neglect.
CALLING ON MUSIC ROLL TRADE.
K. Blauvelt, of the Blauvelt-Wiley Paper Manu-
facturing Co.. 129 Charlton street, New York, is
now calling upon music roll manufacturers.
R. C. Harris, who formerly called upon the roll
trade, is no longer connected with the concern.

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