3UCLIBRARY
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com
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VOL. LIX. No. 3
REVIEW
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 373 Fourth Ave., New York, July 18, 1914
SING
$ 2E OO CO P P ER\EA£ ENTS
A
SUBSCRIBER asks: "Why is it that men work harder to sell a spurious article than they
do to sell the genuine?"
^
The answer is easy.
It is the lure of the dollar—the increased profits which the substitute, the "just as good,"
shows over the simon-pure product, and right here, to my mind, is where the average man who is
offering a substitute misses in his superficial calculation, for surely he will find that sooner or later
the purchaser whose confidence he has betrayed will find out the fraud which has been perpetrated
upon him. Then there is the reaction, and in the piano business that reaction may mean a good
deal. It admittedly constitutes a power, that is difficult to estimate, working against the establish-
ment which puts out the spurious article.
There is where the policy of fixed prices comes in for business stability. It would do away
entirely with a lot of misrepresentation and deceit which is indulged in by men in all trades, except-
ing none. However, the honest merchandising policy is steadily winning out, because it is favored
by public sentiment. The great newspapers exercise a censorship on advertising which was not in
vogue years ago. Publishers were won by the lure of the advertiser's gold, and never thought that
they were responsible for his fraudulent utterances—they did not realize that they were the vehicles
of distribution. To-day it is different, and the straight merchandising policy is winning all over
the land.
In the piano trade advertising has improved materially. Scanning it nation-wide, I can see
more of the educational and less of the slaughter price element than was in vogue a few years ago.
Here is a little thought which came to me the other day that might be worth considering by
some of my readers in whose preserves the slaughter-price men have been browsing at will.
I passed a show window which was filled with signs announcing cut prices on pianos. Placards
large enough so that he who runs could read told the oft-repeated "was" "is" story: "Was $500,
Now $250"; "Was $350, Now $125"; "Was $150, Now $48," and so on ad infinitum and ad nauseam.
I would suggest, just as a little counter-irritant move, that some of the piano merchants who
believe in regular methods of business conduct put a few instruments in their window and on them
put placards as follows:
Triumph Piano
Price $350.00
Worth $350.00
Excelsior Player-Piano
Price $750.00
Worth $750.00
Used Piano
Price $95.00
Worth $95.00
This frank policy, in view of the wild statements and absurd reductions alleged by many of
the cut-rate and cut-throat establishments, would result in a fine bit of local advertising. It
(Continued on page 5.)