Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
SOME CONTRIBUTING TRADE FACTORS.
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their plans after the outbreak of the war, but went ahead with the determined resolution to win out.
They would have shown great wisdom if they had devoted a generous appropriation to adver-
tise their really attractive Exposition in South American cities. If, like a great many other Americans,
however, they have forgotten that South America exists, it is still time to get busy immediately in a
campaign to lead the wealthy South Americans to their gates, and an inflowing tide of wealthy South
Americans would do more to build up commercial relations with South America than any other move
that could be made. The direct contact of those people with our systems—our people—our
physical resources, would be stimulating to future business. And, when
peace smiles once more upon the war-torn world, the South American
markets will be opened wider to us than they would be through purely
business relations. The better the feeling existing between the two
countries, the greater opportunity there will be for future business.
How Distinctive Window Displays Pay a Profit.
S
OME retailers of pianos are so overcome with their ideas of the
extreme refinement of the business that it hurts. Others, on
the contrary, are so lacking in sense of relative importance that
they handle pianos on the same basis that the second-hand clothing
dealer in the Ghetto does his merchandising. These are the ex-
tremes between which are to be found the bulk of conservative
piano merchants who have come to realize that, despite its artistic
values, its standing as an instrument of culture, the piano never-
theless is a piece of merchandise that is made to be sold, and that
the rules of clean selling apply to piano retailing quite as much as
they do to merchandising of haberdashery.
Many piano men, for instance, evidently hold to the belief
that "according to Hoyle" piano displays should consist solely of
one or two instruments; a grand or a player, for instance, placed
in the show window, with a talking machine in the background, if
that line is handled. Tn other words, there is nothing distinctive
about the great majority of piano displays. The pedestrian travel-
ing along the usual Piano Row sees two or three pianos in the
window of the first store, and perhaps stops to admire them. He
sees practically the same display, only with instruments of different
names, in the second store, and in the third, fourth and fifth stores,
and is naturally not inclined to stop and study the exhibit. Once
in a while, however, there comes a manager who believes that the
piano window can be made attractive without being unduly sensa-
tional or violating trade ethics, and the results obtained are always
so satisfactory that one wonders why all the managers do not
follow suit.
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In Brooklyn, N. Y., recently, for instance. L. TT. West, mana-
ger of the F. G. Smith retail store on Flatbush avenue, g'we the
show window over to a display of "Music in the Home" that served
to keep the crowds so interested that they missed homeward bound
trains. Some stores in arran^.ng such a display would have ob-
tained wax figures of a woman, a little girl or some men, placed
them in the window with a supply of furniture and let the exhibit
take care of itself. Probably some people would have stopped to
look and fair results would have been obtained.
Manager West, however, placed an imitation brick front across
the show window, with suitable openings left to represent the small
windows looking into the well-furnished parlor of a home. On
one day an attractive young lady represented the mother and
played the piano and talking machine, while a charming little girl
played about the room with a nonchalance which served to keep
the crowds interested throughout the day and until close to the mid-
night hour. Another day half a dozen young fellows dressed as
college students played cards, told stories and listened to player-
piano and talking machine music in a typical college boy's room.
Tn other words, the display represented life. Real people were
doing real things in a real way to the accompaniment of a real piano
or player, and gazing through the small windows the crowds could
not but be impressed with the homelike atmosphere. Although the
display was sufficiently sensational to hold the attention of busy
people bound for their work or to their homes, there was not one
item in it that tended to detract from the dignity generally asso-
ciated with good pianos.
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The number of piano houses who use special window displays
to illustrate the use of their instruments for accompaniment to
dances, to mark some special local or national celebration or to
typifv some particular season is increasing steadily and is a good
sign. Window space costs real money, a substantial amount per
square foot, and it should be made to pay a profit. Bringing sales :
from the street into the store through unusual displays is one of
the means of securing that profit.
Expansion Rather Than Retrenchment the Policy.
T
HE following is an excerpt from a communication received
from one of the progressive men of the industry:
"We are very pleased with the manner in which our business
interests have been exploited in The Music Trade Review, and the
results up to date have been more than satisfactory. We believe
that if every house were to adopt a policy of expansion rather than
of retrenchment and patronize the right mediums, the plan would
unquestionably act as an aid to their business enterprise."
There is a point made in this connection which is well worthy
of consderation by the timid ones.
Close economy in some ways is an absolute necessity, but the
exercising of too rigid rules means a serious interference with busi-
ness efficiency.
A good many of our clients realize fully that this is the time
for the exercising of discrimination in their trade paper patronage.
As a result of that, this publication instead of being decreased in
size has been constantly expanded.
We have been publishing weekly from 60 to 80 pages of matter
covering every department of the trade. That fact alone presents
eloquent evidence in favor of Review superiority. Instead of re-
trenching, this trade newspaper institution has gone on increasing
—not merely in size, but in the quality and originality of contents,
with a view to a broader value and interest to every branch of the
industry.
This organization is better to-day than ever before, and keen
advertisers are beginning to realize the advantage of using discrimi-
nating intelligence in thier trade paper patronage. And it is
worthy of note that the papers which are rendering service to ad-
vertisers and subscribers are the ones which are receiving increase^
patronage.
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