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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
A Serious Error Has Been Made in Featuring Cheap Prices and Easy
Terms to Boost Player Sales, Instead of Teaching the Public that the
Player Is a High Class Instrument, and Must Be Priced Accordingly.
Perusal of the trade papers leads one to the
pessimistic conclusion that there is a wave of sen-
sational misleading advertising sweeping across the
piano and player business. By the word "mislead-
ing" we mean to imply advertising of the sort
which, while perhaps not directly guilty of false-
hood, yet by reasoi. if cunningly contrived in-
nuendo and the use of half truths, succeeds in
creating impressions contrary to the facts in the
case. This is rather a roundabout way of putting
the matter, but the only one which is at all suf-
ficiently comprehensive and sufficiently accurate.
We have been having, to state the case very mildly,
a sort of epidemic of low-class advertising
throughout the country, and the evil has extended
quite as much to the player-piano and its accesso-
ries as to the old-fashioned upright and grand.
In the youthful days of the player, when we
were all new to the game, no prediction was more
common than that the selling of these new in-
struments was to mark the opening of an entirely
new era in the industry and that, whatever might
in the future happen to the straight piano, it was
certain that the player would never be subjected to
the cut-throat competition and the ruinously long
time which even, then were the bane of the retail
trade. We all know how poorly these predictions
have turned out. We all know that whereas only
Ove years ago the idea of selling players of any
Sort at a price of less than $500 and on terms of
less than $15 per month seemed to be as absurd
as impossible; yet to-day many player-pianos are
being offered at prices 25 and 30 per cent., and on
terms 50 per cent., lower. It is perfectly plai , too,
as one can see by consulting the current files of
newspapers in all parts of the country, that the
appeal to the public for the player-piano has
largely degenerated, if we may use the term, into
a war of cheap and ever cheaper prices, with vir-
tually nothing in way of argument that may ap-
peal to the intelligence or tend to stimulate any
healthy desire for possession of such an instru-
ment on any more stable foundation than that it
can be had relatively cheap. This "buy because it
is easy to buy" argument is the most repulsive to
common sense that can be devised, and its in-
fluence upon the public mind cannot fail to be at
once degrading and sales smothering.
The Argument of Prices.
Now, we are perfectly familiar with the argu-
ment of the dealer who says that he is obliged to
advertise in this sort of way because—well, be-
cause the people won't pay a good price for a
player-piano. Of course, the immediate and per-
tinent question is "What sort of people?" To
which the answer is inevitably that these people who
won't pay the good prices are the people to whom
the dealers are appealing. But again, what people
are these? If we know this we shall know pretty
nearly what we need to know in this matter.
It is only common sense to assume that the kind
of people who read any given advertisement are
mainly the kind of people who are attracted by it.
People of means will not waste their time care-
fully reading and studying the details of offerings
which have their cheapness for their main ex-
cuse; and similarly, poor people will not waste
much time worrying about things which are unat-
tainably expensive. It is perfectly plain that if a
dealer, looking for trade, settles upon the slide
policy and so gradually finds his business dropping
further down the. price grade till he has reached
the people who will not buy anything that is not
cheap, he will find himself losing touch with the
other elements in the community, and his adver-
tising will reflect his state of mind and the condi-
tion of his business. The converse, of course,
is also true. If you go after good trade,
YOU cannot and will not think of using the same
arguments as will appeal to the people of small
salaries and uncertain financial outlook. It is
therefore a question of choosing the one class of
the trade or the other. Which is the dealer to
choose, anyway?
What Low Prices Represent.
Let us be frank in saying that if one is looking
for immediate and easy business (on paper), the
way to get it is to go out after the masses and
tret their patronage in the only way in which it can
be had, by offering low prices and easy terms.
There are, however, three distinct objections to
this scheme. The first is that on all time sales the
lower the terms the harder it is to carry out indi-
vidual contracts successfully, owing to the uncer-
tainty of income among people of the wage earn-
ing classes. The second is that the profit on such
sales is small and requires a large margin of
writing off to take care of bad accounts, so that
a proportionately larger output is required to make
;•. respectable profit on a year's business. The third
is that, competition being what it is, the inevitable
result of devoting oneself to that sort of business
is to be compelled to further and further cutting
of prices and terms, till the rock-bottom is reached
and profits have virtually vanished.
Plainly, if the above be true, the cheap sort of
advertising, which attracts the cheap sort of trade,
is neither the most desirable nor the most profita-
ble in the long run. Dealers who are willing to
look ahead and are unwilling to see the player and
piano business go to the dogs in their community,
may well ask themselves whether it is not better
to go slow on the cheap, quick sales and make an
effort to work up a class of trade that appreciates
what is good, has the money to buy it, and suffers
only slightly, if at all, from recurrent local or
national hard times. But it is clear that if a
trade of this quality is to be worked up the dealer
must refrain from casting a public shame upon
the goods he is trying to sell by adopting a method
of publicity Yvhich can only create hostility on the
part of every intelligent person.
The Player-Piano Still a New Thing.
It is said that the talking machine is to-day a
rival of the player-piano which cannot be over-
come. It is said that the day of the player-piano
as a novel and attractive possession to the intelli-
gent person is over. If this were true, those who
are making this cry would have themselves to
blame. But it is not true. The truth is, rather,
that the player-piano in the United States has
never been introduced rightly to the people, never
has rightly taken hold, and has sold on its in-
trinsic merits in spite of the manner in which it
has been advertised.
One may rightly and sincerely ask whether it is
yet too late to convince the intelligent people that
the player-piano is something they ought to have.
That the intelligent and moneyed people are on the
whole indifferent, if not hostile, is not to be
doubted. Yet it is not too late to get after them
and win them. The moneyed people are not buying
enough player-pianos to-day. They can, however,
be brought into the market whenever dealers be-
gin to work for them sanely. This means adver-
tising of the right sort. More than ever that ad-
\ertising should include demonstrations of the best
sort. To-day, if ever, good demonstration should
be revived, for to-day, if ever, the intelligent peo-
ple with money have to be convinced all over
afresh. Demonstration is the best way of con-
vincing them. This applies just as much to the
wonderful new motor-driven, automatic expression
players as to the ordinary instrument.
Player advertising needs to-day intelligence of
a high order to make it a vehicle for bringing
about once more a state of affairs in the player
business where the appeal shall be to the intelli-
gent, to the moneyed, to the best people, instead of
to the cheap, the poor, the worst.
SALTER LINE
and
Have stood
the test
Salter
Mfg. Co.
We have made
cabinets for over
40 years.
All our goods are
guaranteed.
You t a k e no
chances when
you have the old
reliable line in
your show rooms.
S e n d for our
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day, showing our
complete line.
339 N. Oakley Blvd., Chicago