Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MU5IC TIRADE
VOL.
LXIII. No. 19
Published Every Saturday by the Estate of Edward Lyman Bill at 373 4th Ave., New York, Nov. 4, 1916
Advertising As a Factor in Business Success
OLOMON, seeking to reprove the indolent sluggard, bade him consider the ant. Had Solomon ever
undertaken to give advice to the modern business man he doubtless would have bade him consider the
hen.
The hen is the most consistent advertiser in the world. Every time she lays an e^ she advertises
the fact. Not only that, but her product lives up to its advertising, and the combination of a quality product
plus energetic advertising has assured the hen a steady demand for her output.
The duck also lays eggs, but she does little advertising, which, together with the fact that her product is
inferior to that of her competitor, the hen, gives the hen a practical monopoly of the egg business.
Aside from its facetiousness, there is real logic in the simile of the hen and the duck, logic which every
producer, be it of pins or pianos, should adopt in the conduct of his business. The power of advertising is too
generally conceded to need elaboration or proof. There is no modern business organization of any size to-day
that does not owe its success in a large measure to advertising of some description.
There are two basic rules which, if adhered to, will invariably create success in modern business—first, a
product containing real merit, and second, a demand for that product created by consistent publicity. These two
rules, if perseveringly followed out, will lay a substantial foundation for a permanent and profitable success in
any line of business.
Many manufacturers know that they can greatly increase the demand for their output by advertising, but
they pare down their advertising appropriation to an irreducible minimum because of the erroneous belief that
the cost of advertising will be greater than the profit which will result from the additional demand it creates.
The stock argument of the salesman who is handling an un-advertised line is that the elimination of any
advertising expense enables his firm to sell its product at a lower price than would obtain if the goods were well
advertised. This policy of saving the advertising pennies and losing the dollars of increased demand was well
refuted by Eldridge R. Johnson, president of the Victor Talking Machine Co., in a recent statement wherein
he said:
"Every honest enterprise can be tremendously developed and economized by advertising, which increases
the turnover at less cost than by any other method. Many worthy enterprises fail from lack of advertising."
Mr. Johnson, spending upwards of $2,000,000 a year for advertising, must know something regarding
the value of advertising. Certainly his opinion must carry more weight than does the opinion of the narrow-
minded manufacturer who is seeking to sell his goods without properly advertising them.
And if the Victor Talking Machine Co., manufacturing a product which is known, and for which there is
a steady demand, in every part of the civilized world, believes sufficiently in the value of advertising to increase
its advertising appropriation each year, should not the smaller manufacturer, seeking to achieve success, take
an.object lesson from the settled policy of one of the most successful business organizations that this century
has produced?
A forceful demonstration of the fact that the results of advertising cannot be based on its initial cost was
made at the convention of the Associated Business Papers, Inc., which was held last week at the Hotel Astor in
New York City. During the convention, the advertising manager of a large motor truck manufacturing concern
stated that a single advertisement, costing $659, had produced direct sales of $100,000 worth of motor trucks!
This, of course, may be regarded as an exceptional example, but like all exceptions it serves to prove the
rule that the cost of logical, carefully planned, consistent advertising of a product containing honest merit and
value will be greatly exceeded by the profit which will result from the additional sales created by such publicity.
The very gratifying prosperity which exists in the piano trade to-day should cause piano manufacturers
S
(Continued on page 5)