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THE
VOL. LXIH. No. 26
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York, Dec. 23, 1916
I
Single Copies 10 Cents
$2.00 Per Year
N reviewing the conditions which have existed in the piano trade during the past year, there stands out
pre-eminently the insistent, and almost unusual, demand for quality which has been a particular characteristic
of the year. Not only in the piano trade has the demand for quality been most apparent, but in every line
of commercial endeavor greater stress has been placed upon quality than ever before.
The. year 1916 has been a prosperous one. The amount of money, per capita, which the country has held
during the past twelve months has been greater than ever before in its history. Unemployment has been
decreased to an almost absolute minimum, and the prevailing prosperity has not been confined to any one class,
or any one section. It has been a general, undeniable prosperity, and its beneficent effects have been felt
everywhere, and by every one.
At first glance it might seem that the unusual demand which has been created for quality merchandise
is due solely to the fact that people had more money to spend, and that, therefore, this demand is not sufficiently
well grounded to demonstrate absolutely that people generally prefer goods of real quality rather than goods of
cheap price.
This is not so. It is probably true that people have bought more goods of quality, because of a fuller
pocketbook, than they have in previous years, yet the fact remains that the American public is becoming
thoroughly educated to the belief, and indeed knowledge, that quality is much more to be desired than price.
Were this not true, people would invariably choose their purchases solely from the price standpoint, and
a prosperous year would only be marked by an increase in savings bank deposits, for unless the public believed
thoroughly in getting the best merchandise possible, whenever they had sufficient money to do so, they would
always buy cheap articles, and put any surplus money away for a rainy day.
If, then, the fact is established that the purchasing public buys its necessities, and its luxuries as well,
according to quality rather than according to price, it behooves the piano manufacturer and piano merchant
to break away from the mistaken idea of advertising the relative cheapness of their instruments. The dealers
handling instruments of quality should acquaint the public with the fact that these products of qualify standard
are built throughout with the idea of quality in mind, and that therefore the price, no matter what it may be, is
only a just compensation for the high class product handled.
There was a time when most of the advertising done by piano dealers throughout the country seemed to be
constructed with the sole idea of impressing upon the public that a piano was a cheap commodity. "Easy terms"
and "wonderful bargains" were the catch phrases around which these advertisements were written, and the
quality of the instruments offered for sale, or the advantages to be derived through the possession (if a piano,
rarely received any degree of mention.
It is most encouraging to note that advertisements of this kind in the piano field are appearing less fre-
quently as time goes on. Present-day piano advertising is being written with the idea of emphasizing quality
and desirability.
The public is rapidly being educated away from the idea of looking for so-called bargains in pianos, and
instead is learning to seek that instrument which, though perhaps costing a trifle more, yet offers real value and
real musical quality in return for its purchase price.
Several prominent piano manufacturing concerns, whose products are known throughout the civilized world,
and whose instruments have always been leaders in the trade, have built up the prestige which they today enjoy by
consistently advertising the high standard of quality which their instruments contain, and despite the fact that
the price of many of these lines makes the instruments somewhat prohibitive for possibly a number of prospective
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