Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
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MlLflC THADE
VOL. LXIV. No. 9
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York, March 3, 1917
Single Copies 10 Cents
$2.00 Per Year
Factors In Business Development
I
T is universally acknowledged that printers' ink, rightly used, is a tremendous force in the creation of new
business and industrial development. Hence the value of artistically prepared literature, as a means of
exploiting the products of piano manufacturers, is more keenly recognized by the trade to-day than it ever
has been before.
It is undoubtedly false economy to try and sa\e money in the production of printed matter, for the
literature put out by a concern is a reflex of the house and its methods. Poorly prepared and badly printed
catalogs or any other kind of literature are a waste of money. Quality in this instance should count more
than quantity.
Better a limited number of catalogs, or booklets, that are worth preserving, than a lot of miscellaneous,
cheap-looking, and poorly prepared books that are fore-ordained for the waste paper basket without more
than a glance. Money is particularly well spent when the text matter possesses distinct literary merit and
the illustrations are of the best. In the piano trade these are essentials that should never be overlooked.
The catalog, important though it may be, is, however, only one form of advertising. It merely supple-
ments the work of the trade paper and the traveling representative, as a means of introducing the manufac-
turer and his products to the dealer. On this pertinent subject the head of the service department of one of
the prominent piano manufacturing concerns has pronounced views which are worth presenting. He remarked
to The Review:
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"The manufacturer who desires to command the attention of the trade for his product, or emphasize the
achievements of his house, should not depend alone on his traveling representatives or his catalogs, but should
advertise in some trade paper, such as The Review, that the dealer reads carefully and regularly, and keeps by
him for future reference.
"When the dealer intends to make a change in his line, or enlarge the number of styles which he handles,
he will always best locate the manufacturers he desires to reach through the trade paper. He utilizes this
means in preference to looking over a raft of miscellaneous catalogs, circulars, etc. These latter publications
have a value, however—they are invariably consulted when the dealer makes up his mind, after studying the
trade paper, regarding the concerns with which he desires to get in touch, and the grade and styles of instru-
ments he particularly wants.
"The distribution of printed literature by a house is most commendable, but when handled aimlessly, it
is a tremendous expense. When trade news is presented by a business house, in combination with the effective
work of the traveling man, it is doubly effective. The manager who watches the output of his plant closely,
so as to attain and maintain the greatest economy and efficiency in production, is inconsistent when he virtually
throws away a lot of printed matter that costs time and thought to prepare, money to illustrate, print, and
distribute, through the lack of pre-arranged plans whereby he may secure the largest measure of results from
his publicity campaign."
This may seem an unusual statement, coming, as it does, from a man who has charge of a department
for the distribution of literature, but it is clear that he knows that unless there is a well defined policy re-
garding the use of catalogs and circulars through combination with a trade paper campaign, the results
obtained are not satisfactory.
In union there is strength, and it is the combination of the trade paper, the traveling man and the catalogs
or other literary matter sent out by the house, that brings the real results. Unless trade literature is backed
by judicious advertising in the trade press, it is like casting seed to the winds, trusting that by some lucky
chance it may fall upon fertile ground.