Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
MAY
25, 1918
THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
A DECADE OF PROGRESS—(Continued from page 3)
but are actually shipping large numbers of pianos and players
abroad. The development of the Australian market for Amer-
ican products is an excellent example of the opportunities that
lay before American piano manufacturers for present and future
consideration.
Improvement In Retail Methods
From the point of view of the retailer, there has likewise been
much progress to be recorded. Methods have been improved to
a degree unthought of ten years ago, In 1908 trade ethics were
considered only useful as a subject of discussion at conventions
and in the trade press, and were looked upon as intangible
qualities not to be considered seriously. A new spirit, however,
has developed. The average retailer has become possessed of a
new idea regarding what he owes to the industry, as well as to
himself, and the result has been the practical elimination of many
questionable methods in piano merchandising. In the first place,
the old type of puzzle contest advertising for stimulating sales
has been practically eradicated, due largely to the efforts of the
retailers themselves, aided by the power of laws that have been
designed to promote clean business. Where such conditions, or •
similar methods, were common some few years ago, they are I
now sufficiently scarce to be worthy of comment upon their re-
appearance.
The retailer has found that the effect of good advertising is
permanertt, and as a result most piano advertising during the
past couple of years has been on a plane that has been little open
to criticism. This has been accomplished largely through the
efforts of the manufacturers themselves in the establishment of
elaborate service departments, for the aid of the dealer. These
service departments have not only supplied to the retailer at
cost, or absolutely free, advertising matter that he himself could
not well afford to have created for his own exclusive use, but
have inculcated an appreciation of what local advertising means,
how it should be conducted, and what it can be exipected to
accomplish.
Without question, this new attitude towards advertising,
this desire to base arguments on absolute facts rather than
bombast, has been instrumental in creating in the public mind
a new attitude toward the piano merchant generally. He has
ceased to be regarded as a man of the same type as the itinerant
peddler, whose statements on quality and whose prices have
about the same value, but is looked upon as a business man of
standing and on an equal plane with the other reliable merchants
of the town. This new attitude is particularly a matter of
gratification.
Considerable progress has also been made in the domain of
credits during the past decade, particularly during the last couple
of years. This new attitude regarding a proper consideration of
financial methods, however, can be traced with more or less
directness to war conditions, for even before the entry of the
United States into the conflict, the rising cost of manufacture
and the scarcity of labor placed a burden on the manufacturer
that could be viewed only with seriousness. It served to cut
down his production and increased his costs, with the result that
he had to look to the retailer for better terms. This shortening
of wholesale credits generally naturally had a strong effect upon
the retailer, and the piano dealer who had a true conception of his
business was quick to see that he, too, must give the matter of
credit earnest consideration. The result was a general shortening
of terms. It is true that the dollar-down-and-a-dollar-a-week
methods still persist in many localities, but the houses using such
methods arc becoming fewer each month, and it is no idle boast
to say that in a very short time not only will short-time piano
instalments become general, and larger initial cash payments be
demanded, but there will be fewer houses advertising definite
terms of any sort. The readjustment of the credit system
throughout the country has had the effect of placing the in-
dustry on a more stable basis, of enabling it to weather un-
expected business storms with equanimity and financial safety.
The establishment of a one-price system has for many years
been one of the favorite topics at trade conventions, and it may
be said truthfully that the one-price system of piano selling has
become an established fact in a great majority of the piano
houses. Now there is a new development, in the nationally-
priced piano and player. Leading makes of instruments have
long been sold at fixed prices by dealers throughout the country,
but under new conditions several prominent houses have en-
deavored to establish the prices of their products in the public
mind through national advertising, and the plan appears to be
working out well.
Another marked advance in retail circles has been the tend-
ency of piano merchants of various cities to get together and
by frank discussion remedy trade conditions that are working
against the interests of all. In New York alone, for instance,
the retailers got together and agreed upon minimum advertised
prices for pianos and player-pianos, regardless of the minimum
prices at which pianos and players might be sold, and likewise
through an exchange of ideas established a schedule of allowances
on used pianos and players that has since been adopted by piano
merchants in all sections of the country.
Development of Trade Unity
The great progress made by the trade generally during the
past decade can undoubtedly be attributed to the greater unity
in trade spirit. The organized forces of the trade, through the
various systems, have been brought together more closely than
ever before, and have reached a status not dreamed of ten years
ago. There has come about a general realization that trade
systems meant nothing unless they did something, and a few
bold spirits in the trade worked for some years to show that
the systems really did something. The result has been that con-
ventions have developed from mere matters of form and excuses
for having a general jollification to genuine and serious business
conferences, where the element of frankness predominates.
It has been learned to the surprise of many that the music
industry is not an industry of great secrets, and that practically
all its members were doing business in about the same way and
along the same lines. It was found that by the exchange of
ideas the various members of the trade could improve their
methods and avoid the mistakes that their competitors had recti-
fied at considerable cost. It was found primarily that anything
that would tend to improve conditions in the trade generally
might aid a competitor, but in the long run would prove of ad-
vantage to the entire industry. It took a good many years to
develop this spirit, but the last few years have seen the matter
brought to a head, and no greater proof of this fact can be offered
than the successful organization of the Music Industries Cham-
ber of Commerce, with all the trade activities, and they have
grown tremendously, centered under one head, with an efficiency
that would do credit to many individual manufacturing institu-
tions. Ten years ago each branch of the industry had its own
association working for itself, and with little regard for what
the other trade organizations were doing. Now we find the
same associations growing in power, but working together for
the common good. It is perhaps the most interesting of the de-
velopments of the past ten years, and it may be said the past
five years have brought it about.
Now we find the music industry presenting a united front
before the country through the medium of the Music Industries
Chamber of Commerce where the leading trade activities, both
defensive and offensive, have been co-ordinated under the direc-
tion of one single head, although each of the various bureaus in
turn has its director. So far has the idea developed in fact that
during the various critical situations, such as a discussion of
the War Revenue bill, and curtailment measures, it was possible
for one man to go to Washington and say with absolute honesty
that he represented and spoke for the entire industry.
Ten years ago each division of the trade was jealous of its
own interests, and a plan to bring together the activities of the
various organizations under one common head would have been
laughed at. In fact, less than five years ago, when Paul B. Klugh
first broached his plan for the organization of the Chamber of
Commerce, he had to fight long and hard to get serious con-
sideration for the plan, and even then it was considered by many
(Continued on page 7)