Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUJIC THADE
VOL. LXVII. No. 5
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York. August 3, 1918
Cents
Maintaining Name Values in Wartime
G
OOD will and name value are two very tangible assets to any business—assets that cannot be purchased
in the open market as are the supplies that go into the making of any product. Good will and name
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value take years of careful nursing and strict care before they develop to a point where they are to be
considered seriously in any business. These years of development and of care cost money and are
worth money, and the result cannot be neglected for a moment.
In the piano trade the name on the fallboard has an unusual value. The public has been trained through
years of personal effort and by years of advertising to value a piano name, and the result is seen in the fact that
the average piano owner takes pride in his instrument and the name it bears, or, if the title on the fallboard is
comparatively unknown, seeks to minimize that fact.
Of all things that should be preserved in the piano business at this time, name value should come first. If
for any reason the manufacturing plant is dismantled or put out of business, it will still be possible to secure
and equip a new plant so far as the physical properties go, but a name once allowed to fall into disuse and to
drop out of the public mind represents a waste—a waste that can only be regained at an expenditure of close
to the original amount of money, thought and effort.
This preservation of name value is in many industries the dominant argument back of the continuation of
advertising. We see in the newspapers and magazines advertisements regarding products the output of which
has been curtailed to a point where it cannot begin to meet even sub-normal demands. The advertising is
not worded to create demand. It is worded to carry out the fundamental idea back of it, and that is to preserve
the name value until such time as the manufacturer finds it in his power to enter the market again in a normal
way.
This fact must be borne in mind by piano manufacturers, and, for that matter, by dealers also. No matter
what may be the trials and tribulations of the industry growing out of the war, the effort must be made to pre-
serve name value, to keep the names of designated instruments of reputation and quality constantly before the
trade and the public, in order that the great effort put into the establishment of reputation and prestige shall
not be lost.
When things become normal again there is going to be a great scramble to forge ahead and make up for
lost profits during the war, and to take advantage of the opportunities that have been lying dormant because
conditions would not warrant taking advantage of them before. If a piano manufacturer must stop to create
or recreate a name value before he can proceed in a big way, then he is laboring under a handicap that is going
to hurt. If, however, his name is still established and fresh in the minds of the people, then he can devote
his entire attention to the physical production of his instruments and start from scratch or a little better.
Keep the trade names alive regardless of what happens. Spend a few dollars to save that which has taken
thousands of dollars and years of effort to produce and have recognized. It takes courage, for it is building
for the future, of which at the present time we know little or nothing. All business investment, even in peace
times, however, largely consists in building for the future.
Keeping name values alive by continuous advertising" is the final test of the belief of the individual that
the country and the industries that make up the country are going to survive and enjoy renewed strength and
prosperity. In the days to come it will be found that a name, even without the product, is a bigger asset
than a product without a name.
Economy is necessary in these abnormal times, but the piano manufacturer who seeks to economize by
eliminating his advertising appropriation, even though he may not have a single instrument to sell, is undermining
the foundation of prestige on which his business is built to a most serious and profit-destroying degree.