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Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
VOL. LXX. No. 21
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York.
May 22, 1920
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Public Faith in Advertised Goods
F
OR the past three or four years, despite the fact that production has been far below demand, and that
manufacturers in every line were finding it difficult to fill even a portion of their orders, without attempting
to seek new business, the leading authorities in the industrial advertising world have been insistent in
advising manufacturers, distributors and dealers to maintain their advertising systematically and con-
tinuously, not for the purpose of securing immediate returns therefrom, but rather as insurance against the
future—as preparation against the time when production will overtake demand, and the problem, becomes one
of selling goods, rather tha.n selecting customers.
The advertising authorities have emphasized strongly that there will come a time when the sellers'
market will become a buyers' market, and when that time comes those concerns which have neglected their
advertising and allowed their name value and good will to fall by the wayside will find it necessary to stop
and rebuild their reputation and prestige, meanwhile competing at heavy disadvantage with those more pro-
gressive concerns which have maintained their advertising at pre-war or close to pre-war levels, whether or
not they had goods to sell.
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The soundness of this theory has now become apparent as the tide begins to turn towards a buyers'
market. Men of prominence in the trade, trained to observe closely, have brought from various sections of
the country reports to the effect that in those localities where the buyers' market may be said to have been
already established there is a steadily growing tendency to favor well-known trade-marked and advertised
products.
During the 'period of great scarcity the public has frequently been compelled to take almost anything to
meet immediate requirements, but with the option of choice again being presented, it is naturally inclined to
consider and purchase articles of a known and recognized standard of quality and value. This strong swing
towards trade-marked and advertised products is also said to be the cause in a considerable measure of the high
prices that are prevailing. Practically everything has gone up many per cent, and the average buyer feels thdlt
if he must pay a high price for a certain article it is much better to pay that price for an article of established
standing than for an article of questionable merit and quality which may or may not represent a value equivalent
to its cost under existing conditions. Even before there was any definite tendency towards a buyers' market
this preference for articles of recognized standing was to be noted in the music trade, and dozens of dealers
have bewailed the fact that, with a fair supply of the cheaper, little known pianos on their floors, they were
compelled to turn away customer after customer who was insistent upon securing an instrument of recognized
standing and worth.
The same rule prevailed in the talking machine trade, and, although at times the insistence of the public
upon obtaining certain products served to complicate the problem of the manufacturer in catching up with the
demand, it served to give the assurance that the manufacturer of quality products had little to fear from the
results of any sudden or protracted slump in business.
The products that are constantly and strongly advertised year after year must of necessity have quality
back of them or the advertising would not pay sufficiently to warrant its continuation beyond a brief period.
The public evidently realizes the fact that constant and widespread advertising is to be accepted as indication
that a product so advertised has genuine merit, and possesses a certain standard of value. It is indisputable that
the pianos which have been, and are, constantly and strongly advertised are the instruments that are most in
demand just now. This fact should act as a warning to the manufacturer who has held back on his publicity.
It will require quick action to enable him to catch up with the procession of buyers who are demanding adver-
tised goods, and accepting no substitutes.