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REVIEW
THE
VOL. LXXI. No. 23
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Aye., New York.
Dec. 4, 1920
Single Copies 10 CenU
$2.00 Per Year
Keeping Trade Advertising Clean
T
AKING the retail musical instrument advertising as a whole during the past couple of months, it has
been kept up to a comparatively high standard, despite the existence of conditions that might be
calculated to undermine confidence and to move members of the retail trade to jump to the sensational
in an effort to meet the situation and bolster up the sales.
Not that there has been no advertising of the "was-now," "prices slaughtered," or "closing out stock"
type, for there has been, but the proportion up to this time has been so small in comparison with the clean,
straightforward publicity that it has served to excite comment from among those who, being strong advocates
of high-class advertising and selling methods, hoped for the best but feared the worst.
The Better Business Bureau of the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce has received the usual
number of complaints regarding advertising that was considered unethical, or for some certain reason objec-
tionable. In some cases the complaints were well justified, and appropriate action has been taken, or will
be taken, by the Bureau. In other cases there was little ground for severe censure and a word of warning
accomplished the desired results.
There is, of course, considerable sensational and misleading advertising published regarding which the
Better Business Bureau learns nothing, because competing dealers in the territory, while naturally offended
by the publicity, do not take the trouble to make complaints. Jn other words, many of them, too many of
them, seem to operate on the theory that their competitors have a right to handle their business in their own
way.
With an organization especially designed to discourage the use of misleading advertising, musical
instrument retailers who believe in keeping the trade clean should realize that it is part of their business to
co-operate with the Better Business Bureau to the end that they and other members of the trade in general
receive the protection for which they pay and which is their due.
It takes only a few misleading and untruthful advertisements to undermine public confidence in a
locality and to react to the disadvantage of merchants who are following the straight and narrow path and
giving fair value at prices charged. A retailer may become discouraged and be willing to sell his stock at 30
or 40 per cent off. Such a man, however, is one in a million and has not yet been discovered in the piano trade
at least. When, therefore, these "40 per cent off" sales are advertised, the honest dealer owes it to himself
and to the trade to see that the advertiser is in a position to prove his statements. The thinking individual
does not swallow these published stories of great price reduction without a grain of salt, but there are enough
people who fall for the sensational in advertising to make it uncomfortable for the man who wants to be honest
and straightforward with himself and with the public.
When a retailer features a product of recognized standing—a well-known piano, for instance—in a sen-
sational manner he does a great injury to the reputation that has been built up for that particular product
during the years. Even should he be the credited representative of a high-grade line and feature cheaper
products by questionable methods he does an indirect injury to the leader of his line through inference.
In several instances piano manufacturers have seen fit to withdraw the representation for their instru-
ments from certain dealers whose methods did not come up to the standards desired. The manufacturer,
however, for a number of reasons—some of them naturally commercial—cannot be expected to police retail
advertising except to a limited extent, where the offense is so flagrant that direct action is demanded.
The work of keeping trade advertising clean, therefore, devolves upon the retailers themselves, the men
who are striving to put the business on a higher plane and keep it there. The Better Business Bureau, even
though its powers are more or less limited, provides a medium through which complaints can be handled when
once they are presented, but it is for the man in the field to act as guard in his own local territory.