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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
President and Treasurer, C. L. Bill, 373 Fourth Aye., New York; Vice-President,
J. B. Spillane, 373 Fourth Aye., New York; Second Vice-President, Raymond Bill, 373
Fourth Art., New York; Assistant Treasurer, Wm. A. Low.
J. B. SPILLANE. Editor
RAY BILL, B. B. WILSON. BRAID WHITE, Associate Editors
WILSON D. BUSH, Managing Editor
CARLETON CHACE, Business Manager
L. E. BOWERS, Circulation Manager
Executive and Reportorlal Staff
Published Every Saturday at 37S Fourth Avenue, New York
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under the Ad of March i, 1J79.
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PI«v«i> D i o n A anil
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
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T * « h n l i » a l I U n a i 4 m i t n l i i regulating and repairing of piano* and player-pianos
leCnnlCai UepartmeUlS
ar *
dealt with, will be found in another section of
this P*.Per. We also publish a number of reliable technical works; information concerning
which will be cheerfully given upon request.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
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Paris Exposition. 1900 Silver Medml...Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma....Pan-American Exposition, 1901
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Vol. LXX1I
NEW YORK, JANUARY 15, 1921
No. 3
THE NEED FOR WATCHING CREDIT TERMS
I
N The Review last week Samuel C. Osborn of Chicago put forth
the somewhat original and at the same time practical thought that
piano paper during 1921 would have a higher value than the same
paper during the past couple of years, for the main reason that
industrial conditions having changed and the question of employ-
ment being rather uncertain music merchants will be likely to look
more carefully into the financial standing of those wage-earners to
whom they are asked to sell instruments on instalments.
It may be that Mr. Osborn's point of view may not stand up
under actual practice, but the fact remains that, being the logical
thing to do, music merchants should give increased thought to the
caliber of their customers. There has been considerable wild sell-
ing in the past few years. People have had more money to spend
than ever before and a certain class has been particularly free in
the spending thereof. With plenty of employment and high wages,
music merchants and retailers generally managed to take big
chances without loss, but the time when such chances can be taken
is past.
This question of terms is one of the big ones that the trade
will have to consider in the near future, for somehow or other the
retailer who feels he cannot afford to cut prices or stage sensational
price-cutting campaigns is quite frequently inclined to make low
terms and long credits his chief selling points. Under present con-
ditions long retail credits are more dangerous than perhaps they
have ever been in trade history.
SOUND FINANCIAL CONDITIONS
T
H E declaration by W. P. G. Harding, Governor of the Federal
Reserve Board, that the financial condition of the country has
i taken a decided upward trend and makes for much optimism is to
j be received with general satisfaction by the business men of the
I country as an authoritative statement, for Mr. Harding is in an
excellent position to gain first-hand knowledge of the financial situa-
tion throughout the entire country.
The head of the Federal Reserve Board naturally takes the view-
1921
point of the banker, but with the finances of the country on a sound
basis, and showing steady improvement, it is to be assumed that the
industries must be in a fairly healthy shape to make possible such
a financial condition.
The news dispatches from the leading industrial centers of the
country are to the effect that plants in various lines that have been
closed temporarily are now being reopened, many of them on a full-
time basis. In some cases the wages and working conditions remain
the same as last year; in other cases wages are the same, but working
hours have been lengthened, and in still other instances there have
been limited reductions in wages. Wage cuts have not been severe
apparently in any industry, which means that the buying power of
the worker—the ability to purchase those things beyond the essen-
tials for keeping body and soul together—has not been materially
impaired. This is a fact that should give considerable satisfaction
to the makers and sellers of musical instruments.
EDWARD VAN HARLINGEN, V. D. WALSH, E. B. MUNCH, C. A. LEONARD,
EDWARD LYMAN BILL, SCOTT KINGWILL, THOS. W. BKESNAHAN, A. J. NICKLIN.
WESTERN DIVISION:
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LOCATED IN THE LEADING CITIES THROUGHOUT AMERICA.
JANUARY 15,
EXPORTING AND TRADE-MARK PROTECTION
F
OR many years those manufacturers who have engaged in ex-
port trade or who have contemplated entering foreign markets
have been warned by the Government officials and others of the
necessity of registering their trade-marks in the foreign countries
where they are, or contemplate, doing business in order to protect
their interests. Despite the many warnings a surprisingly large
number of manufacturers have neglected to take this precaution and
particularly in the automobile field the results have been disastrous.
Some musical instrument manufacturers, too, have cause to regret
their carelessness.
The move of the Apollo Piano Co. in spending several thou-
sand dollars to procure the protection of their trade-marks in lead-
ing foreign markets is an example the trade should appreciate and
where the step is warranted by the ambitions of the manufacturers
it should be followed. The Apollo Co. gives as its reasons for the
step that the spending of a few thousand dollars for trade-mark
registration really means the saving of other thousands of dollars
that would be spent on advertising for the benefit of some un-
scrupulous foreigner who would take advantage of the law and
register that trade-mark.
Export trade is not as active as the majority of business men
would like to see it, but when it does become active again and the
demand upon American manufacturers is great it may perhaps be
too late to take those steps for protection which should have been
taken long ago.
THE TIME FOR ADVERTISING EXPANSION
A
DVERTISING is an absolute essential to business success at
all times, but never more so than when evidence of slowing up
in demand exists. It may be a difficult task to convince the average
dealer that it pays to keep a forceful and telling presentation of his
goods continuously before the public, but especially so when business
is not strikingly active.
The accepted rule is to reduce the advertising appropriation
when trade quiets down or to eliminate advertising entirely. Now
this is the first step to business suicide—in fact no greater mistake
could be made. Experts in advertising who have given the closest
possible study to this question from a cold, scientific standpoint—
that is for producing results-—are a unit on this proposition. They
advise no curtailment of the publicity campaign when business is
slow. Just the opposite. They hold that this is just the time to make
still further efforts. And where this plan has been followed success
has always crowned the efforts of the advertiser.
We are again approaching a period in trade history when musi-
cal instruments must be "sold," and while sales management, expan-
sion and control are essentials to success, they are materially aided by
the well conceived and developed campaign of publicity.
In the race for business the advertised product unquestionably has
a distinct advantage, for the individual, whether retail customer or
dealer, who is inclined to hesitate about buying is most likely to
select, when he finally develops a purchasing mood, those products
with which he is directly acquainted either through personal contact
or advertising. With this thought in mind advertising appropriations
for 1921 should measure up well with those of last year, and,
logically, should be greater in order to provide additional and needed
pulling power for sales.