Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
APRIL 1, 1922
THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Advertising That Hurts the Trade
Business That Comes as a Result of Low Terms Advertising Is More Than Offset by the Loss of Prestige Which the
Industry Suffers Thereby—Current Examples of "Nothing Down—Low Terms*' Advertising Now Being Used
in Various Parts of the Country Indicate Its Prevalence and Also Its Potential Danger
The question of terms, at least advertised
terms, on pianos and player-pianos appears to be
one of paramount importance in the music in-
dustry to-day inasmuch as the generosity dis-
played by many retail houses in that connection
is sufficient to cause amazement among those in
other fields who believe in getting the money for
the products they sell within a comparatively
reasonable time.
There is, naturally, one chief reason for the
quoting of low terms, and that is to stimulate re-
tail business, but it is a moot question whether
the business thus brought in is of a caliber to
make worth while the lowering of the status of
the retail piano trade.
It is a generally accepted fact that the adver-
tised price of an article is the maximum price,
for although the customer may possibly insist
upon a lower price, and possibly get it, there is
no merchant brave enough at heart to demand
and hold out for a price above that publicly
quoted in his advertising. The same rule in a
large measure holds good in the matter of terms
and piano merchants generally have realized
from actual experience that the piano buyer who
is attracted in the first instance by the low
terms quoted regards those terms as maximum.
In view of this fact it is little wonder that piano
retailers who live for the future, as well as for
the present, and who expect to continue and de-
velop business during the next few years, look
askance at the type of terms advertising pianos
that is found with great frequency in the news-
papers, particularly in the larger cities. Just
about Christmastime there was an enormous
amount of such advertising, and the hopes of all
interested in piano merchandise that there would
be a change of front beginning with the new year
appear to have been groundless, for current
newspapers have carried and are carrying atten-
tion-compelling announcements to the effect that
pianos and player-pianos listed at $350 to $400,
or more, may be had without any down payment
and on instalment terms carrying the sale over
three years or more to completion.
Some of the advertising is of the sort best de-
scribed as "tricky," for the advertised statement
that the instrument will be delivered without any
down payments fails to specify that the customer
is expected to buy a certain number of music
rolls and other accessories or to pay for the
moving and other incidental expenses before the
instrument is delivered to the home.
It is hard to estimate the ultimate effect of the
general wave of "term" advertising, but there is
no question but that it is just as harmful to the
advertiser as to his competitor, for, having once
established a reputation as a house featuring low
terms, it is difficult to educate the public to a
belief in a higher business practice.
There are members of the trade who criticize
the average banker's attitude in the matter of the
handling of piano paper, and yet the advertising
oi trade members themselves in many cases is
calculated to give the impression to the bankers
that a great majority of pianos and players are
sold on a "nothing-down-and-three-years-to-pay"
basis.
Were the houses advertising low terms realiz-
ing tremendously upon their advertising in the
matter of sales there would probably be found
some excuse for their action, but beyond the in-
stances where real bargains are offered on long
terms these exceptional results are rare. That
type of advertiser does not seem to be doing any
better than his competitor who believes in get-
ting something in cash before he lets go of a
valuable product.
In cases where a careful analysis has been
made of a type of prospects influenced by nothing
down and a dollar a week advertising, it has been
found that they did not in any sense represent
good credit risks. Under ordinary conditions the
prospective purchaser who must demand long
terms is to be regarded with a certain amount of
suspicion, particularly in face of the existing situ-
ation, or the retailer will be faced with the prob-
lem of handling many repossessions. A man
with an income sufficient only to meet minimum
instalment terms may lose his job or have the
buying habit, which means that he has other in-
stalment obligations to meet. This must all be
taken into consideration when a piano is placed
in the home on terms that mean that it will
remain there for several years before the account
is cleaned up.
It has been proven by successful experience
that such terms do not of a necessity have to be
advertised to interest prospective buyers who
cannot do business on a cash basis.
A proitiinent Eastern department has for years
adopted as a slogan in the matter of terms "Your
Own Terms Within Reason" and has found the
plan to work out exceptionally well. A man
who would not hesitate to buy a $500 instrument
on an advertised initial payment of $10 will never
admit when cornered that he considers such an
amount an adequate deposit on an instrument
worth fifty times as much. This plan and similar
plans have been adopted widely and even the
well-worn phrase, "Terms to Meet Every Purse,"
has an appeal sufficient to bring business. If the
NEW HEINTZMAN BRANCH OPENED
individual must wait until pianos are offered at
nothing down before he can buy there is a grave
question as to just how much his patronage is
worth.
Meanwhile the sort of terms that have been
and are being advertised in the newspapers
throughout the country, particularly in the East
and Middle West, are certainly not calculated to
reflect to the advantage of those retailers who
look to the future and are endeavoring to build
a business that will be both sound and profitable.
On the facing page are reproduced sections of
a number of advertisements selected from a group
of a hundred, and all emphasizing most emphati-
cally the appeal of terms. The advertisements
reprinted are not much worse or much better
than the average, but their effect, when the va-
rious offers are grouped together, is anything but
pleasant. When, as frequently happens, one edi-
tion of a metropolitan daily will contain a dozen
or more advertisements of such character, it is
not difficult to realize the impression such piano
selling methods make upon the intelligent reader,
particularly if he happens to be a business man
and engaged in selling himself.
The only appeal against the continued adver-
tising of low terms is on the basis of ethics and
for the good of the trade generally, an appeal
that very frequently falls upon deaf ears. The
advertising, so long as the advertised offers are
lived up to, cannot be legislated against success-
fully, for to prove that the statements made are
misleading is often a difficult task. Continued
argument against low terms, however, should
have some effect, and the manufacturers might,
with profit to themselves, give some earnest
thought to the terms being advertised by the re-
tailers handling their products and to the future
effects that may be expected from the advertising
of such terms. Such methods do not tend to up-
lift or better conditions in the industry.
THE RETURN OF WAR TAXES
Gerhard Heintzman, Ltd., Opens New Branch
Store in London, Ont.
George W. Pound Issues an Opinion Covering
That Important Question
TORONTO, ONT., March 27.—A retail branch of
Gerhard Heintzman,- Ltd., has been opened up at
London, where Armand Heintzman, vice-presi-
dent of the firm, has secured salesrooms at 222
Dundas street. The location is in "Piano Block,"
where the retail piano business in London is
so strongly centered. The store interior has
been rebuilt, furnished and decorated to the re-
quirements of a high-class piano and talking ma-
chine wareroom. Other branches will be opened
by Gerhard Heintzman, Ltd., in the near future.
M. S. Grace, who has just recently resigned the
management of the Kingston branch of C. W.
Lindsay, Ltd., to join the Gerhardt Heintzman
organization, is in charge of the London branch
and will have supervision of the territory that
will be handled from that center.
George W. Pound, general counsel of the Mu-
sic Industries Chamber of Commerce, has of-
fered the following opinion regarding the re-
turn of war taxes on pianos, talking machines,
etc., sold prior to January 31, 1922, and returned
after that date.
Pianos, phonographs, player-pianos and other
musical instruments subject to special tax under
the Revenue Act of 1918, which were sold prior
to January 1, 1922, and upon which such tax
was paid, and which instruments were afterward
returned and the sale and tax rescinded, are free
from such tax.
In such cases the manufacturer may rescind
the sale, refund or credit the purchase price
and the war tax.
He may then file claim with the department
for the refund of such tax so returned by him
to the purchaser of the instrument. See Form
843 for this purpose.
TO MAKE ALTERATIONS
The Mathushek Piano Co., of Plainfield, N. J.,
Joseph Melici, formerly with Doll & Sons, is
is planning extensive alterations to its quarters
at 218 West Front street. The building was pur- now associated with the sales staff of the piano
department of Landay Bros., Newark, N. J.
chased by the company several months ago.
For over 25 years Specialists
in high grade Piano Cases
Paterson Piano
Case Co.
PATERSON, N. J.
;