Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUJ1C TIRADE
VOL. LXXIV. No. 20
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York. May 20, 1922
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Public Confidence
W
ITH an evident tendency toward improvement in business conditions generally and a strong incli-
nation on the part of business men to put their houses in order and exert efforts to take fullest
advantage of any trend toward trade betterment there comes a demand for the establishment of
some standard of business methods, and particularly advertising methods, that will serve to regain
and hold the confidence of the buying public.
There is no question but that during the so-called "period of liquidation" the confidence of the public
in the advertised statements of those seeking to unload surplus stocks of merchandise has been sadly shaken.
There have been many merchants, of course, who have honestly taken a loss for the purpose of clearing their
shelves and starting with a clean slate, feeling that that course was the best, but there have been just as many
who have taken advantage of the bargain craze to misrepresent the goods they were offering and take unfair
advantage of the public's desire to benefit by price reductions.
During the past year or so the practice of misrepresentation has developed to a point where various
business organizations have felt called upon to take earnest cognizance of the situation. We find the Asso-
ciated Advertising Clubs of the World launching a "Better Advertising Week," during the course of which
newspapers throughout the country ran articles informing the public of what advertising is designed to
accomplish for the betterment of the consumer and what truth-in-advertising means to both consumer and
merchant. It has been found necessary, too, by the Advertising Clubs to advocate "Golden Rule" or "Truth
Sales," for the purpose of convincing the public that when quoting price reductions on advertised articles
of known value the advertisers were sticking to facts.
]n the furniture trade the practice of misrepresentation regarding the materials entering into the dif-
ferent classes of furniture reached such a point that it was found necessary for the official trade body to draft
a definite schedule of standards for the protection of the public and the guidance of the retailer. Under
this schedule "solid mahogany" means that the furniture is constructed of solid mahogany throughout. If
the exterior only is of solid mahogany the fact is so stated. If the furniture is constructed of a combination
of fine cabinet wood and cheaper materials the information is conveyed in the advertised statement that it is of
"the combination type," and where cheaper woods are treated to resemble tine cabinet lumber the term
"finish" is insisted upon.
Other industries have taken similar steps to establish standards of quality that will be adhered to by
the dealer in his advertised statements and will be recognized by the public as providing accurate definitions
of quality. Only recently the court ordered a hosiery manufacturer to discontinue the practice of advertising
stockings as silk when, as a matter of fact, they were manufactured out of an imitation of silk, and it is likely
that other rulings of a similar nature will be handed down.
Even now there is being considered a Federal bill designed to provide for the accurate marking of
all manufactured products, setting forth accurately the materials of which they are made, so that the unso-
phisticated purchaser may buy with confidence and be protected.
It would be well for those elements of the music industry who have been getting somewhat careless
regarding the accuracy of their advertised and oral selling statements to give consideration to this movement
for honesty in advertising and selling. Not only is it necessary to regain the confidence of the public to bring
about a real period of good business, but it is likely to be the wiser course for those in this and other trades
to clean house before thev face the enactment of laws that will bring about that result and at the same time
prove burdensome and annoying in their enforcement.
The question of price does not enter into the discussion, but the question of the quality offered at the
price is an important factor.
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