Music Trade Review

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THE
FEBRUARY 25, 1922
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
11
^
PRICE AND VALUE
Some Pertinent Thoughts on the Fallacy That
Price-cutting Helps Business
We are hearing of price-cutting. Rumors are
floating about, rumors of every degree of plausi-
bility, from obvious lies to elaborate probabili-
ties. One finds it hard to avoid concern. For
if one thing more than another is plain it is that
this is no time for a merchandising policy in the
roll business based upon price-slashing. The
past year has been cruelly trying to our indus-
tries in all their branches and the music roll
men have had abundance of sorrow. Naturally,
any kind or sort of device calculated to bring
about better sales is likely to be welcomed and
perhaps eagerly accepted without undue inquiry
into its merits. If it works for the time being
it stands a good chance of being taken up with-
out further ado.
But the truth is that industries are not cr-
ganized upon any such loose foundation as this.
If the article which forms the subject-matter of
an industry has a value in the world, if, that is
to say, it fills some need of contemporary life,
then the matter of merchandising it ought to be
figured more scientifically. Price is not the
same thing as value. If a given article is valued
highly, that is to say, if its merit as a desirable
addition to the good things of life is sufficiently
obvious to create toward it a sort of sympathy
on the part of every person who is brought to
think of it in any way, then obviously the price
at which it is to be bought may be anything not
too obviously excessive. In other words, the
value is what attracts and the price is the sec-
ondary consideration.
That this is so may be proved from the his-
tory of great commercial successes. Gillette
razors, Waterman fountain pens, Steinway
pianos have always been sold, and bought, on
the basis of their value to the owner, not on
the consideration that their price is higher than
the price of other articles apparently similar or
'Staffnotc
Player Rolls
Arc Best"
is n o w t h e answer received b y t h e
many progressive dealers w h e n e v e r
tkey invite comparison by their trade.
I
.:
j!
T h e i r one main reason for d e -
ciding is that Staffnote rolls are t h e
most complete, in that, all t h a t is
pertaining to music, is printed o n t h e
roll a n d are therefore a greater value
for t h e money. A n o t h e r reason is
that t h e y are easier to read a n d have
an outstanding individuality in t h e
hand played recording of same that
is n o t to b e found in other rolls.
T h e opinion is unanimous among
the players of wind a n d string in-
struments.
Send for catalogue and our free trial offer
and learn more about triis latest and best achieve-
ment in music rolls.
Billings Player Roll Company
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U. S. A.
even identical. It is this principle—the principle
of value as the measure of price—which has
come to be accepted as the basis of all success-
ful large-scale merchandising.
Is it applicable to the music roll business? If
it is not applicable to that business then the
music roll must be different in the very nature
of its commercial value from every other article
which has ever been successfully merchandised.
It must possess no value of its own which can
be compared with the inherent value possessed
by other articles which have been the subject
matter of successful sales campaigns and which
have made for themselves permanent, profitable
markets. It must, in a word, be without its own
individual sales appeal based upon value, and if
it has any sales value of any kind that value
must be calculated from some basis not known
in any of the examples we have mentioned or
suggested.
But this is absurd. If the music roll has any
value at all its value is based on its individual
merits. If it is a salable article at any reason-
able price it is that because it gives to its pur-
chaser something which that purchaser needs.
It gives him, in exchange for the money he pays
to get it, something he did not have before and
something which he feels he needs. The price
is equivalent—if it be a fair price—to the dif-
ference between the aggregate of values he
possesses without it and that which he will
possess when he has it.
There is no argument, then, based on success-
ful merchandising principles, for any permanent
selling policy based upon price-wars or price-
cutting. Nor is it possible to argue that a price-
war might be the unfortunate but inevitable pre-
liminary to the establishment of a substantial mo-
nopoly in the hands of one, possibly superior, man-
ufacturing corporation. For, in the nature of the
case, there can be no monopoly in music rolls based
The
Silent Motora
on any other property save that of superior
technical and musical merit. If a manufacturing
house can reduce its costs by superior methods
then it is justified in offering its goods at a lower
price. But it can never hope to obtain a virtual
monopoly, even though on many grounds advan-
tages of considerable magnitude might be
alleged in support of its establishment.
Nor, again, is it for a moment to be supposed
that the public is to be brought into the music
roll market by the lure of prices. The music
roll is eminently an acquired taste and the only
safe principle for merchandising it is the prin-
ciple of full price for full value. The sales
must be made to an educated public which has
learned that the price paid is a fair meas-
ure of the value delivered. That means, again,
that money must be spent on the process of edu-
cation and that means, again, that the principle
of success demands for its primary factor the
application of persistent advertising of a per-
sistently educational and persistently attractive
sort to the mentality of the people. Educate,
agitate; educate, demonstrate; educate, sell I
Then the price will indeed be the secondary
consideration, the measure of value and the fair
return for the fair value given. Then, also, the
music roll will be a profitable article of mer-
chandise in a sense in which it cannot be so
called to-day.
AEOLIAN CO.
The bulletin of Duo-Art rolls for March issued
by the Aeolian Co. is, as usual, of particular in-
terest, especially to those whose tastes incline
toward the better things in music. Recordings
by such noted pianists as Bos with his "Madama
Butterfly," Friedman with his Viennese Waltz
and Elly Ney in a selection by Schubert offer a
guide to the class of the list, which is printed in
full herewith:
Composer
Title
Played by
Mendelssohn—Song Without Words (No. 18)—Duetto,
Beebe
Rubinstein—Etaccato Etude (Op. 23, No. 2) . . . .Roguslawski
(Continued on page 12)
This electric vacuum
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We a r e d i s t r i b u t o r s in
Pennsylvania and extend our
services and co-operation to you
Motora Sales Co. of Pennsylvania
35 S. 18th Street
Philadelphia, Pa.
WHITE, SON CO.
Manufacturers of
ORGAN AND PLAYER-PIANO
LEATHERS
530-540 Atlantic Ave., BOSTON, MASS.
PLAYER--ORGAN--PIANO
LEATHERS
A Specialty of Pneumatic Leathers
l
I I T T F I N C I « « 40 SPRUCE STREET
T . L LUlMNo, Inc.
NEWYORK
Additional Income for
Tuners and Repair
Departments
We can supply you
with an action of universal
scale that can be installed
in a n y 65 or 88-note
player-piano that is giving
unsatisfactory service or in
any ordinary piano by
making some minor altera-
tions in the piano case.
Write for details of this money-
mak'mg possibility.
Simplex Player Action Co.
Worcester, Mass.