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THE MUSIC TRADE UJiVlEW
REVIEW
(Registered in the U. S. Patent Office)
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
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Vol. LXXVI
NEW YORK, MARCH 17, 1923
No. 11
THE PRICE SITUATION IN THE INDUSTRY
ESPITE the fact that the so-called buyers' strike is a thing
D
of the past, that the demand for pianos and players continues
well in excess of production and that commodifies in general have
reached what is believed to be a normal price level, some comment
is still heard here and there in the trade as to how and when piano
prices will be reduced.
The answer is that piano prices cannot be expected to reach pre-
war levels for many years, if ever. Conditions have changed more
or less radically and permanently. Prices and materials have shown
very little fluctuation, and that upward, and labor remains firm with
a tendency to increase in cost. On top of this it must be re-
membered that the piano trade as a whole has enjoyed no period
of inflation which would make possible an impressive deflation for
the benefit of the buying public. Piano production costs have not
gone down perceptibly, while there is a prospect of them going
up in the immediate future, which means that stability of price
must be based upon quantity production and more economical fac-
tory methods, rather than upon lower material and labor costs.
It is possible that many-piano manufacturers have learned a
lesson during the past five or six years. Manufacturers in prac-
tically every other line took every opportunity to increase prices
as cost of materials advanced. They were still using materials
bought on a low market, but they made their charges for the fin-
ished product on the basis of replacement costs. This policy, con-
tinued through several years, resulted in ultimate prices that not
only guaranteed substantial profits, but provided insurance^ against
inflated inventories as well as the opportunity for making price
concessions at the proper time without eating into normal profits.
What did the average piano manufacturer do? While using
the materials he had bought on a low market, he maintained the
old prices despite the fact that materials prices were advancing
steadily. When he actually had to pay more money for supplies
he got cold feet and hesitated about demanding more than a portion
of that increase from his dealers. When the next increase came
he followed the same process and absorbed part of the extra cost.
The result was that when the downward swing came he was getting
only what his pianos cost him to make, plus a nominal profit, and
thus had no room to cut prices except at the cost of those profits.
MARCH 17,
1923
There were, of course, some exceptions to this rule, but they
were few, and the fact that increases in piano prices averaged only
between 90 and 1(X) per cent, while increased costs were estimated
to average 113 per cent, indicates that the piano manufacturing in-
dustry was not one of those that indulged in an orgy of inflation.
The piano merchant should buy his goods at the lowest pos-
sible figure, just as should any other good merchant, but at the same
time he must have some appreciation of what represents the proper
price and pay it for the quality product rather than seek to create
price shaving at a sacrifice of quality.
WHAT THE ADVERTISING CONTEST CAN DO
the expectations of those back of the project are realized, the
I F Retail
Advertising Contest being conducted by the Music In-
dustries Chamber of Commerce should be productive of some ex-
cellent material for the guidance of those who are interested in
putting the newspaper publicity of the trade on a higher plane.
There have been many interesting examples of advertising sub-
mitted by those who have entered the contest, and the problem of
selecting from among the material that entitled to special prizes is
likely to prove a difficult one to the judges entrusted with the work.
If example is actually better than precept, then the publication of
the prize-winning advertisements should have a distinct influence
upon trade advertising as a whole by showing what is considered to
be the proper kind of publicity.
During the past decade or so there has been a noticeable im-
provement in trade advertising both in the character of the copy
and its appeal. In the daily newspapers nearly all musical instru-
ment advertising compares favorably with that of any other line of'
trade, but, nevertheless, there still crop up all too many examples
of that type of publicity which represents the piano store as a
cheap-John, nickel-grabbing proposition. There is just enough of
this questionable copy, sensational even though it may not be mis-
leading, to counteract much of the good that may be expected to
result from clean publicity. If the contest, through the influence of
better advertising copy it brings forth, serves to reduce the volume
of sensational, and in the last analysis, inefficient advertising, then
the expense and trouble entailed by it will be fully repaid.
THE AUTO PNEUMATIC NATIONAL CAMPAIGN
HE latest unit of the piano industry to inaugurate a national
advertising campaign is the Auto Pneumatic Action Co., of
New York, which begins a nation-wide campaign in the Saturday
Evening Post Quality Group and class periodicals. This campaign
is unique in the industry in that it is the first time that a repro-
ducing action, available to all piano manufacturers, has been ad-
vertised directly to the ultimate purchaser. At the present time
the Welte-Mignon (Licensee) reproducing action is installed in
their instruments by approximately ninety different manufacturers.
Naturally all of these will share in the results of the Auto Pneu-
matic Action Co.'s national campaign, to say nothing of the
many dealers who handle their instruments.
The reproducing piano to-day is the highest type of player-
piano, long past the experimental stage, one of the greatest elements
in developing the musical taste of the country. It has given the
piano dealer an instrument that ranks among the highest class
merchandise which any retailer handles, and has been an essen-
tial factor in convincing him that quality and performance far
outweigh price in their influence on the ultimate closing of the
sale.
All of these facts have been carried in mind by those who
have been responsible for the development of the Auto Pneumatic
Action Co.'s national publicity campaign. The copy is essentially
high-class; it has been written with a sincerity and close appli
cation to facts that will go far in convincing the average reader
that, by means of inert wood, air and metal, it is possible to
capture and retain the finest nuance of a master-pianist's inter-
pretation of any of the great master works of piano literature,
making it available when and where the owner of the instrument
wills.
The new campaign of the Auto Pneumatic Action Co. will
be watched with the closest interest by the entire industry, rep-
resenting, as it does, a departure from the established methods by
which the player and reproducing action manufacturers of the
industry have heretofore marketed their products.