Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC TIRADE
VOL. LXXVI. No. 19 Pibliihed Every Satirday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 373 4th Ave., New York, N. Y.
May 12, 1923
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The Manufacturer's and Dealer's Real Competition kg
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HE average piano dealer vizualizes his competition as a dealer on the next block, with both of them
fighting for the same piano sale. In planning his selling and advertising work he rarely goes beyond
this idea, with the result that all his sales efforts are affected by this factor and his activities circum-
scribed by this comparatively narrow outlook.
As a matter of fact the real competition the average piano dealer must overcome extends far beyond the
same line of activity in which he is engaged. He is truly competing with every retail dealer who sells an
article not of first necessity. Before he can make the sale of a certain piano which he has in his line he must
sell the idea of owning a piano or player-piano, as the case may be, and here is the greatest difficulty that he
has to conquer.
A dealer, working in a certain territory, has a certain number of people to appeal to, who possess a cer-
tain surplus of income available for expenditure beyond what calls for the mere means of existence. How
this surplus will be spent depends directly upon the selling efforts of all retail dealers. If those in one line
succeed in creating a greater interest in the article they handle, in other words, if they create the desire for
ownership, they will obtain the greatest proportion of this amount. If, on the other hand, they fail to do this
other lines will succeed, with the result that the gross sales in the first line will show a considerable falling off.
That is the basic competition which the piano dealer must meet. If he neglects to consider it, and con-
centrates all his efforts on the specific instruments he may carry, he is putting the cart before the horse, is start-
ing at the wrong end of the entire problem.
The piano dealer sometimes realizes this fact when he considers the automobile trade. He will say, in
many cases, that it is difficult to sell pianos and players, because the people are spending their money for cars.
In other words the buying interest of the public is stronger in the automobile than it is in the piano, according
to him. Then he too often goes and throws up his hands, accepting this situation as one of those inevitable
evils before which all he can do is to grin and bear it.
There is a good deal of truth in this condition, and the reasons for it hold a striking lesson to the piano
trade and industry. The automobile gained its great popularity when both manufacturers and dealers took to
showing the public the entertainment and pleasure they could get from a car. In the early days of that in-
dustry advertising was concentrated on the technical construction of the machine—to understand a good deal
of copy required a mechanical engineer's education. Rut when the selling approach was changed, when me-
chanical interest was subordinated to the "lure of open roads," in other words, when the basic aim of automo-
bile advertising became the creation of the desire for a car instead of the specific superiorities of a certain
make of car, the automobile achieved its first great popularity and became a real competitor of the piano.
When the piano industry some years ago began music advancement work it was with this idea in mind.
For music advancement work is nothing more or less than an effort to show the average person the pleasure
and entertainment which exist in owning a piano or player-piano—in other words, its primary purpose is to
meet the competition for surplus income from other lines of commerce. That it has been successful goes with-
out saying, but that it has been used to full advantage by the dealers in general is highly questionable.
It has been a matter of concern in the piano industry that production and gross volume of business have
not been advancing in proper ratio to the advancement of the country in population and wealth. Many of the
real reasons for this condition can be found in the situation as it has been outlined here. The piano manufac-
turer and dealer have in too many cases been outsold by lines of merchandise which compete for the country's
surplus income. Too much attention has been given to convincing the average person that he or she should
own a certain make of piano or player-piano, as the case may be, instead of selling them the idea that they
should have such an instrument.