Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
APRIL 26,
THE
1924
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
What Is the Merchandising Problem?
A Detailed Consideration of the Conditions Which Confront the Retail Music Merchant at the Present Time
in Regard to Selling the Player-Piano at Retail—A New Summing Up of the Instrument
and Those Who Buy It Is Vitally Necessary at the Present Time
I
F one were to ask any given one hundred
men of the music industries the question:
"What is the most important problem your
business holds to-day?" the chances are very
strong that the answer from the vast majority
would be something like this:
"Our biggest problem is the problem of pres-
entation, that is to say, the problem of putting
our pianos and player-pianos before our public
in a manner calculated to produce, and capable
of producing, a volume of sales proportionate
to the merit of the goods themselves."
It may be said, not without justice, that there
is nothing specially new or interesting in this,
since the problem here stated is as old as mer-
chandising, and is, in fact, the problem of every
merchant, just as it has always been. It may
be objected that every merchant knows and
always has known that his great problem is how
to obtain the largest possible volume of sales.
It may even further be said that no piece of
goods ever sells itself, that even in staple
groceries there is competition as between this
and that make, and that the public never, in
fact, buys anything of itself, without persuasion,
without salesmanship in some shape or degree.
New Thought Demanded
All the objections are true so far as they go,
but they do not alter the essential fact, which
is that the music industries in general, and the
player-piano industry in particular, feel them-
selves needing a new line of thought and action
on the subject of merchandising, a breath of
fresh ideas, a sort of rebirth of interest and
enthusiasm. They all feel that this is so, and
that, in fact, the conditions which dictate mer-
chandising policies have changed during the last
two years, owing to the intrusion of new and
powerful competition. They feel, moreover,
that the various methods which they have used
and the developments which in general have
come about during the last decade, are not in
themselves producing the desired sales volume.
There is therefore a very general feeling that
a new line of thought is very much needed.
Let us look for this new line of thought.
Peradventure by seeking we shall find it. In
fact, we shall certainly find it if only we look
for it in the right place, especially if that place
be sought with an open mind, without prejudice
and with a determination to accept the logical
consequences of the search, whatever they may
be.
The Wild Goose Chase
We can put the whole matter in a nutshell by
saying that for some fifteen years the trade
has been looking for a player-piano that will
sell itself. During these fifteen years the re-
tailers in particular have pestered the manufac-
turers to give them, first, something cheap, then
something that a child could play, then some-
thing that played itself by the turning of a
switch. W'hen it was discovered, as was in-
evitable, that the only kind of wholly automatic
piano must be an artistic and relatively high-
priced product, appealing only to high-class
musical taste, the trade asked for something
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just as good," that is to say, in fact, for an
imitation of the real thing. Now, no one wants
to build cheap imitations, at least the vastly
greater number of manufacturers do not want
to. Wherefore the retailers cry: "Well, then,
how can you expect us to sell player-pianos?"
How can we expect the retailer to sell player-
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pianos? We can answer that question very
easily. What sold the first players? However
did the first crude, clumsy and inefficient cabinet
players get themselves into the homes of music
lovers everywhere?
Why, simply on their
merits! They did something which was needed,
something which the musical desires of the
music-loving but untrained public wanted. They
gave the unskilled music lover the power to pro-
duce music personally, and because they did
this they were able to make their way and
establish the idea of the player-piano in the
minds of the public, despite their obvious
mechanical and musical deficiencies.
Yes, these early creations forced a way for
themselves because of what they did. They
showed beyond the shadow of a doubt that
there does exist in all normal men, women and
children a love for the personal production of
music. It was on this showing that they won
out. And the principle thus involved has never
been invalidated by anything that has taken
place since. It is a permanent and positive prin-
ciple, upon which alone can any successful plan
for general player-piano merchandising be built.
Nothing in this statement has anything to do
with the high-class, artistic and altogether won-
derful development of the reproducing piano.
These latter instruments appeal to the taste
of music lovers in another way. They preserve
the interpretations of artists, for those who can
appreciate them. But their rightful position is
alongside the personal player-piano, not in op-
position to it.
The Big Problem
On the other hand, the ordinary player-piano
remains the instrument of the masses and the
big merchandising problem is concerned primar-
ily and mainly with it. It is a situation parallel
to that which obtains in the automobile busi-
ness as between six-cylinder and four-cylinder
engines. The sixes are the aristocrats, but the
fours remain at the head of the procession for
sales and general popularity. Why, then, dis-
cuss heatedly the relative merits of either? We
are dealing with facts and not with fancies.
Now, the experience of the trade up till fifteen
years ago, that is to say, during the first five
or six years of player merchandising, was of
such a nature as to demonstrate the great prin-
ciple that all selling is a matter of demonstra-
tion in this particular case; and not only this, but
a matter of the sort of demonstration which aims
to show the prospective buyer that he or she
can easily learn to manipulate the instrument.
It is this teaching the prospect to look at the
game of playing, as the novice in motor-cars
is taught to look at the game of driving, which
forms the foundation of any successful play-er
merchandising system.
From the very facts of the case, the truth
of this statement can be seen at once. Unfor-
tunately, however, even fifteen years ago the
simple truth began to be obscured. Dealers
found that in order to sell on these principles
they themselves or their salesmen must first
learn to play the player-piano at least satis-
factorily. Moreover, they found that to play
the player-piano in such a manner as to inspire
a prospective purchaser with the desire to get
on to the bench and try the stunt for himself
meant much more than mere showing off of
personal skill. It meant studying the whole
proposition carefully and thus learning how to
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put the strong points before the prospect, how
to get the prospect actually trying to play and,
lastly, how to show that playing is not hard
work but fun. And just here the retail trade
fell down.
In a word, it meant hard work and brains.
Hard work and brains are always unpopular, or
rather hard work is at a discount and brains
are at a premium. So the trade refused to study
the player-piano, saying that it was too much
trouble and that people did not want to learn;
which was and is a patent falsehood. And,
then, we had the lies about "this player-piano
needs no study," and when this exposed itself,
a helpless relapse to artificial methods of stim-
ulating sales, first by giving ridiculous terms
and then by trying to turn the whole thing into
a lottery game; as if player-pianos w T ere wanted
for any other purpose than to permit their own-
ers to express themselves in music. And,
lastly, we had the trade clamoring for an auto-
matic self-selling player-piano which should call
for no skill on the part of anyone, salesman,
owner or anyone else.
Back to First Principles
Well, that is where we have landed and now
the cry is: "Give us some scheme to help us
sell." And the reply is: "Go back to first
principles."
In a word, the merchandising principle is the
principle of teaching the prospect to play. And
the merchandising problem is the problem of
inducing the trade once more wholeheartedly to
accept this principle and organize itself to put
it into practice.
So we are back at first principles. The re-
tailers must make up their minds to get down
to brass tacks, and to teach the people how to
play. There, simply and flatly, is the truth. It
means, of course, developing salesmanship in
the retail trade, and this is a matter which de-
serves an article to itself. But the principle
is as simple as it is true, while the problem is
up to the intelligence and the ability of the
individual retail dealer.
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