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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
SEPTEMBER 6, 1924
5
Basis of Good "Dealers- Helps"
Fundamental Co-operation by the Player-Piano or Reproducing Piano Manufacturer With the Retail Dis-
tributor of His Products Should Blaze the Trail for New and Interesting Ways of Selling
These Instruments to the Ultimate Buyers—Direct Floor Co-operation
OTHING is commoner than the so-called
"dealer helps" which manufacturers,
with pathetic faith in the persuasibility
of mankind, have so often prepared for the use
of those who sell their goods at retail. If one
were to penetrate within the most secret
thoughts of every wholesale sales manager who
has never used these fascinating but uncertain
weapons, one would be likely to find concealed
there some very frank beliefs about the mental
capacity and the enthusiasm of retail merchants
and their salesmen, coupled with the opinion
that a great deal of what is euphemistically
called "dealer co-operation" is nonsense. A
little analysis of the facts may, therefore, be
useful, especially when the inquiry is directed
towards the player branch of our industry,
which is by all odds the most interesting, if
only because it is the most complicated, with
which we have to deal.
Manufacturer Must Co-operate
Of course, all plans for promoting closer con-
tact for mutual advantage between manufac-
turer and retail dealer in any line are admirable
in their intention. No one any longer supposes
that the duty of a manufacturer is ended when
his traveling man has persuaded some dealer to
take on the line. There may be, and doubtless
are indeed, some lines of business which do not
demand any intervention by the manufacturer
after he has turned over his goods to the dealer.
For instance, in the dry goods and clothing in-
dustries the retail dealer often entirely deter-
mines the methods of distribution to the public
and the manufacturer does not even advertise
his own goods. The exceptions to this state-
ment are well known, of course, but it is equally
well known that the number of makes of cloth-
ing or dry goods which are nationally adver-
tised is very small.
On the other hand, in the music industries,
and especially in their pneumatic departments,
it is evident that the responsibility of the manu-
facturer can by no means be said to be at an
end when he has placed his line with any num-
ber of dealers. What more than anything else
distinguishes the music industries from all other
lines of manufacture is the fact that the people
who ultimately consume these goods have to
be educated almost, as it were, every time
afresh at each and every sale. Although the
piano, for example, is very well known, at least
as an article of possession, its tonal and artistic
qualities generally are but poorly understood
even in these latter days, as every salesman
who sells fine pianos well knows. As for the
player-piano, public ignorance is still very dense
and every sale has to partake of the appearance
and, in fact, the substance of an educational
course, at least if later complaints are to be
avoided. The reproducing piano is still a mys-
tery to the generality of people and education
in respect to it is being carried on by manufac-
turers through national advertising at a very
heavy cost.
National advertising, however, cannot be re-
garded as discharging the manufacturer's obli-
gations entirely. At .the most, national adver-
tising can awaken the reader's interest, but that
interest can be stimulated into the action of a
visit to a store only if and when something is
done on the spot by the local dealer to com-
plete the circuit, as it were, and cause the ex-
plosion. To put it in another way, the gasoline
N
Highest
Quality
may be of the best quality and the engine in
first-class condition; but no motion will occur
unless the carburetor has vaporized that gaso-
line and the electric system has fired it in its
compressed state at the right moment.
The dealer's responsbility is in this respect
critical. It is always finally up to him and his
salesmen. Naturally, then, the manufacturer, if
he realizes as clearly as he ought to, that na-
tional advertising or other indirect methods
cannot assure results of themselves, will put a
goodly part of the endeavors of his promotion
department upon the task of helping the dealer
do that work of personal contact and education
which is the most important part of the sales-
manship in the player business.
The ordinary old-fashioned dealer helps, so-
called, are in this respect of no more than indi-
rect value. They do not produce direct results
because they are not suited to any such pur-
pose. Nevertheless, there are old-established
piano and player manufacturing houses which
for years have gone on giving out catalogs, ad-
vertising novelties and similar knick-knacks to
their dealers and who say that whenever they
have ventured to suspend this practice their
dealers have at once protested. Still, no one
would be very likely to call this real co-opera-
tive work. It is useful in its way, but it does
not contribute directly to efficiency in salesman-
ship on the floor.
Direct Floor Co-operation Called for
Manufacturer's co-operation with the dealer
must be more direct and effective than this, if
it is to be worth the expense and labor it en-
tails. Probably there is nothing more needed
at present in the player business than new and
interesting ways of selling to the ultimate con-
sumer from the store floor. Manufacturers are
finding that if there is one thing which endears
them to dealers it is that sort of co-operation
which comprises the actual demonstration, in
the dealer's own community, of the manufac-
turer's ability to sell his own stuff at retail
through his own men. When a traveler or
special representative can go into a dealer's
store and say, in effect, "We have sold you our
line and now we are going to show you, with
your permission, that this line has superior re-
tail salability and can be sold on your floor bet-
ter than can other lines because of its actual
technical merit," then the manufacturer whom
that traveler represents is giving the sort of
dealer co-operation which builds up a business
permanently. The player business does actually
need just this sort of co-operation more than
it needs co-operation of any other kind whatso-
ever; that is to say, among the generality of the
dealers throughout the country.
giving an immense amount of time and labor at
great expenditure of money to bringing to retail
dealers immediate and direct selling helps, in-
tended to show just how the goo'ds can most
easily and largely be sold, in any given com-
munity. It was the positive necessity of the
case which first impelled manufacturers to take
up this work, but in so doing they were only
repeating what had to be done a quarter of
a century previously when the first cabinet
players came into the field. At that time it was
absolutely necessary to organize the selling for
the dealers from the ground up, and in actual
fact the difference is trifling between the state
of affairs of those days and the present condi-
tions. The fact that the player-piano is now
an old story makes no difference at all to the
facts. There is just as much need to-day as
ever there was to put the selling of the player
upon a scientific basis, and this means that the
manufacturer must do the work for the dealer,
showing him how to sell, and selling for him
until he does know how.
All intensive, high-grade campaigns on high-
grade, specialized player-pianos and reproducing
pianos have to be handled by direct work with
the dealers on their own floors; and the whole
problem of so-called dealer co-operation really
centers in this statement.
Of course, there are great retail houses which
know more about the retail selling game than
does any manufacturer. Such houses, however,
are few and far between. The generality of
dealers need and welcome all direct demonstra-
tions of the kind, nor is it worth arguing
whether even the biggest dealer in the country
would refuse such a demonstration if it were
offered. It is not usual to refuse a request to
sell one's goods and put money into one's
pocket.
History Repeats Itself
It is, of course, a well-known fact that the
most active and successful manufacturers, espe-
cially in the new reproducing piano line, are
SALEM, O., August 30.—R. B. Finley has just
purchased the R. O. Perkins Music Store on
Main street, which he will move to the Moff
Building on Broadway about September 1. Mr.
Finley was formerly connected with the Salem
Hardware Co. and has resigned his position to
take over the music concern.
To Remodel Building
DALLAS, TEX., August 30.—A contract has just
been let by the Brooks Mays Piano Co., 1005
Elm street, for the remodeling of the three-
story brick building at 1002 Pacific avenue. The
piano store has arranged also for the erection
of an additional story here and will have the
quarters fitted up in a high-class manner. No
announcement has yet been made as to the
disposition of the building, but it is believed
that the Brooks Mays Piano Co. will occupy
part of the quarters at some later date.
Charles L. Day Resigns
GALESBURO, 111., August 30.—Charles L. Day has
recently resigned as manager of the Music Shop
here, which is operated by Kellogg, Drake &
Co. This department was opened as the New
Edison Parlors about four years ago and has
developed into one of the best-equipped music
stores in the city. Mr. Day is leaving for
Florida in September, where he will enter the
real estate business.
Buys Perkins Music Store
Texas Go. New Warerooms
BRECKENRIDGE, TEX., August 30.—New quarters,
at 221 West Walker street, have just been taken
by the Texas Music Co., of this city. A large
stock of pianos, phonographs and musical acces-
sories has been received.
Highest
Quality