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SEPTEMBER 13,
1924
15
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
What Is the Manufacturer's Interest?
Walter C. Hepperla, President of the Premier Grand Piano Corp., New York, Answers This Question With
the Statement That the Interest of That Concern Really Begins When the Premier
Grand Is First Placed on the Floors of the Dealer's Warerooms
HAT is the responsibility of the piano
manufacturer to the dealers who dis-
tribute the products of his factory to
their ultimate buyers? This is a question which,
in view of the growing co-operation between
these two factors in distribution, is assuming
increasing importance, and views from men
prominent in the trade are interesting and
should be of value to everyone concerned.
"The real interest of the Premier Grand Piano
Corp," said Walter C. Hepperla, president of
that concern, which is one of the leading mak-
ers of small grands in the country, in a recent
interview with The Review, "is when the instru-
ment itself first makes its appearance upon the
floors of the Premier dealer's warerooms. I
myself, as head of the Premier concern, have
more than five hundred bosses, dealers and
salesmen who sell this product at retail and
who place it in the homes of the American
piano-buying public. It is our aim, and one
which we have carried out, as, I think, the his-
tory of the Premier Corp. will show, to be of
vital assistance to each one of these men in
moving these instruments and it is our duty,
a duty that is thoroughly understood when a
dealer buys a piano from us, to place at his
service all information we have that will aid
him to increase his volume of business. For,
in doing that, we achieve our own advantage,
that of keeping our production facilities going
at full speed and giving us what is an essential
in our manufacturing problem—a volume of
sales—so that we may give to the dealers the
benefits which come from quantity production.
"I do not mean by this that a blanket selling
service suffices. Dealers' problems vary accord-
ing to the individual community in which they
are doing business, and it is essential that the
manufacturer, in endeavoring to aid them in
this direction, should take these factors into
consideration. Our aim is to give our distribu-
tors an individualized service, one that takes
into consideration the various elements in their
territory and one that is designed to meet these
requirements. To this end we have gathered
information which permits us to analyze each
Premier dealer's territory to such an extent that
we are in a position to tell or to approximate
very closely the volume of Premier grand sales
he can make. We have carried this analysis so
far that we are even able to tell in what section
of a community the greatest possible number of
these sales can be made, with the result that we
are able to inject into the service which we fur-
nish him an intelligent knowledge of local con-
ditions which removes it from the ordinary run
of dealers' helps. We, of course, believe that
the manufacturers' responsibility is co-opera-
tion in the fullest extent, but, at the same time,
it must be intelligent co-operation, co-operation
based on facts and not fancies, co-operation that
takes its origin in a knowledge of conditions.
W
Examples
Mr. Hepperla then went on to give in some
detail a review of the Premier activities along
these lines. Passing over the extent of national
advertising which the firm is doing at the pres-
ent time with the remark that such an activity
is the beginning of the manufacturers' work
and not the end, he stated that the Premier
Corp. has at its disposal such information that
it is often able to solve dealers' problems not
only as they concern the direct selling of the
Premier grand, but as they concern some of the
wide, broad policies of the retail concern itself.
He gave as an instance a problem which con-
fronted one of the big retail organizations which
had recently moved to new quarters, but which
found difficulty in bringing customers to the
new warerooms. The matter, practically by ac-
cident, was brought to the attention of the
Premier Corp. and the latter was immediately
able to suggest a plan which within two weeks,
and at a comparatively small expense, was able
to overcome this to a considerable degree. At
the same time the Premier Corp. obtained a sell-
ing plan which, during the coming year, will
be placed at the disposal of its dealers through-
out the country and which has been tested as to
its efficiency and sales-building possibilities.
Mr. Hepperla gave another instance of a sell-
ing campaign which had been worked out for
a Premier dealer which disposed of 119 Premier
grands within a short space of thirty days in
one of the large Middle Western cities, where
competition is known to be exceedingly sharp
and where at that time the Premier grand was
an unknown product. This plan was worked
out with a full cognizance of local conditions
and was successful beyond the expectations of
the dealer in question.
"One of the things which we pride ourselves
on," said Mr. Hepperla, "is the fact that all our
dealers' co-operative work has always been con-
structive. We have never, since the beginning
of our business, advertised the Premier outside
its grade. We know we are giving an oppor-
tunity to dealers to offer full value for our
retail price and that our instrument, priced as
it is, has an extremely wide appeal. We know
of no necessity to go beyond that nor have we
ever found since our beginning that such a
necessity exists."
A Big Campaign
One of the big campaigns of the Premier
Grand Piano Corp. during the coming year will
start on September 15. It is based upon a well-
known vaudeville act formerly known as "Jerry
and Her Baby Grands," but now billed as the
"American Premier Piano Quartet." This act,
which consists of a piano quartet that uses four
white Premier baby grands and which will open
on September 15 and appear in twenty of the
larger Eastern cities in big-time vaudeville the-
atres, is being supported by a carefully worked
out window display and other material which
will give the local Premier dealer an opportu-
nity to link up with it and thus gain the pres-
tige and publicity value of its appearance. The
act in the past has been one of the most suc-
cessful playing the larger vaudeville circuits and
under its new billing, which is an effective name,
should be more successful during the tour.
Back of all this are the production facilities
which the Premier Grand Piano Corp. has de-
veloped since it made its first piano a few years
ago. Those who were responsible for its in-
ception knew the field that was before them
when they began production and, therefore, dis-
regarding the usual plan of starting small and
expanding to catch up to demand, they started
with a plant of such proportions that even now,
with the company's nation-wide distribution,
they need not give thought to increased produc-
tion facilities. The details and steps in the evo-
lution of this concern were carefully worked
out in the beginning so that distribution could
be concentrated on once and for all and the
production problem become a really minor inci-
dent.
The Premier physical equipment is one of the
most modern in the industry, comprising a five-
story factory building with 100,000 square feet
of floor space. The plant, some idea of which can
be had from the illustrations on the page facing
this article, which is fully equipped with the
latest modern machinery, is well worth a visit
from those who are interested in the problems
of grand piano manufacturing upon a quantity
basis. The Premier Corp. is always glad to wel-
come visitors, whether or not they are Premier
dealers, and to take them through the various
departments and explain to them the carefully
worked out forwarding processes which make
the Premier grand possible.
Another element in the success of the Pre-
mier institution has been the careful develop-
ment of the wholesale selling force. Two whole-
sale offices are maintained besides the factory
offices in New York, one in Chicago in the
Republic Building and one in Los Angeles at
2517 Eleventh avenue.
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