Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
OCTOBER 18, 1924
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
9
Window Displays as Sales Creators
H. B. Bruck of the H. B. Bruck & Sons Co., A. B. Chase Representative in Cleveland, Ohio, Gives
Examples of How Properly Dressed Windows Are the Direct Stimulators of Piano Sales—Five
Sales in Three Hours, Two for Cash, an Example of Direct Results
W
HATEVER may be the conditions in
the piano industry in other parts of the
country, it is evident that the situation
in the immediate Cleveland district is decidedly
spotty. This condition appears to be proved in
a careful survey made along Piano Row in
Cleveland. This inquiry tends to show that
while business is showing the usual Fall form
that is expected of it at this time of year, it
is not uniformly so with all merchants.
Some are not averse to stating that reposses-
sions are more prevalent to-day than they have
been for a long time, and that keeping the piano
sold, and getting the money, and getting it
regularly as per contract, is a Herculanian task.
Some merchants blame this condition on elec-
tion. Some assert that Cleveland land values
and real estate are so inflated that high rents,
for merchant and consumer alike, take up en-
tirely too much of profits and income, leaving
too little for the things that make for the en-
joyment of life. All of which may be true.
Be that as it may, at least one merchant has
come forward who denounces these and similar
traditional excuses for supposedly bad business,
that same being H. B. Bruck of the H. B.
Bruck & Sons Co., A. B. Chase and allied lines
representative in town.
It is the contention of the intrepid Mr. Bruck
that if there is anything wrong it must be the
fault of the individual merchant, and he goes
further by asserting that he can prove it. The
Bruck proof apparently lies in the fact that the
average merchant does not use what he has to
the best advantage to attract prospects to his
store, nor does he use the best methods in sell-
ing pianos after he does get prospects into his
place. To be more specific, it is Mr. Bruck's
belief that much of the piano merchandising
window space is wasted, and that much, if not
most, energy is wasted by the merchant in sell-
ing cheap new pianos at low prices instead of
high grade instruments at fair values.
Recent experience of the Bruck establishment
would tend to prove that this view is well
founded. For instance, while not a few piano
dealers about town are decrying their lot, claim-
ing that business is going fine "past the door,"
and what is stopped is hard to keep anyway,
the Brucks go right on selling pianos, high
grade ones, bringing them good profits, every
day.
An Example in Point
In fact, in the period of three hours on a
Saturday afternoon recently they sold five
pianos, all out of their leading lines, at an aver-
age of $900 each, two of which were for cash,
and the remaining three to be paid within a year.
How did they do it?
'•There is nothing remarkable about this piece
of business," asserts Mr. Bruck. "Of course it
is unusual to sell five pianos in a row at favor-
able terms, especially when buying of pianos
seems so uncertain, but it seems to me that
everybody could do quite as well if they would
adopt the right principles.
"In the first place the average piano mer-
chant does not use the best methods to attract
attention to his store and his lines. In this
connection the windows are neglected more
than any other one item. This was one of the
first things we learned when we moved our
business from uptown to the Play House Square
section of town. We soon found out after we
opened our new store that people would never
know we were doing business here unless we
let them know about it. So we have always
made a point of putting our leading pianos in
the windows, or putting in unusual instruments
that would attract attention, and we have
always made a point too of having unusual
lighting effects, so that our window would
stand out from across the Square and make
people come over to see what we were showing.
"During the recent state convention we went
a little further, had a regular stage drop made,
showing the A. B. Chase factory, and used this
as a background to display all kinds of parts
of pianos and processes of manufacture of the
instruments, from the first piece of work up to
the finished piano, ready for shipment in its box.
Giving Details to the Public
"Now every piano merchant knows some-
thing about the manufacture of pianos, at least
he knows that it takes a tremendous amount
of thought, ingenuity, time, labor and money to
make and assemble the thousands of parts into
a finished instrument. And he is so used to
knowing this that he forgets that everybody
else outside of the piano business knows nothing
about it. This was the story we aimed to tell by
having all these parts in our window. We ex-
pected people to wonder that no matter how
expensive a piano might be, how really low
priced it is after all.
"And that is exactly what happened. We
made a point of coming downtown at night just
to hear the comments of the people as they
stood in front of this window, and while a great
deal was said about it, this was the outstanding
remark—how cheaply a piano is sold after all,
no matter how high the price may be.
"If you don't think the proper use of the
window is attractive to business, let me cite this
one instance:
"We intended to run this window only during
the week of the convention, but found it such
a drawing card that we decided to let it stand
for several weeks. Incidently the United Piano
Corporation thought so well of it that it in-
tended to take the window intact and place it
with other dealers handling A. B. Chase and
allied lines.
"Anyhow, just about the time we intended
to dismantle the window, we noticed a man
standing in front of the window. He showed
the most unusual interest in the parts of pianos
we were displaying. For twenty minutes he
stood there and finally plucked up courage and
came in.
"I forgot to mention that the only piece of
advertising we had in the window, to indicate
what we were selling, was a small card, enumer-
ating a few used pianos, with their prices.
"Our visitor indicated that he was interested
in a piano for his little girl, and thought he
would like to look at a piano we were offering
for $100. We showed it to him. He did not
like it. We talked. He became more interested.
To cut it short, I might as well tell you that he
finished by buying a $1,400 A. B. Chase grand.
We learned he is district manager for one of
the nationally known business institutions, so
you will see that he is somebody in the busi-
ness world, and knows values. That was why
the cheap, used piano did not appeal to him, and
why the higher grade instrument was the one
he bought.
"This instance proves my contention that
there is no business in featuring and selling the
cheap, new piano at a low price, which also
makes me believe that some merchants mean
what they say when they claim they are not
making any money. It isn't because they don't
take in enough on such merchandise to make a
profit as it is because they educate their trade
to want cheap pianos and nothing else, so that
they cut themselves off from getting good, high
grade trade that is willing to pay a fair price
in return for a quality product.
"Only once did we ever try that idea, and
that was once too often. Ever since, the only
method we have used where price was the fea-
ture, has been on used pianos. You may be
sure these pianos are so priced that we are
not losing on them, but our profits would be
mighty small at the end of the month if we
depended entirely upon such business.
"Instead we try to point out that while the
purchaser may be getting his or her money's
worth in buying a used piano, they must also
remember that a piano is something that is
not bought every day. In fact there are some
people, many of them, I believe, who buy only
the one piano in their lifetime. In fact most
purchasers do not think they ever will want a
second piano when they are out to buy.
"These principles figured in all five deals that
we closed in one afternoon. The window at-
tracted them, the low prices on used pianos
brought them in, and quality merchandise at
fair prices helped to sell them new, high grade
instruments.
"Can you blame us if we think business is
not so bad?"
New Dealer in Trenton
TRENTON, N. J., October 13.—A new piano store
has just been opened at 1106 Chestnut avenue
by Miss Melanie Badstuebner, formerly manager
of the local store of the Griffith Piano Co.
LAUTER-
HUMANA
PLAYER PIANO
Quality-
A
Lauter
Tradition
Since
1862
LAUTER GO. 1
NEWARK, N. J.
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