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JULY 25, 1925
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
The Wrong Basis on Which to Build
Player-Piano Merchandising
Apparent Assumption of Many Retail Music Merchants That the Player Is a Staple Article of Merchan-
dise for Which Price and Terms Alone Create the Desire to Buy Is Destroying the True Value
of the Instrument in the Eyes of the Public and Makes Reform Radically Necessary
GREAT deal is being said among mer-
chants during- these Summer days about
a supposed decline in public liking for
the player-piano. To hear some persons talk
it might be imagined that the player-piano had
seen its best days and that, indeed, the masses
had given it indefinite leave of absence. If it
were not Summer time and if, in fact, we were
not in the middle of what is justly called the
"silly season," one might sometimes take this
sort of talk seriously.
As a matter of fact it is not to be taken seri-
ously and those who indulge in it do not really
believe in what they say so freely. Neverthe-
less, the fact that such things are said at all,
discovers a state of affairs not altogether happy.
The old saying about smoke revealing the pres-
ence of fire is a well-founded one.
Trade paper writers are sometimes censured
for spending their time telling the industry what
is wrong with it, instead of telling it what to
do. Some critics imply by their actions, if not
by their words, considerable doubt as to the
ability of any one to give advice that is worth
anything.
Obviously the best thing to do in a case like
this is to start a discussion, and the best way
to do that is to state the case, together with
such comment on the facts as seems called for.
Then the merchants and the manufacturers can
do their own thinking which is perhaps best
after all.
Case Not Desperate
Now the case is not at all a case of desperate
conditions. Let that be understood. The one
cause of complaint is a certain slowness of
trade and a certain slackness of public interest
in the player-piano. Merchants say that it is
harder to sell a player-piano to-day than it was
a few years ago. They say that the people are
not interested and that one has to work with
them and educate them into the idea of a player-
piano for the home.
What Is Going On
Now, let us look at what is going on in the
trade in the way of sales promotion at the
present time. One opens a newspaper and finds
three or four display advertisements over the
names of piano houses, each relating to a "sale"
of player-pianos at this time being conducted.
In not one of these does one find one single
word of explanation as to why a player-piano
should be bought. The apparent assumption
throughout is that the player-piano is a staple
article of public consumption, as much needed
and as thoroughly appreciated for all its values
as is any well-known an.d generally used piece
of furniture. In fact the underlying assump-
tion in all this advertising seems to be that
there is a general public desire, even a desper-
ate public desire, to own player-pianos, a desire
which is suppressed only in face of the prices
commonly asked, but which will burst all bounds
in its eagerness if only the prices are put down
and the terms of purchase made a little easier.
The description may sound fantastic but
any one who will read piano advertising in the
newspapers of a dozen large cities during these
times will see that there has been no exagger-
ation.
Probably the merchants who thus are trying
to stimulate sales do not realize what it is they
are doing; but if they would only stop to con-
sider, they could hardly fail to see that this kind
of sales promotion is destroying the last ves-
A
tiges of player-piano value, is making the player-
piano worth no more than was the cheap up-
right during those days twenty years ago when
the piano business appeared to be going (not
for the first or last time) straight to the dem-
nition bow-wows. Probably these merchants
do not realize that they are simply making a
bad situation worse, and that even though they
do sell some players on these terms and prin-
ciples, they will simply be compelled to resort
to even more desperate tactics next year and
so on until the whole last chance of profit has
been extracted from each sale before it has been
made.
For when the only appeal is the appeal to
price, that appeal must constantly be re-en-
forced by further price concessions, if it is to
hold its power. That is an elementary fact.
The Department Store Theory
Department store advertising is based upon
this theory of "bargain"; but then the depart-
ment store sells mainly goods which everybody
knows of, which everybody wants, which very
many men and women buy every day, and
which everyone buys sometimes. All women
wear silk stockings; and if a store advertises
a "bargain" in these it is absolutely certain to
sell a certain number of pairs. But that is be-
cause silk stockings are something known, as-
sessed, appreciated and understood by half the
population of the country.
When, however, we start in with these tactics
on player-piano merchandising, how are we to
justify ourselves? The player-piano is not well
known, is not understood, is not justly assessed,
is not appreciated. When it is offered purely
and simply as a "bargain," then the vast ma-
jority of its prospective purchasers will' think
of it, together with its incidental accessories,
such as lamp, scarf, bench etc., as a nice com-
bination furniture outfit for furnishing the living
room; and not as a musical instrument at all.
Naturally then those who buy will not be par-
ticularly desirable. They will not be music-lov-
ers, not persons at all likely to spread the fame
of the player-piano in desirable circles.
All of which is obvious enough. What then is
the true course? What should merchants do?
The answer is not easy or even pleasant. It
is on the other hand very simple. It can be
put in a few words, thus:
Back to First Principles
We must get back to first principles. What
the player-piano needs to-day is co-operative
propaganda, propaganda designed for > the -bene-
fit of all, and not depending on the effort of one
or two manufacturers and ..merchants. The
player-piano needs to be re-sold to the people
of this country. As nearly as possible it has
been destroyed by stupidity, short-sightedness,
and that blind greed which is the bane of busi-
ness. To restore it to its old popularity we
must first re-educate the people to believe in it,
in the music they can get out of it, and in the
desirability of possessing and of intelligently
using it.
It is old stuff, of course. Nothing about it is
startling. Every word has been said before,
by every trade paper, though perhaps by none
so often or so positively as by The Review.
Yet it remains true, and sooner or later it must
be considered on its merits and adopted. Other-
wise a process of decline already in evidence
will undermine the industry's prosperity and
fatallv weaken it.
This paper has proposed recently a co-opera-
tive movement for a nation-wide player-piano
playing contest. Here we should have a power-
ful and effective weapon to our hands. Here
would be a way of making the people educate
themselves in appreciation of the player-piano.
It is not too late yet to give some live thought
to this practical suggestion.
Other Avenues
And there are other, many other, possible and
practical avenues of approach. What alone
needs here to be emphasized is the power of
the principle. This principle may be described
as the principle of selling musical instruments
by selling their musical capacities and specifi-
cally of selling the player-piano by selling the
musical powers it gives to its possessor.
It is simple and it is obvious. How long
must we be compelled to say that it appears
to be too simple and too obvious to be taken
up?
German Retailers Form
New Merchants' Body
New Association to Limit Terms to Fifteen
Months' Maximum With 25 Per Cent Cash
and 12 Per Cent Carrying Charge
Word comes from Germany this Summer (the
informant is A. L. Bretzfelder, treasurer of
Krakauer Bros., New York, who has just re-
turned from that country) that a new body of
piano retailers has been formed there with 3,000
members which promises to do a lot in the way
of reforming retailing selling methods on the
Continent. Mr. Bretzfelder obtained most of
his information about the retail association from
H. Hauffer, of the Hupfeldt pneumatic action
plant in Leipzig.
Mr. Hauffer states that all of the 3,000 mem-
bers of the association have agreed to limit the
period of instalment payments on piano sales
to twelve or at most fifteen months. They have
also agreed to require a minimum down pay-
ment of 25 per cent of the sale, and a carrying
charge equivalent to an interest rate of 12 per
cent over the period of the deferred payments.
This rate has been accepted, as it is the legal rate
imposed by the banks on all commercial paper.
Such stringent resolutions on the part of a
national trade body has had no noticeable effect
on the retail piano market, according to Mr.
• Hauffer, but it is interesting to speculate just
how far the agreement is lived up to by the indi-
vidual merchant in the daily course of his busi-
ness.
W. W. Bowlby Dies
ROCK ISLAND, I I I . , July 20.—William Wallace
Bowlby, for many years prominent in the local
retail music trade in association with his brother
D. R. Bowlby, died here recently at the age
of seventy-two. Mr. Bowlby was born in Ohio,
and has resided in Rock Island since 1880 with
the exception of a brief period in Omaha, Neb.
He was engaged in the music business during
the greater part of his life.
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
The Review. In it advertisements are inserted
free of charge for men who desire positions.