Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
REVIEW
THE
VOL. LXXXIII. No. 4
Published Every Satarday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 383 Madison Aye., New York, N. Y., July 24, 1926
Sln<
feoo 0 £ e e r "ea? entg
What the Better Business Bureaus Do
for Retail Music Dealers
An Address by Shirley Walker, of Sherman, Clay & Co. and President of the Music Trades Association of
Northern California, on the Way in Which the Better Business Bureau Can Aid the Retail
Merchant in Meeting Competition From Misrepresentative and Unethical Advertising
N the past three days of the Pacific Coast
Advertising Clubs' Convention, I have been
deeply impressed with two things: First
that we acknowledge there is a great waste in
advertising; and second that the Better Busi-
ness Bureaus of the country are doing so much
to prevent and reduce this waste in advertising.
We have been told of the millions of dollars
which have been saved to the American pub-
lic by the Better Business Bureaus with their
"Investigate Before You Invest" work. .
It is a big thing to save millions to the
American public, but it is just as big to save
millions to the American merchant. And how
are the Better Business Bureaus saving the re-
tail merchant in this respect? Advertising has
grown to be a giant force in business. Rightly
directed, it is a power for good. Misdirected,
it is a terrific economic waste. Prostituted,
is is the destroyer of that which it is intended
to create—'business.
Advertising is being used by the good and
the bad. Advertising is being put to evil uses
by some and by these evil uses weakened. It
is not being believed. It is not being taken at
its face value. It is actually under suspicion.
A certain portion of the advertising dollar
spent by the merchant is wasted. Advertising is
running amuck and somebody must step in and
police advertising to protect the buying public
and the decent merchant. And it is the Better
Business Bureaus of this country who have un-
dertaken the job. We cannot leave the policing
of advertising to the peace officers or to the
law courts. What merchant wants to arrest a
competitor under our advertising law? What
merchant wants to get out an injunction and
get into a long legal battle? What merchant
wants to fight an advertising evil alone and at
great expense to himself?
Better Business Bureaus have been organ-
ized by the advertising clubs of the larger cities
to provide protection to the decent merchant
and to the public by several distinct services.
First—the investigation of flagrantly un-
truthful statements in advertising resulting in a
published retraction and an understanding that
the offense is not to be repeated.
Second—The investigation of a questionable
presentation of facts—a method used by adver-
tisers in the heat of competition. The presenta-
I
tions are not absolutely untruthful but the
statements are so worded that the buying pub-
lic takes them to mean more than the adver-
tiser intended. By admonishment, these cases
result in such advertisers hewing closer to the
truth in their future advertising.
Third—The checking up of errors, of im-
proper comparisons and of the unwarranted use
of trade names belonging to the other fellow.
r
HE address printed on this page was
given before the annual meeting of the
Pacific Coast Advertising Clubs and is a
clear exnosition of what can be accom-
plished through better business bureaus in
eliminating the misrepresentative and un-
ethical advertiser. In view of the experi-
ence which the retail music trade has had
with these organizations, an authoritative
statement such as this from a prominent
trade figure has a great deal of interest.—
EDITOR.
These cases lessen errors, abolish unfair com-
parisons and bar the use of trade names to
those not entitled to use them. These cases are
generally disputes between merchants with
points finely drawn—their settlement is painless,
amicable and inexpensive to the merchant.
I will say here that the most efficient manner
to handle the three services outlined is through
the so-called shopping service. Briefly, this is
a system by which all advertising, particularly in
the newspapers, is scanned daily by bureau
experts. They
"look" for wrong adver-
tising practices. Experienced shoppers "shop"
the advertisements and reports are sub-
mitted within twenty-four hours to the offend-
ing merchants—not to the man or woman
in charge of the advertising, but to the store
owner himself. If he is a good merchant, these
bad practices will be stopped—he will direct his
advertising department to stick to the straight
and narrow path. Should the shoppers find that
the questioned statements are true—a report to
that effect is also made to the store owner
who naturally will pass them on to his adver-
tising departments for their perusal. This daily
check on advertising stops trouble before it gets
to a difficult stage. The very fact that the
merchant knows his advertising is being
scrutinized makes him more careful in his
"copy." That advertiser is "shopped" less and
less—his advertising is approaching the 100 per
cent of believability.
When no shopping service is employed,
errors, unethical practices and flagrant mis-
representations in advertising are handled only
on complaint. Sometimes the complaint is
registered by another merchant and sometimes
by a customer. Considerable time has elapsed
between the time the complaint was filed and
the time when the merchant began to "slip" in
his advertising. The practice has become a
habit—because the advertiser got away with
his misuse of advertising for months without
being checked up, he begins to feel that he has
a right to get away with it. This method takes
longer to get the offending advertiser back to
normal—but the bureau puts him back in the
"straight and narrow" and watches lest he slip
off.
There is a fourth service—that is the media
service—designed to keep the hand of the ad-
vertising grafter out of the merchant's pocket.
There are—or, rather, were—scores of adver-
tising propositions put up to the merchant by
slick solicitors which offered no benefit except
to the solicitor and his principals. The smaller
merchants, who had no advertising departments,
were particularly the prey of, special editions,
special event programs, "mug" books, etc.—
media with little or no circulation—with none
or very little advertising value. The appeal was
based on vanity or fear—the merchant felt he
did not or could not know. The Better Busi-
ness Bureau has driven out these charlatans to
a great degree—the merchants have learned
that they have only to call the Better Business
Bureau which already has information on file,
or will secure information as to what the
proposition is and who is back of it. Thousands
of dollars have been saved to the merchants
in communities operated by Better Business
Bureaus from this service alone.
Then there is a fifth service, that of curbing
(Continued on page 4)