Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
The Music Trade Review
MARCH 26, 1927
Method and Plan Basis of Success, Says Watkin
(Continued front page 3)
in mind, has changed his advertising policies
to meet these changed conditions, finds his
investment in newspaper space a profitable one;
the piano merchant who advertises with no
direct plan or policy, whose copy is written
haphazardly and without direct application to
the conditions which he confronts, rarely re-
ceives the results his investment should pro-
duce.
The four advertisements of the Will A, Wat-
forty
MIESSNER
pianos*-*
N. E. A.
Exhibits
AUPICO
EtpreJuc-
No. «(.
—lihlblt No. 222.
D o l t fill to Tlllt
melt iplcmdld dlioliri
• 1 r i u l'irk dur!nr
IIK N. E. A. (ODTfO
Opera L«cture«
Grind O K I
L.»
turw will lx «*li™r»«
at our ilort t)T Mr.
Hmrl L»B»«t».
Ur.
on " ! • Trivlltl" oa
MircH 3. • Itfiurrec-
t.on" on tut Mb iod
•'Jr»»ll of lb» M»
do»o« ' os tin 'Ik.
ln-iorlii oo n e b i»r
•t • ». a.
BHBRwHI
PHHBBPX
"-»m the Dallas
Public Schools
There are now in use in the
public schools of Dallas forty
Miessner Pianos, chosen by peo-
ple fully capable of judging th,;
value of a piano.
Nothing we can say can more
fully stress tbc superior quali-
ties of the popular little Miess-
nor thau tins wonderful recog-
nition.
The House of Watkin feels
It keeps the name of the dealer constantly
before the public. It adds regularly to the
prestige of the firm. It pays to advertise the
firm and the lines of pianos it handles regu-
larly.
"We do not presume to tell successful music
merchants how to advertise. But there are
certain things that strike us which are practical
to suggest. The dealer must have a method
and a plan. Each year should be planned, each
month and each week. Our methods are not
radical, but we believe they are based on
sound merchandising ideas. Certainly steady
advertising and pushing is better than a certain
type of 'sporadic' advertising. We believe that
the advertisements should be written along a
certain standard style. Every one should carry
an illustration. Each one should be signed
with a standard signature cut. The sole sug-
gestion of the advertisement should be to sell
merchandise, and it must, therefore, contain
simple and definite statements. There must
be inducements to buy along the line of quality,
price and terms.
"We use a great many of the advertising
mats that are sent to us by the houses we
represent, as they are usually gotten up by
men who know their business. In our opinion
piano merchandising of the future is going to
eliminate much of the haphazard guesswork
of the past. Waste effort in advertising must
give way to definite plans. We do not claim
to know a great deal about it, even though we
have been at it for a number of years. But
we believe in having a plan, putting it into
operation and sticking to it to get results."
The company does not depend alone upon
newspaper advertising for sales results, but
takes advantage of many other avenues of
publicity for the purpose of developing and
maintaining contact with prospective musical
instrument buyers. In fact, it is frankly stated
that the results of newspaper advertising is
secondary to the results from attractive window
displays, to the arrangement of which proper
thought is given. Hardly an issue of a Dallas
newspaper appears, however, without some ef-
fective piece of copy bearing the signature ot
the Will A. Watkin Co., and some sales argu-
ment that is designed to have some particular
appeal.
The Watkin Co. does not stick to any set
type of copy. Some of it is of the institutional
size, emphasizing the company's forty-five years
of activity in the local retail music field. Other
advertisements call attention to the value of
music as a means of entertainment in the home.
Then again there will be a little sermon on
piano quality and the points that must be
considered in selecting the instrument that is
to be a feature of the home for many years,
and the importance of the musical education of
the child is also given proper consideration in
the printed word. In short, the idea back
of all this steady advertising is to impress upon
the buying public of Dallas and vicinity the
connection between the Will A. Watkin Co.
and music, in all its various forms, and in that
idea the advertising appears to be highly sue
cessful.
justly jiroud.
You may have a Miesincr
in your school or your home
—old pianos will be taken in
liberal valuation and the bal-
ance arranged to suit.
WII1A-WATKINCO
1107
ELM STREfcT
"Dallas' Foremost Music House"
Free Rolls Meant Free
H. J. Brand Sales Manager
Rolls to This Lady
for Mel-O-Art Roll Go.
Miessner Piano Co. Gets a Request for Free
Rolls Without the Player-Piano From Am-
bitious Young Lady of Freedom, Wyo.
Well-known Music Roll Man Takes Important
Post With Baltimore Concern—Made Excel-
lent Record for Vocalstyle Co. in the East
MILWAUKEE, WIS., March 19.—The Miessner
Piano Co. recently carried an advertisement in
a number of school papers offering a free
collection of music rolls with Miessner player-
pianos. Shortly thereafter the company re-
ceived the following letter from Miss Ella
Luthe, of Freedom, Wyo., who evidently took
the word "free" in its broadest sense and with-
out any attachments. The lady wrote:
"Dear Gents : Please send me, free of charge,
fifty rolls only. Don't want these unless I can
have them free, as it says. I do not want a
ten-day trial, because we already have one. If
you don't send these write and tell me right
quick."
The Miessner Piano Co. referred this red-
hot prospect to the Glen Bros.-Roberts Piano
Co., Ogden, Utah, who represent the Miessner
in that territory. The sale has not been re-
ported as yet.
H. J. Brand, formerly Eastern district man-
ager for the Vocalstyle Music Co., of Cin-
cinnati, has recently been appointed sales man-
kin Co., Dallas, Tex., which are reproduced
with this article, show essentially the modern
type of retail piano advertising, which meets
conditions and! which represent profitable ex-
penditure, as profitable expenditure is defined
in regard to retail advertising. The policy
that has created them is well explained by
Robert N. Watkin, secretary of the company,
in the following interview with The Review:
"We find in our experience for the past ten
or fifteen years that the advertising of musical
instruments has remained somewhat the same
and we believe that pretty much the same
things are said from time to time about pianos
in the various advertisements as published by
members of the retail music trade.
"But lately it has become evident that it
is necessary for the trade to wake up and
merchandise its instruments along more modern
Take Part in Style Show
lines, as other industries are doing; and while
CANTON, O., March 22.—Six retail music con-
we are not prepared in any sense to act as
experts in this line, we are glad to pioneer cerns of Canton co-operated with some fifty
with the rest of the trade in working out some. ether merchants in the staging of the annual
new ideas that may be expected to increase Spring Style Exposition the last half of last
the retail turnover of pianos and allied lines. week. The exposition opened Wednesday night
"Store selling of pianos is not what it used and continued through until Saturday.
The Alford & Fryar Piano Co., D. W. Lerch
to be. Piano prospects do not come in answer
to newspaper advertising as generally as they Co., George C. Wille Co. and the Klein Heffel-
once did, with the consequence that the dealer man Zollars Co. were among the concerns par-
ticipating.
must find stronger appeals in his publicity.
"Selling in the home is becoming increasing-
ly more important. Pianos, and particularly
Cameron Go. Reopened
grands, in various designs that harmonize with
Spanish, French, English and other period
The Cameron Piano Co., Allentown, Pa.,
designed homes, are creating a new market.
which was completely wiped out by fire in its
"Yet we find newspaper advertising, next building at 928 Hamilton street, has reopened
to window display advertising, one of the best the business at the same location after enlarg-
means of getting in touch with the prospects. ing and renovating the store.
I |
Herbert J. Brand
1 j
ager for the Mel-O-Art Word Roll Mfg. Co.,
Inc., of Baltimore, one of the more recent en-
trants into the field of player roll manufac-
ture. Mr. Brand is at present calling on music
dealers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl-
vania and New England, renewing old ac-
quaintances and making connections for the
new line of music rolls under a special proposi-
tion. While in the East for Vocalstyle, he made
an excellent sales record and built up a sub-
stantial volume of business.
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
The Review. In it advertisements are inserted
free of charge for men who desire positions.