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REVIEW
THE
VOL. LXXXIV. No. 19 Published Every Saturday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 420 Lexington Ave., New York, N.Y., May 7,1927
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AS ent "
New Advertising
of the Piano
How 0 . K. Houck Piano Co., Memphis, Tenn.,
Makes Appeal to the Great Child Market—The
Shortest Way to the Purchase by the Parent
T
HE day of the price-and-term appeal in
piano advertising has passed. There are,
and probably always will be, retailers who
will fail to see the light and who will continue
to sell or try to sell instruments on the dollars-
and-cents basis. But it reflects distinct credit
on the industry that there are so many live
merchants who are cognizant -of the value and
necessity of the new appeal and who stress
music and its value in child training as a direct
means of placing the piano in the home.
There are those retailers who have accepted
the line of least resistance in the cultivation
of this modern advertising copy for the piano,
and, in tying up with the sales-promotion cam-
paign of the National Piano Manufacturers'
Association, have used and are using the copy
prepared and issued by that organization. It
is good copy and unquestionably will have an
effect. There are other dealers, however, who
are and have been using copy of their own
origination, and this copy is particularly inter-
esting because of the distinctive and personal
quality that is so often reflected in it.
The use of standard mats is to be commended,
for it shows the proper spirit and often pro-
vides the small dealer with advertising material
that he would be unable to secure locally at
a cost within his means. But the publication
of advertisements along the same line as the
general publicity has the additional merit of
providing new and frequently better arguments
to be added to the large number that have al-
ready been developed as a means of breaking
down sales resistance on pianos through the
medium of the child.
In a recent advertisement of an unusually fine
series published by the O. K. Houck Piano Co.,
Memphis, Tenn., the text read: "Music is born
in them (children), but parents must bring it
out. When a mother plans correctly for the
future of her children she never overlooks the
importance of their musical education. Every
child should be taught to play the piano, the
basic instrument of all music, and the training
should start early—when minds are plastic and
hearts are responsive. But do not begin their
music lessons on an unworthy piano, for their
training in touch and tone is most important."
Here is a sermon in a
Your Home Should Contain
paragraph t h a t might
a Baby Grand
well be taken to heart
by the music industry
itself as a basis for the
preparation of the sort
of copy that will again
establish the piano in its
rightful place in the
home and family circle.
Select Your Piano
From This List of
It has a logical appeal
Worthy
and places the question
Instruments
squarely u p t o t h e
A N Y great musicians today whose talent first saw the
The Strinway
light in the parlor of the home trare their glorious
mother as to what she is
The Vose
successes back to parents who gave them thf advan-
The Ludwig;
going to do for her chil-
The
Brambach
tages of early musical training
The Krakauer
dren in the matter of
The Stick
While you may not especially want your children to become fa-
Th» Behr Bros
mous musicians, you want them to have the grace and accom-
musical training. Also,
The Weber
The Meissner
plishment and musical culture other children of their age have—
and most important, it
The Houck
you want them to have the opportunity in the future that the girl
The Kerahner
or boy who plays always has.
stresses the value of
The Norwood
starting at the outset
Start early—and by all means train them on a worthy piano,
Prices and Terms
for their first training is most important
to Suit Eoery.
with a good piano. This
Home.
sentence alone is worth
•>
r
elaboration in an adver-
tlsfted with lest.than )our monfty'l
tc* Mllsfartiou. Cone In and tnuk t
tisement all its own, for
without obligation.
the one idea in child
training on the piano
PIANO
that must be combated,
CO.
and combated strongly,
is that any old instru-
ment, new or second-
hand, is quite suitable for elementary training.
to the fact that it is such training in the early
Where lack of funds forces the serious con- days that may lead to the development of a
sideration of price, it is of course better that
great musician in the future. For ambitious
the parent buy a cheap new piano or a second- parents such an argument should carry unques-
hand one rather than provide none at all, this tioned weight. Here, too, is stressed the point
in the expectation that as finances improve a thai proper early training requires a worthy
better instrument will be substituted. But for piano.
the benefit of the thousands who can afford a
Nor does the Houck Co. consider the
good piano, which ordinarily may be obtained music teacher as something entirely apart. On
at a price considerably less than even the cheap- the contrary, it has for years devoted occasional
est sedan, the point cannot be too strongly advertising copy to setting forth the importance
urged that not only is proper child training of the music teacher in the community, what
desirable and necessary, but that proper train- she does and what she can do for the child,
ing requires an instrument of proper worth.
and the high place she holds in the scheme
The O. K. Houck Co. does not limit its ad- of things educational and cultural.
vertising arguments to one set phrase, for, in
This devotion to new advertising forms in
addition to advertising the necessity of includ- the presentation of the piano is distinctly in
ing music in the educational program of the line with what the entire industry, individually
child, it takes the occasion to rail attention
(Continued on page 4)
Great Musicians from Little
Children Grow
M
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