Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
JANUARY 29, 1927
The Music Trade Review
First Advertising in National Drive
Wins Rapid Response from the Dealers
National Piano Promotion Campaign Committee Receives Many Requests for Electros
of Advertising for Dealers' Link-ups With Publications
"VJ O stronger proof of the interest of piano
•*• ^ merchants generally in the piano sales pro-
motion campaign and the work of the com-
mittee in charge of that campaign could be
asked for than the reaction of these retailers
to the first piece of national advertising copy
issued from committee headquarters, and which
appeared in a number of the quality group mag-
azines in their February issues. Several scores
of letters have already been received from rep-
resentative dealers throughout the country,
commenting upon the character of the adver-
tising, pledging their support to the movement
and in most cases requesting electrotypes and
mats of the advertisement for local use.
Proofs of the first advertisement, together
with other pertinent matter, were mailed to sev-
eral thousand dealers a week or so ago, and the
response has been much more rapid than the
campaign directors had hoped for. If the deal-
ers who have requested mats of the advertising
make use of the material there is every reason
to believe that the campaign material will
actually blanket the country.
The majority of the letters from dealers re-
flect enthusiasm and a keen desire to participate
actively in the promotion work. George E.
Beasley, of the H. V. Beasley Music Co., Tex-
;irkana, Ark., wrote:
"We congratulate you on the appearance of
the first advertisement of the piano to appear in
national magazines. We hope, with you, for
the success of this great enterprise.
"We would like very much to tie in with
you and would like to know if you can supply
us with a mat of the illustration you are using
in this first ad."
• Otto R Heaton, of the Heaton Music Store,
Columbus, O., recognized as a most progressive
dealer, said in his letter:
I "Sincerest congratulations on your opening
gun of the National Advertising Campaign by
the N. P. M. A.
"Surely, such wonderful publicity as this, if
continued, will react to the benefit of every
piano merchant and piano manufacturer in
America."
H. S. Jones, of the Clark & Jones Piano Co.,
the well-known Birmingham, Ala., concern, said
of the advertising:
"We are very much pleased with the copy for
'The Opening Gun of the Advertising Cam
paign.' It is a good beginning. If you can send
us a three-column mat for newspaper insertion
we will be glad to run same here. Or if you
have not that size send what you have. A mat
is all we need."
From C. A. Lloyde, of Champaign, 111., came
the following:
"I wish to compliment you on the attractive-
ness of the 'Opening Gun' of your advertising
campaign. I would be very glad to have a
matrix of the cut which you have used on the
top of this copy which is to appear in March in
Good Housekeeping, etc. If you could have this
reduced to a two or three-column cut it would
suit my purpose a little better.
"I wish to advise you that 1 am ready and
glad to use any of the publicity matter which
you may have in your sales promotion plan,
especially your advertising mats or electros.
Please put me on your mailing list. I am with
you 100 per cent."
S. E. Murphy, head of the S. E. Murphy Music
Co., St. Cloud, Minn., wrote:
"We are very much interested and pleased to
receive copies of the first advertisement in the
National piano sales promotion plan, and we
are particularly interested in learning more of
the special advertising service you plan for deal-
ers' use in local papers, as well as tie-up mate-
rial, news articles, and so forth, to be used by
dealers in conjunction with your national ad-
vertising campaign.
"We shall thank you to tell us more about
that service."
The foregoing letters are taken at random
from several scores* on file at committee head-
quarters, and indicate a spirit that should in-
sure the success of the movement.
Several qther advertisements to be published
in a list of selected magazines during the com-
ing months have been prepared and were sub-
mitted to the members of the Promotion Com-
mittee for approval at a meeting of that body
held in Chicago last week. The piano keyboard
has been adopted as the characteristic symbol
to be featured in each advertisement, and the
next piece of copy to be run will present a
message from Walter Darnrosch, the noted
musical authority and for forty-two years con-
ductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra,
who says:
"Every child in our country should learn how
to sing, and how to play upon at least one
Hardman Reproducer
on Level Club Cruise
Instrument Provides Much Appreciated Enter-
tainment on Cruise of Local Organization to
the West Indies
Music was one of the ever-present features
of the recent Level Club cruise to the West
11
musical instrument. Among these the piano is
perhaps the most practical for musical cultural
purposes. Nothing should crowd out the op-
portunity for self-expression which can come
to those who can play the piano with some de-
gree of mastery."
Similar messages from others of prominence
in public affairs and in the musical life of the
country have been and are being gathered by
the committee and will be presented to the pub-
lic through the advertisements and other pieces
of publicity literature. Copies of all such mate-
rial will be sent to the dealers throughout the
country so that they may make the best use of
it in tying up with the general movement.
In a special advertisement published in The
Etude the music teachers of the country are
advised of the campaign of the National Piano
Manufacturers' Association, its purpose, and
how it is calculated to benefit their interest
by increasing the number of children seeking
elementary and advanced piano instruction, and
contact is being developed with educators in
general with a view to enlisting their support.
'That the group instruction idea is of wide
and general interest is indicated by the fact that
a surprisingly large number of dealers, as well
as those not in the trade, have taken the occa-
sion to fill in the coupon attached to the first
advertisement and forwarded it to headquarters
for the purpose of securing additional informa-
tion regarding group instruction work.
son, director of the Level Club Cruise Activities,
as follows: "At a meeting of the West Indies
Cruise Committee of the Level Club, a resolu-
tion was adopted thanking you and Hard-
man, Peck & Co. for the many courtesies ex-
tended to us and for the wonderful assistance
you were to the committee in making our cruise
such a social success.
"The enjoyment had from the reproducing
piano was one that cannot be described. The
Hardman Welte (Licensee) Aboard the "Caledonia"
|
passengers
would
sit
in
the
Italian
Smoking
Indies on the S. S. "Caledonia." Most of it was
produced by the Hardman Welte-Mignon Room of the 'Caledonia,' listening to the playing
(Licensee) grand, furnished for the trip by of Paderewski and other great masters."
Hardman, Peck & Co., New York, and was
secured through the influence of Philip Besser-
man, a Leveler, who is one of the senior mem-
Dan Pagenta, one of the widely known traveling
bers of the Hardman Fifth avenue waverooms.
The piano was installed in the Italian smoking representatives in the industry, left last week on
room of the ship and was the center of a regu- an extended trip for the Schaff Bros. Piano Co.
lar group of music lovers, who collected there His territory will be Illinois, Wisconsin, Minne-
each evening. It is interesting in this connec- sota, Iowa and Missouri and he will work from
tion to note that the piano supplied for the the Chicago headquarters of the SchafT Bros.
cruise was sold by Mr. Besserman to one of his Co. at Room 532 Republic Building under the
fellow voyagers as well as a duplicate Hardman direction of Matt J. Kennedy, who will have
Welte-Mignon (Licensee) grand from the com- charge of sales for the Schaff Bros. Co.
pany's New York showrooms.
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
A letter of appreciation has just been re-
ceived bv Mr. Besserman from N. M. Abram- The Review.
Pagenta Joins Schaff Bros.