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Ohio Music Merchants'
Annual Meeting in Cleveland
Annual Meeting of the Music Merchants' Association of Ohio at Cleve-
land Draws Large Attendance^Gathering Shows Wide Interest in
Piano Promotional Work Among the Music Merchants of the State
LEVELAND, O., September 14.—The an-
nual convention of the Music Merchants'
Association of Ohio opened on Monday
afternoon at the Hotel Winton with a very sat-
isfactory showing of members in attendance.
The reports of the president and secretary of
the association in which they outlined its pro-
gress and what had been accomplished during
the past year by the organization were pub-
lished in the Association year book where the
members could read them at leisure, as was the
report of the treasurer. The first subject to be
discussed, therefore, was that of "Profitable Ad-
vertising." Erwin R. Mihm, who led the dis-
cussion, said in part:
"Probably the main reason I have been as-
signed to speak on 'Profitable Advertising' is
because I know so little about the 'Profitable'
side of it. During the past fifteen years
I've earned or acquired the reputation of spend-
ing a larger amount of money and returning a
smaller amount of profit than any one else in
this line of business.
"Hence, our worthy president, knowing my
vast experience with unprofitable advertising,
assumes that by this time I ought to know
something about the other kind. Personally,
however, I am not, by any means, convinced
that such is the case.
"In speaking of Profitable Advertising I am
trying to present only methods that have been
and are at present successful. The national"
piano promotion campaign, piano playing con-
tests, and other projects for the welfare of the
trade occupy, as I see it, an entirely different
field. Such activities are excellent and should
have the unreserved support of every one en-
gaged in the music trade, both morally and
financially, which is more important.
"This discussion has to do with the ordinary
present-day advertising problems of the retail
dealer—the problem of getting business right
here and now, taking conditions as we find
them. I don't even pretend to go very far into
the future. It's this year's and next year's busi-
ness that needs discussion.
"Profitable advertising is advertising that sells
pianos at a profit to the advertiser. Any form
of advertising that does that is profitable adver-
tising. Any form of advertising that fails to
accomplish that is unprofitable advertising.
"When we think of advertising we uncon-
sciously think of newspapers, and painful bills
on the first of the month. Under present con-
ditions that is not the only kind of advertising
C
to depend upon—and there are many reasons
why this is a fact.
"Publicity that creates desire apparently
doesn't exist, as far as our line of business is
concerned. This lack of continuous general pub-
licity seems to be our greatest difficulty.
"Frankly the desire to own a piano does not
occur to the average family as frequently nor
as potently as it used to. The advantages to be
secured through having a modern piano in the
home do not appeal to most of us as strongly as
do the advantages of having the latest model
motor car, an iceless refrigerator, an up-to-date
washing machine, vacuum cleaner or a new fur
coat. New products, unheard of a few years ago,
are outselling the piano. That's what publicity
and national advertising does. It arouses in-
terest and creates desire. The rest is easy.
"While I promised not to expound any untried
theories, before passing on let me suggest that
the piano trade bury its dead instead of setting
them up in business. Let's drop the habit of
perpetuating piano names whose original makers
have ceased to exist. Let piano manufacturers
confine themselves to one or two makes of
pianos—then the manufacturer can secure na-
tional distribution and can do national adver-
tising, which alone will do more to promote the
increased use of the piano than all our other
promotion schemes combined.
"To get back to the original subject. The
piano used to get plenty of publicity although
not much of it was printed. Piano canvassers in
city and country camped on almost every door-
step. From the time the first child in any
family started to toddle the parents were urged
to buy a piano. The advantages of having a
piano were explained to them often whether
they liked it or not. They heard about the
subject from every angle—first from one can-
vasser and then from another. Every dealer
had canvassers in the field and they talked piano
until, in time, even the most indifferent parents
became more or less convinced that they must
some day buy a piano. Hearing the story of
the piano so frequently, in many different ways
and from so many different sales people, repre-
senting so many different dealers, it became in-
evitable that a piano should be considered among
the most desirable possessions of all. In this
manner was the market for our product created
and maintained.
"That's when the bargain advertiser made his
killing. His market had been created by the
publicity given to the piano canvassing.
"Profitable advertising a few years back was
easy. The advertiser who offered the lowest
prices and the longest terms got his business at
a trifling expense. Today profitable advertising
is a different problem. The old price appeal
doesn't seem to work—at least it doesn't work
like it used to. That's not the fault of 'price
appeal' advertising, because the market for
pianos is gone. The desire to own a piano has
almost ceased to exist.
"At the present time piano advertising must
arouse interest—create desire and impel action.
That's a reasonably large order when the prod-
uct is a comparatively expensive article, most
anyone will agree.
"We can no longer depend upon newspaper
or magazine advertising to do all that alone,—
the very one who needs the advantages of piano
advertising ownership explained to him the
most, isn't interested in pianos and, therefore,
doesn't read the advertisements which appear in
the newspapers.
"One form of advertising that is profitable is
the printed circular placed in the hands, not on
the doorstep, of the housewife. Such advertise-
ments should be in colors and profusely illus-
trated. Well-worded descriptions of the various
advantages of the instruments are of inestimable
value. And, of course, prices and terms that are
likely to appeal to the multitude should be fea-
tured.
"The circular advertisement has many fea-
tures that commend it. For one thing, your
space is not limited as it is when your cost is
figured at so much per inch. For another thing,
your circulation is absolutely under your con-
trol. You can make it 100 per cent perfect if
you are willing to put in the time and trouble
to supervise the distribution properly. The
larger amount of space available makes it pos-
sible to use testimonials (not regarding the long
life and durability of the pianos you sell) but
testimonials or little news stories telling of some
of the advantages that have been secured by
some individual or family through the ability to
play the piano or through the possession of a
piano, items about how some young man or
some young woman paid their way through col-
lege—supported a widowed mother or attained
social prominence by playing, testimonials bring-
ing out the simple, every-day benefits that are
attained through piano ownership, testimonials
driving home the fact that a modern piano adds
grace and charm to the home.
{Continued on page 7)
NEWARK N. J.
ESTABLISHED 1862
ONE OF AMERICA'S FINE PIANOS
UPRIGHTS
GRANDS
THE LAUTER-HUMANA