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THE
VOL. 85. No. 27
REVIEW
Published Weekly. Federated Business Publications, Inc., 420 Lexington Ave., New York, N. Y., Dec. 3 1 , 1 9 2 7
8iI>r
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Reproducing Pianos
And the New Merchandising
Although an Instrument for the Connoisseur, There Are Plenty of Connois-
seurs to Keep Sales Going and at Lower Selling Costs If Merchants Will
Work Personally With the Prospective Buyers Primarily on Music Interest
OR ten years the reproducing piano has
been a cause of discussion and interest,
for eight years it has been the chief cen-
ter around which have gathered the ingenuity
and the enthusiasm of the player business. A
year ago any one would have said that no ele-
ment of the music business had a more certain
future. To-day the question is to be asked: Just
what is to be that future?
There can be scarcely any doubt that the
reproducing piano appeals powerfully to the
instinct for entertainment, nor that it has its
sympathetic influence upon the more or less
general desire for culture which the men, and
even more the women, of our lately enriched
classes so decidedly display. As a matter of
fact indeed, the merchandising of the reproduc-
ing piano has steadily been carried on from a
basis of highest-class suggestions. The names
of the great pianists who have lent their efforts
to the recording of the best music have been
its principal advertising weapons, and the prin-
cipal appeal throughout its career has been to
these names. The natural result has been that
the public has come to think of the reproduc-
ing piano mainly in terms of the great names
associated with it; and this without a doubt
has been a most valuable element in building
the present high reputation of this instrument.
One may say indeed that the reproducing
piano does bear a very high reputation among
the people, and one may add that it has appar-
ently lost none of its power to attract, to in-
fluence and to satisfy. To that extent its fu-
ture is secure.
Two Questions
Rut there are two very important questions
which arise in the course of any consideration
of these facts. The reproducing piano has come
before the public as not merely a high-class
but a costly instrument. This does not mean
an instrument which can only be sold with
difficulty and in small quantities, for the facts
contradict any such hypothesis. There are
plenty of men and women amply able to buy the
most costly of reproducing pianos. The point
to be made is rather this: that in the presence
F
of many other and competing means of enter-
tainment, put forward with a wealth of selling
and advertising ability, the reproducing piano
at relatively high cost is not having so easy
a time as it had two or three years ago.
There is another point, likewise worthy of
r
r*HE article on this page presents some
*• salient points confronting the retail
piano merchant in handling the reproduc-
ing piano during the coming year. There
is no question but what we are going to see
many fundamental changes in retail repro-
ducing piano merchandising and that the
m&rchants who are realizing this and change
ing their methods accordingly are the ones
who will maintain and increase their sales
v dume in this, the most costly of all the
instruments that come from the piano fac-
t >ries of America.
consideration. The upkeep cost of the repro-
ducing piano is high as compared with that of
other musical instruments of similar price range,
although it is still very low compared with that
of, say, the motor car; of which the original
cost is no more in most cases and is often a
good deal less. Still, the task of educating
the public into paying honestly for honest serv-
ice on pianos was never even begun until the
reproducing piano came on the scene, bringing
with it the formidable and resolute figure of
E. S. Werolin, with his banner bearing the
mystic words "Honest service honestly bought
and paid for." And it may be admitted that
the work of education is not yet complete by
any means. So that, too, has to be taken into
the survey.
Would it not be true to say these two facts,
cost and service, are facts which should be
carefully considered in relation to the future
of the reproducing piano?
Take the question of retail price. The dif-
ference in price between a high-grade grand
piano with and without a reproducing mecha-
nism seems at first sight to be astoundingly
large; but when the facts are surveyed the
puzzle becomes less puzzling. In the first place
the cost of installation is really very high,
mainly in the matter of labor, especially with
the very high-grade pianos. To install a re-
producing action skilfully and neatly, so that
the appearance of the instrument is by no
means injured, is no mean or cheap task. To
regulate and adjust the action is likewise an
expensive task. Indeed, installation is probably
more costly than it might be if the inventors
and builders of reproducing actions were them-
selves more closely in touch with the details
of piano construction. Nevertheless, the fact
remains that the manufacturing cost of a re-
producing mechanism does not represent any-
thing like its total cost as installed and ad-
justed.
Then the selling cost is very high, too. Prob-
ably this cannot be helped, or the cost be much
lessened, under present conditions. Perhaps,
indeed, it can be lessened materially only when
merchants deliberately organize their selling so
as to seek out and find individual prospects in
the community, dealing with each of these per-
sonally. Broadcast publicity is very expensive
in this particular kind of merchandising, so that
the cost of national advertising necessarily en-
ters into the total to a considerable extent.
The Factor of Personal Interest
For these reasons it can hardly be expected
that there should be marked reductions in re-
tail prices save as an accompaniment to parallel
reductions of piano quality, which, of course,
would be wholly undesirable even if it were
possible. Nor, as was remarked above, does
there seem to be any really efficient cause of
slack sales to be found in price alone. What
is far more important is slack methods of sell-
ing, too much reliance upon expensive and un-
certain national advertising and too little per-
sonal work with prospects. Personal work with
(Continued on page 4)