Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1927 Vol. 85 N. 5

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
The Music Trade Review
H. Edgar French on the Relation of
Repossessions to Ultimate Net Profits
President of the Jesse French & Sons Piano Co., New Castle, Ind., Analyzes This Rela-
tion in Regard to Uprights, Grands. Players and Phonographs
t_T
EDGAR FRENCH, president of the
Jesse French & Sons Piano Co., New-
castle, Ind., who has made a careful study of
the piano trade situation, from both the stand-
point of the manufacturer and the retailer, is
of the opinion that the cause of the present
slowing up of business is primarily to be found
in the fact that for years there has been a
tremendous amount of advertising of low
prices, low terms, nothing down and the like,
with a comparatively small amount of adver-
tising being given to the emphasizing of the
value of music in the home.
"A great deal of this false advertising," said
Mr. French, "has been used to exploit the
player-piano as something easy to buy and so
easy to play that a little baby could make you
think 'Paderewski was in the next room,' for-
getting entirely that the player-piano is really
a musical instrument and should be played for
the primary purpose of obtaining really musical
results. Furthermore, one of the greatest de-
lights in music is the ability to perform to suit
one's self.
"With this idea in mind, I checked over a
large amount of business and found that re-
possessions were on a much greater scale in
talking machines, where the machine did all
the work, than in player-pianos, where the
owner did some of the work, and that the
percentage was still less in upright pianos and
practically nil in the grand business, where the
instruments, or practically all of them, reach
real musicians. These facts were brought to
iight recently in checking up sales expenses
and general sales indications for the year 1926,
in connection with a large retail concern.
"The firm sold at retail approximately $25,000
worth of grand pianos during the year 1926,
and a little more than 1 per cent (not even \ l / 2
per cent) of that amount covered the reposses-
sions on grand pianos for the entire year. A
total of $60,000 of new upright piano business
had less than 10 per cent of this amount
charged against repossessions of uprights. The
firm, however, had $40,000 of player sales, and
of this amount 15 per cent came into the
repossession account. In the talking machine
department, with $100,000 of sales, 30 per cent
iif these sales were charged back as reposses-
sions.
"These arc actual figures. It is said, 'A
word to the wise is sufficient.' If any piano
City Officials Together With Musical, Civic and
Business Organizations to Co-operate With
Trade in Big Affair
H. Edgar French
man will total his figures and find a situation
such as this existing, i. e., 1 per cent of grand
sales, 10 per cent of upright sales, 15 per cent
of player sales and 30 per cent of phonograph
sales— (in dollars) to be repossessed, it is hard
lo understand how he can do anything else
but get behind his sales of straight uprights
and grands and push them ahead of everything
else, in fact, push them almost to the exclusion
of other business.
"This is rather harsh, perhaps, but as this
is the existing condition why not face it in
Stands First Among Pianos
m
Homes, Theatres, Churches, Schools
More Kimball pianos are in use in American
homes than any other name.
The Kimball is preeminent among the largest
Theatres and in thousands of Schools and
Colleges.
-
-
CHICAGO
-
DETROIT, MICH., July 25.—Plans have now been
completed for the second annual Detroit Music
Carnival which will be held along four blocks
i>f Washington boulevard on Tuesday and Wed-
nesday evenings, August 16 and 17, at the time
of the convention of the Michigan Music Mer-
chants Association, and immediately following
the grand finals of the second Detroit Piano
T'laying Contest to be held on Monday evening,
August 15, in the Belle Isle Symphony Bowl,
where it is expected that an audience of 20,000
will witness the selection of this year's cham-
pion pianist.
The music carnival will be a civic event and
on the opening night there will be held the
Mayor's Ball, which will be in the nature of a
reception to the piano-playing champion and to
the 430 youngsters who were selected as school
champions in the preliminary tests. Interest
in the event is indicated by the fact that some
$15,000 has been raised to cover the expenses.
The city will make liberal contribution of
material and labor and close to fifty of the
leading organizations of the city, including the
Automobile Club, the Hotel Association, vari-
ous fraternal orders, Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions,
Mercator, Optimist and other business clubs.
The program will provide music trade visi-
tors with an unusual opportunity on free eve-
nings to witness the success of the Detroit
contest method and music trade men from many
sections of the country, including C. J. Roberts,
president of the National Association of Music
Merchants, are expected to be present. Ossip
Gabrilowitsch, conductor of the Detroit Sym-
phony Orchestra, is honorary chairman; Frank
J. Bayley, general chairman; J. Lee Barrett,
secretary; R. A. Jacobs, treasurer, and Roy A.
Maypole, director general. Governor Fred W.
Green, of Michigan, and Mayor John W. Smith,
of Detroit, constitute the advisory committee,
and the various other committees are headed
by men and women of prominence both in and
out of the trade.
S. E. Clark, of Grinnell Bros., E. P. Andrews,
of the Hudson Music Store, and Clayton H.
Hoffman, of Grand Rapids, constitute the
speaker committee and will announce shortly
the list of those who will make addresses. The
entertainment program includes a conclave of
the Cheese Hounds to be held on Wednesday
evening following the carnival.
Ravel Uses Mason & Hamlin
W, W, KIMBALL CO.
*
the most plausible manner and push that which
delivers a profit and allows it to remain,
rather than push a business which has a back-
fire in the form of an overwhelming percentage
of repossessions. Used merchandise is always
a drug on the market, requiring special sales
and special effort to move it, not to mention
the percentage of prospects to whom this mer-
chandise must be sold who are really prospects
for new merchandise. Furthermore, the cost
of placing pianos in the hands of people who
will not pay for them is fast becoming alarm-
ing and too much care cannot be exercised in
selling that which stays sold. Try pushing
grands and straight pianos for a while and see
how the repossessions decrease!"
Plans Being Completed for
Detroit Music Carnival
The Ideal header
1857
JULY 30, 1927
1927
Maurice Ravel, celebrated French composer,
who will visit the United States on a nation-
wide tour in November of this year, will use
a Mason & Hamlin concert grand piano for
all of his engagements. The composer has
never visited this country before and the op-
portunity of hearing him play his own works
is eagerly awaited by concertgoers in all
musical communities.
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
How to Sell Radio
In the Music Warerooms
R. E. Smiley, Assistant Sales Manager of the Atwater Kent
Co., of Philadelphia, Before the Western Music Trades Con-
vention, Tells of the Music Merchants' Radio Opportunity
made, not for the next year's business, but an art and make that promotion profitable. You
for the business of the next decade.
know how to do the world a real service and
That is why radio has come into its own, yet prosper in doing that service. Don't sell
as its proper place as a music-producing radio—that's how to sell it. Is that a paradox?
instrument and is to-day chiefly sold through
Seemingly so, but I mean do not sell the set
musical channels. I need not here go into and all that goes to make it up, such as con-
the transition from shoddy radio programs densers, transformers, sockets, tubes, etc., etc.,
broadcast by those seeking to fill the air with but sell what the set will do. Sell broadcast-
the din of their music to the very wonderful : ng! Sell music! That's what you have always
programs such as are broadcast to-day by the sold. Sell the programs and tell your cus-
nationally known companies.
tomers of the wonderful things that are in the
That is one piece of history. May I now air that they shouldn't miss—sell their bene-
R. E. Smiley
ask your indulgence in tracing another com- fits! Sell culture and refinement in the home!
H I L E I have been asked to address mercial development by means of an illustra- Sell what the radio will bring the buyer, music
plus what? Plus lectures, political programs,
you on the subject of how to sell radio tion?
national events in outdoor and indoor sports
Following the Civil War a certain group of
in a music store, I must in turn ask
your indulgence if I seem to digress somewhat men in Missouri formed a company to sell and the hundred and one other things that you
in order to arrive at an answer to the seeming sewing machines. It grew! It grew so large all know about.
and rapidly that this company had its own The very salesmen who can tell you a won-
problem that has been given me.
factory to build the sturdy carriages which its derful and interesting story regarding a certain
At first glance my acceptance of this subject
seemed to me presumptuous and it would be salesmen drove about the countryside while phonograph record or piece of music frequently
seem devoid of any intelligence when it comes
if I were not connected with an organization selling sewing machines.
This might be called the first group of house- to selling radio. Instead of knowing of some
large enough to draw, from many sources, in-
formation
relative to any merchandising to-house men. They canvassed. Later that of the things that are on the air and painting
company took on and sold melodeons—parlor a picture and creating a desire that would be
subject.
The history of radio selling is brief, but re- organs, later pianos and later phonographs and well-nigh irresistible, he usually launches into
a dissertation of how many tubes it has and
plete with color and incident! Hectic, hurried now radio. Do you see it? The development
and unharnessed describe its early history. of specialty selling that has been repeated the how far will it reach, and how great the volume
Every man who hung out a radio sign five country over in a minor way and in a major is, until the poor prospects—and I frankly sym-
way.
pathize with most of them in the hands of the
years ago was considered a radio expert by
In that specialty selling there developed dis- salesmen—become so confused that their desire
the people of his locality.
tinctive piano men, who opened piano stores; to buy is greatly curtailed, if not entirely lost.
Why? Because there were then no nationally
If you go to buy a watch you do not ask the
who took on violins; who added harps and
known trade names.
Manufacturing conditions were practically brass instruments; who added phonographs; jeweler to take that watch apart; you buy it
similar to selling conditions. The manufac- who developed stores which could better be because you know the name of the maker and
you buy it for eye value and performance.
turers who forged to the front were chiefly called shops; who progressed with the musical
Likewise it is unnecessary to take a radio
electrical or automotive manufacturers, or both. art and established on the great thoroughfares
of this country music salons; establishments apart to sell it any more than you need dis-
The race was to the swift.
In the meantime, the legitimate, established unrivaled anywhere in the world for artistic sect a piano movement or a talking machine
motor.
manufacturers were not seeking nor promoting appointments and merchandise.
Create desire by the same method you have
The credit for all of this is invested in you
but were filling a market. They sold to dealers
who, it appeared, could best sell radio. Those gentlemen and your forerunners. I trust that always used, "The Lure of Music,"—its value
dealers were automotive men, garages, elec- I have not tired you with a history that you in the home. You have always known how
to sell radios and your accepted methods sell
trical stores, hardware men and young geniuses may be familiar with.
Now I am asked to tell you how to sell it best. If you music men will just look back
and boy engineers, who opened radio stores.
radio in a music store. Gentlemen, you already through your book of experience you will find
They also sold to those who were interested
in the get-in and get-out method of operating know how from the experience you have in- there the answers to all of the radio problems
that you believe to exist to-day. You found
business, and as one of the gentry aptly put herited from your musical pioneers—those men
it, "It is quicker and better than the fake auc- who canvassed the countryside and with the that by concentrating on fewer lines or items
parlor organ made every "best room" in the it became more profitable. Why not apply this
tion racket."
to your radio problem? You found that the
Then some nationally known companies be- Victorian era a music room.
Twenty years ago, or more, you men knew nationally known extensively advertised mer-
gan to merchandise their products. Markets
were analyzed, men with years of merchandis- how to sell radio. Even more so now you chandise was your safest investment in the
{Continued on page 11)
ing experience were acquired and plans were know how because you know how to promote
W
'.
ESTABLISHED 1662
r
E"-
UXUTER-
NEWARK N. J
- ^
ONE OF AMERICA'S FINE PIANOS
GRANDS
UPRIGHTS
THE LAUTER-HUMANA
"E=

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