Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1931 Vol. 90 N. 12

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
CAUSE
The CROW
OF THE
i
WINDO
By RICHARD
W
I N D O W display is a powerful factor in the dis-
tribution of merchandise, for its prime function
is to attract possible customers into the store,
though many men overlook this basic function of
window display.
Light, color and motion artistically blended attract the eye
but the display must present a message which appeals not
alone to the emotions, but creates desire, producing concrete
results in terms of actual sales increase.
After all, your store is merely a junction point in the
journey of the merchandise from the manufacturer to the
consumer. Your window display is the seasonal time-table
indicating arrivals and departures through this junction. By
proper management of display schedules, you can keep mer-
chandise moving through this way-point to its final destina-
tion in the consumer's home.
Your displays should quicken and 1 stimulate demand for
the goods shown by telling your story so effectively and quick-
ly that he who runs may absorb it intelligently.
We are living in an age of airplane speed. Display tempo
has been stepped up along with all other phases of merchan-
dising. Just as the old-time traveling man with his slow-
going methods and his endless anecdotes is being replaced by
-nen who know how to say "good morning" and when to say
"good bye," so the display man must learn to spread his wares
before the busy window shopper in a way that says: "Here
I am—you will benefit by buying me."
If you want to know whether your windows are selling
merchandise or merely attracting attention suppose that when
you go out to luncheon tomorrow you stroll along the side-
walk in front of your show windows, and listen to the com-
ments of the shopping crowds. The remarks you hear may
be cynical, humorous, flippant or plainly irrelevant, but you
will learn much in thirty minutes that you can learn in no
other way.
The new generation is exerting a tremendous influence in
the sales and distribution of pianos, radios and other musical
merchandise. Every business has felt the effect of this in-
fluence. Cosmetics and silk hosiery sales are evidence of this
fact. You can direct influence by educating the window
shopper, by developing taste and judgment.
In this respect William G. Bailey of
Southern California Music Co., Los Angeles
is an outstanding craftsman. His window displays combine
beauty with practical merchandising ideas. Every display he
designs has a definite theme—a theme that can be played on
the cash register to the tune of more sales and added profits.
As an example of Mr. Bailey's work, he recently designed
a piano window that created a good deal of comment and in-
cidentally sold several pianos. The centerpiece of the dis-
play was a Baldwin piano. Around and over it was a laurel
wreath six feet in height. Incorporated in this wreath were
photographs of famous artists spaced at regular intervals be-
tween the leaves. On each leaf adjacent to the pictures the
name of the artist shown was recorded—Joseph Lhevinne,
Pietro Cimini, Mary Garden, Richard Buhlig, George Lieb-
ling, Elsa Alsen and Homer Grunn being the most promi-
nent.
I
THE STRONG WINDOW DISPLAY DOES NOT
HE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW,
December,
1931
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
IS THE TEST
THE
EFFECT
EFFECTIVE
W DISPLAY
C. WALTER
Towering above the piano was a life-size bust of Geise-
king, famous piano virtuoso, together with a card which read:
"Geiseking— the artist who created a sensation at the Phil-
harmonic Auditorium recently." On the piano itself was an-
other card with the legend: "The Baldwin piano which was
used by Mr. Geiseking and which caused all to marvel at its
richness and beauty of tone."
On the floor in front of the piano was a card inscribed,
"The Laurel Wreath of Honor." Flanking the piano on
either side was a large full sheet card decorated with laurel
wreaths and with suitable sales talks emphasizing the su-
premacy of the Baldwin piano.
Another display by Mr. Bailey took advantage of the visit
of the Chicago Civic Opera Company to Los Angeles. An
exact replica of the opening scene of Aida was reproduced on
a miniature stage in the center of the show window. A
miniature orchestra of fifty pieces rose through the window
floor, the footlights flashed on, the curtain rose and the actors
HAVE TO SHOUT TO ATTRACT ATTENTION
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW,
December,
went through their various parts with life-like precision
while the conductor wielded his baton vigorously. The dis-
play attracted crowds of interested spectators three and four
deep and was the talk of Broadway, even the newspapers com-
menting on the unusual display.
The show lasted three minutes and was repeated every
seven minutes, making six shows an hour. This kind of dis-
play has the human appeal that makes people stop, look and
investigate. Displays of this kind are not easy to design, but
original presentations have become essential because of the in-
tense competition for the eye and ear of the downtown shop-
ping public. The display has to be unusual and dynamic in
order to attract attention.
This is particularly true of your show windows after d'ark.
The lighting of your night displays is a matter that should
be given careful thought. After dark the downtown district
is a blaze of myriad lights, a glory of mingling colors and
every store and building seems to have a winking electric
sign of some kind. The show windows of the larger stores
are a blaze of light, unfolding with unforgettable beauty the
whole story of modern merchandising. Amid this bewitchery
of light and color your display must catch and hold the at-
tention of the passer-by.
Window display is advertising, "at the point of sale." T o
be effective it must be dramatic unless your store happens to
be in a quiet, conservative neighborhood where people of an
older generation reside. Then a display in keeping with
cultured tastes and mature judgment is in order. A flashy,
colorful display would be out of place.
But whatever type of display you use, you should re-
member that your show windows absorb a large part of the
rental value of your store space and for that reason they
should be kept working profitably twenty-four hours a day
if possible.
The only method by which they may be kept thus working
is to change the displays at frequent intervals and make each
display so attractive that it will simply demand the attention
of the passer-by and create the urge to enter the store.
1931

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