Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
HERE'S AN APPEAL
That Brought P I A N O SALES
T
HE particularly effective advertisement published recently
by the piano department of Strawbridge & Clothier,
Philadelphia, of which Sid A. Reardin is manager, affords
a worth while example to piano merchants generally of the
sort of advertising that should be particularly effective just now.
The advertisement shows a quartet of normal, healthy chil-
dren, not prodigies, but youngsters who have reached an age
and a mental capacity where they can profitably devote some
of their spare time and talent to the study and the personal
performance of music.
In discussing the copy and its purpose, Mr. Reardin said to
The Review:
"These hectic days are predominated by dealers seeing how
low a price they can advertise grand pianos and also how cheap
they can get a manufacturer to make the piano so that they can
advertise it cheaper than their competitor, thereby getting tem-
porary' relief. They do not realize that this practice must be
stopped, or stimulated alternately by copy similar to the at-
tached, that will lend something to the buying public's mind
other than price appeal and emphasize that a piano is still a
musical instrument. No one realizes better than myself that
price appeal only is losing its pull.
"The piano buyer, unless more of this type of copy and sales
argument are used, will soon believe that he can now purchase
an excellent grand piano for $300 and that a $1,000 piano is all
'bunk.' If the present methods continue it will not be long
until the trade will be making and selling $300 grands at re-
tail under the guise of musical instruments. I believe that the
average dealer would certainly help himself and the industry
if he would immediately junk 80 per cent of the second-hand
trade-ins instead of spending his time and money and misin-
forming the piano purchasers regarding rebuilt used pianos.
"At the present time we have fifteen upright pianos, some of
the best names in stock with a total retail selling price of $465
on the lot. Our second-hand stock never represents over 5 per
cent of our merchandise."
Mr. Reardin is a man of wide and successful experience in
the trade, having for many years traveled about the country,
putting on special sales of pianos. He is familiar with the
"racket" and with the "fly-by-night" methods that all too fre-
quently creep into that type of selling, but has found that in
the long run those methods do not pay. "Business building is
not building sales only, or building volume alone, but build-
ing profits," he declared.
In this expression the members of the piano trade should find
much to think about, for the view is not idealistic but just plain
common sense. And, moreover, Mr. Reardin has found that
it works in his business.
T H E M U S I C T R A D E R E V I E W , A p r i l , 1931
STRAWBRIDGE & CLOTHIER
Now That TheyVe Reached
The Age of Music Lessons
Place a Strawbridge & Clothier
Piano in Your Home!
To-day their-small fingera will scarcely span the octaves.
Bui before many to morrows they can gain access to the
whole world of music—from the quaint French Bergcr-
ettes and comic opera scores to the im|.»rtant music of aU
the ages. To introduce a child to the world'n music—what
a gift that is to give!
And so, if there are children. It isn't « home if it hasn't *
2~*i«ino. Hers, in intitnatc fsirciiliar surroundings, is this
pbee where the child lays the foundation of a musical
culture. Where he learns to entertain himself and others,
to K»VC expression to a thousand moods, to follow with
understanding the preat artists in the concert hall
It needn't be a concert (jiand of fabulous wood, bul it should
be built to laM a lifetime; its size and design should ion-
form pleasantly to the room; its tone should lie beauty
and perfection.
More often than not a Piano must be bought strictly
through confidence in the house behind the transaction.
The six makes of Pianos listed below are all sold under our
« a l of confidence, guaranteed to each purchasers s.ui>fac-
tion Any one of them may be bought on our convenient
terms of deferred payment.
We Sell These Pianos Under
Our Seal of Confidence
Strothifr
Kimball
l~kcker & Son
Sohmrr
Francis Bai an
W. P. Hai/ifs
STRAWBRIDGE
& CLOTHIER
Market and Filbert
at Eighth Street
II