Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
23
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, OCTOBER, 191*0
The Combination
•
Business
• PHONOGRAPHS % • RECORDS # • RADIO-PHONOGRAPHS • #
How Dealer Is Profiting by the
New Prices of Records
A Summary by Daniel Webster, Managing Editor
of Television and Radio Journal and
Talking Machine World
One of the most important features of
Reports from dealers following the re-
cent price reductions in records show sale the price reductions was that it applied
increases from three to four hundred per largely to classical recordings. Since the
cent. This is tremendously important to people who buy such music are the most
the piano dealer, for it means a huge in- logical prospects for pianos, it has been
crease in store traffic and in the sale of of tremendous value to the piano dealers.
combination phonographs. By attracting The new prices, too, encourage the fol-
a great new clientele, it makes possible lowers of popular music to experiment
the piano dealer contacting many more with serious selections and thus have a
wide educational effect which will un-
prospective customers.
Actually the record price reduction had doubtedly be reflected in future piano
as great an effect on dealers as on cus- sales.
tomers. Those prospects who were al-
ready interested in recorded music were
quick to take advantage of the new low
costs, but they did not aggregate enough
to push record sales to their present
Announcement and details of a huge
high peak. To dealers, the price change nationwide advertising and sales promo-
meant that they had to sell twice as many tion drive are now being sent to all dis-
records for the same dollar volume and tributors and dealers by the Emerson
three times as much to show an increase Radio and Phonograph Corp. Unprece-
in net profit.
dented sums have been appropriated for
Confronted with such a problem, ag- local newspaper copy in all territories and
gressive dealers promptly went to work to this will be backed up by color adver-
merchandise the new record values for tising in such magazines as The Saturday
all they were worth. More newspaper Evening Post, Life, Esquire, Woman's
lineage than has appeared for years blos- Home Companion and other publications.
somed in all papers. Striking window dis-
In addition, Emerson has developed a
plays were arranged all over the country. new type of silent salesman exhibit, metal
Big space advertising was published by signs and large banners and streamers
the manufacturers. The cumulative result for store front, attractive window and
of all this excitement was a heightened store displays, as well as directly-by-mail
public interest in recorded music, bring- advertising, all of which features Emer-
son's "25th Anniversary Value Sale."
ing a wave of combination sales.
According to Charles Robbins, general
Piano dealers who have joined this
sales
manager, this campaign, -which -will
intensive merchandising parade report
start
this
month and reach its peak in
that it has considerably livened their
October,
is
the most intensive and exten-
piano departments. It has long been one
sive
program
ever launched by Emerson
of their major problems to create floor
and, in all probability, will surpass any-
traffic of people interested in music. Now
thing ever put forth in the entire radio in-
into their record departments are stream-
dustry. An equally impressive follow-up
ing twice as many people to buy classi-
campaign will be launched early in
cal selections. A percentage of this traffic, November and run through to January 1.
its size depending on the salesman's skill,
"This program," stated Mr. Robbins, "is
is being diverted to the piano floor.
based on indications that the radio busi-
Although actual piano sales to date ness in general will reach new all-time
have been few in comparison -with the high this fall and winter. The political
number of new record customers, the campaigns, the events abroad and the
contact being established is certain to ever improving broadcasts are going hand
yield big returns. This will be even more in hand with the betterment of business
evident among the purchasers of new conditions in this country and it is Emer-
combinations, especially those who pay son's conviction that the public will re-
for the instruments by installments. After spond accordingly. Emerson's distributor
a few months, the dealere will have added and dealer orders are mounting at a con-
a piano sale by the simple argument of siderably higher rate than that of a year
slightly increased payments over a longer ago and our regular analyses of distribu-
tor sales indicate a trend which will spell
period.
Emerson launches
sales campaign
prosperity for the trade for a long time to
come."
Complete details of the campaign are
contained in a large broadside which is
being mailed to dealers by Emerson dis-
tributors.
Victrola Adv.
Drive Launched
Leading National Magazines
On Space Schedule ior
Balance of Year
Virtually every leading national maga-
zine is included in the huge schedule
of four-color and black-and-white adver-
tisements announcing the new 1941 RCA
Victrola instruments to the public, ac-
cording to David J. Finn, RCA Victor Ad-
vertising Manager.
Several of the ads have already ap-
peared, led off by a four-color double-
page center spread in the Saturday Eve-
ning Post.
Other publications on the
schedule are Collier's, Time, Life, Look,
Esquire, American Home, Good House-
keeping, House & Garden, and the New
Yorker. Several insertions are scheduled
for each publication before the end of
the year.
"The 1941 RCA Victrolas are the great-
est home entertainment instruments which
RCA Victor has ever placed on the mar-
ket in its 42-year history," Mr. Finn de-
clared. This lavish ad schedule, backed
up by extensive cooperative newspaper
space, radio time, direct mail campaigns,
and practically every other form of sales
promotion, will concentrate on the RCA
Victrola line.
"However, radio consoles, table models,
and the new Personal Radio, will also
receive substantial support. This cam-
paign is the largest in RCA Victor history,
and one of the most extensive ever
launched in the radio industry."
To carry out the copy theme "Choose
the instrument the great artists choose",
Roy Spreter has made paintings of home
scenes showing such noted Victor re-
cording artists as Lauritz Melchior, Richard
Crooks, Helen Jepson, Eugene Ormandy,
and Albert Spalding. The new schedule
will not affect Victor Record ads placed
in many of the same magazines during
the same period.
Cheney's Happy—It's a Girl
Mr. and Mrs. Warren Cheney of
Cheney's Music Store, DeKalb, Illinois, are
being congratulated. On August 29 they
became the proud parents of a ten-pound
baby girl christened, Gretchen Ann.