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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, APRIL, 1U0
points out four important and emphatic
problems that must be solved. There
is no criticism of anyone for any de-
linquency in action for not already see-
ing these things and solving them.
But there can be much criticism if the
situation remains the same as it is for
any length of time, with the facts now
before the industry. Proof of these
facts can be obtained from almost any
dealer, and it means a long wheel base
campaign starting right now for three
years' duration under the supervision
of a committee composed of members
of all the associations, for it is impera-
tive that these four factors of business
success must be handled intelligently
if the piano business is to progress, as
all members now hope and believe.
A
odd experience befell us the
other day; losing some ad-
vertising from a manufac-
turer who said he was satis-
fied with 200 dealers and didn't see
much sense using trade paper adver-
tising to reach such dealers or to reach
what he considered in the aggregate
800 dealers of good calibre. This manu-
facturer is a good one, fairly skilled in
wholesale distribution, although having
a reputation of carrying a razor for
price shaving where the situation re-
quires, and he evidently is fairly con-
vinced that his present 200 dealers will
live forever and continue to stick by
his line.
N
OW there are approximately
2600 piano dealers in the
U. S., 2400 of which he in-
tends to ignore, believing
that there can be no growth among this
group nor can any number of his 200
slide out, which is contrary to all rules
of business judgment. Of 1200 good
ones today, 5 years from now there will
be 900. Of the 1400 fair ones today, in
5 years there will be at least 400 of
these entitled to the present 1200
group rating, with perhaps 400 of them
out of business, to be replaced by an-
other 700 who will come into the pic-
ture with little knowledge of this mfr.
I
N other words there is a constant
change from the day any analysis
of piano dealers is made. There
are dealers coming into the in-
dustry all the time whose first step
usually is to get the trade papers long
before the manufacturers know of the
intent. Being exclusively "piano" The
Review's primary editorial policy is
the promotion and the sale of pianos,
which, in itself, is deserving of adver-
tising from factories. If the factories
get nothing else out of it but a medium
for the exclusive promotion of pianos,
plus a fair amount of publicity among
the individual brands, they have
secured their money's worth. Factories
must constantly be on the alert for new
dealers, and must be the first force of
condemning the evils of business, as
they crop up continuously. It was
losing this mfr.'s copy that prompted
the investigation resulting in the pres-
entation of those four merchandising
problems outlined herein, because we
wanted the basic facts on how trade
papers aid the industry when sincere
for industry expansion.
NOTHER important trade paper
factor is the presentation of
i facts and news of the indus-
B try, which may appear old
stuff to a manufacturer in New York
or Chicago, but to dealers in the smaller
towns it is the only point of contact
that they have with the piano industry
and who relish being kept posted on
what is going on in the trade—as im-
portant to them as a daily newspaper.
A
F
EW know that many of the major
piano dealers secure newspaper
clippings on piano advertising
from other cities, which are
used in retail selling. If a piano is ad-
vertised in Cincinnati at $245, this
clipping is used effectively by a dealer
in another city where the same piano
is featured at $295. Likewise, if a
piano manufacturer sells a piano to a
dealer in Detroit under his own name
and the dealer advertises it for $300,
the clipping goes very well in the city
where another dealer has the same
instrument under another name adver-
tising it at $350. The bigger piano
dealers are much smarter now than
they once were; they are always look-
ing to see if they are getting the lowest
prices, and getting evidence to show
that in competition they can also oper-
ate on an equal footing. It is a new
problem for makers who have all kinds
of prices for the same instrument with
different names and retail quotations.
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