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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, MARCH, 19kl
Brent Williams
(Cont. from Page 16)
It will be news to Mr. Chrysler when
he hears me tell you. before I have told
him, that I have had several thoughts
about how happy it would make my son's
wife if I bought her a piano or an Organ,
but let's pass that for the present.
There is something about a piano that
can be approached by no other article. It
adds an indefinable atmosphere of cul-
ture not approached even by paintings
from the brushes of great masters. To my
mind, no home can approach full perfec-
tion unless there is a piano and a woman
or girl who can play it. I am just an aver-
age John Citizen, but if you multiply me
by the number of my kind you will have
a market big enough to absorb the multi-
plied output of all of your piano factories.
ADS MUST BE COMPARABLE
TO OTHERS
These many thousand John Citizens
can be sold pianos if you who sell them
will realize that the competition for my
$1000 is extremely keen and that advertis-
ing to sell pianos must compete with that
which sells, for example, automobiles.
The 1933 meeting of the National Piano
Manufacturers Association in New York
was a sad one. It might be said it was like
a coroner's jury holding an inquest over
its own remains. The concensus of opinion
there was that radio had just about given
a knockout blow to what had once been
a profitable industry. Fat profits had be-
come poisonous losses. In a "way, the
piano manufacturers had been hitting all
the wrong notes and they had to start
picking the right notes. Something HAD
to be done.
Then in 1935, the piano industry dis-
covered style and in the next two years,
so I was told, factory sales increased
about 60'I—somebody has said that the
increase now has gone up around 250%
of the 1935 figure. Whatever the increase
has been or will be, it is obvious that the
piano is en its way back and the extent
of the recovery naturally depends upon
the number of sales you gentlemen will
make.
That bring sus up to the subject of ad-
vertising and I don't know exactly what to
say. If I could give you a guaranteed,
successful, advertising formula I could be-
come a milionaire in a very short time—
the piano manufacturers -would guarantee
that 1 . However, there are certain funda-
mentals that are essential to profitable
advertising.
MUST CREATE DESIRE TO BUY
First, I should like to take you back to
my reference to the theoretical thousand
dollars and competition. Bear in mind
that your advertising must make me de-
cide that I would rather spend that money
for a piano than for an automobile or a
winter vacation. In other words, your ad-
vertising must make me DESIRE a piano
before you can SELL me a piano.
Some twenty or thirty years ago I saw,
around Christmas time, a piano advertise-
19
ment that SOLD me the desire to own a
piano—not a Stein-way, nor a Bald-win, but
A piano. This was a page size newspaper
advertisement. The illustration pictured a
piano, an enraptured girl and a phantom
of Santa Claus fading out of a comfort-
ably furnished living room.
There were not many words in the ad-
vertisement and I don't remember whose
piano was advertised, but certainly it was
a good advertisement or I wouldn't re-
member it for twenty or thirty years.
To me it seems that a good advertise-
ment should embrace four outstanding
characteristics. It must attract the readers'
attention, it must arouse the readers' in-
terest, it must create the desire to possess.
and finially it must impel the purchase-
action.
Avertisements written with due regard
?.nd ample emphasis on those four main
factors—plus persistent regularity of in-
sertion are certain to produce piano sales.
HONESTY IN ADV. ALWAYS PAYS
It is well for us to remember that ad-
vertising is a double-action tool. While it
has the power to build, it also has the
power to destroy. Honest advertising sup-
ported by an honorable store policy will
bring success. Tricky or dishonest adver-
tising accompanied by a deceptive store
policy will bring disaster.
(Turn to Page 20)
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The
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MODEL K ACTION
for Spinet Type Pianos
Complete Action Can Be Removed From the Piano in 62 Seconds
Requires Minimum Space Above the Key
Minimum Width Frcm Back to Front Below the Key
FEATURES:
•
#
#
•
Normal key dip, perfect touch and repetition.
Capstans on keys easily accessible for regulation.
Keys removable as in standard large upright key and action assembly.
Abstracts loop over and doubly engage heads (over capstans) for permanent
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# Bushed borings in abstract rail guide abstracts, eliminating possibility of vibration.
• Simplification of factory installation and regulation.
Manufactured by
PRATT, READ & CO., INC.
Ivoryton, Conn.
SERVING
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PIANO INDUSTRY
FOR
OVER
A CENTURY