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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, APRIL, 19%1
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the newspaper advertisement to go to &
certain retail store to buy it. Don't you
agree that the ideal piano advertisement
must do more than say: "Supremacy
Brand Piano—Console Model—$5 Down
Payment Delivers"?
Newspaper advertising is salesmanship
in print, and its job is to get people to
buy goods. If advertising is salesmanship,
advertising must do a selling job and
must be prepared along the lines that
best will cause a desire to purchase. It
is my understanding that Mr. Selz con-
ducted a survey for the National Piano
Manufacturers Association which revealed
that the 5 most important elements in
forth to create a demand for pianos—and sales appeal are: (1) Style, (2) Price, (3)
for individual makes of pianos—it may be Education Value, (4) Cultural Appeal and
that then the ideal piano advertisement (5) Social Status. If these 5 elements de-
will confine itself to selling the store as termine sales, should you—in your adver-
a place at which to buy the piano for tising—deal only with STYLE and PRICE,
which the demand has been created. But, and ignore the 3 other known elements?
certainly, right now the advertising should (In explaining his ideas regarding proper
do more.
presentation of piano advertisements
Piano Ads
That Sell
Must do Double Duty Says Vernon
A. Libby, of Los Angeles Examiner
DDRESSING the Retail
Piano Sales Clinic in
Los Angeles, Cal.,
Vernon A. Libby,
Sunday Advertising
Manager of the Los
Angeles Examiner
prefaced his remarks
with:
"It's the job of the manufacturer to
create a demand for his product. After
that demand is created, it's the job of the
retailer to bring people into his store to
buy that merchandise."
Gentlemen: is that YOUR viewpoint?
Much retail piano advertising seems to
agree. I've heard leading retail store ad-
vertising managers SAY it. Perhaps they
are right.
However, I submit that what you want
to do is SELL PIANOS. You can't do the
best kind of selling job if you wait for
someone else to do what you think it is
his business to do, in this case. If the
piano manufacturers should do a better
job of creating a demand for pianos in
the future, that's as it should be. I read
in one of your music trade papers the sug-
gestion of David Jacobs, a Philadelphia
piano dealer, to the effect that manufac-
turers and retailers should get together
and raise a fund for a promotional cam-
paign built around the theme: "A Piano
in Every Home". An excellent idea.
According to your industry's statistics,
some 136,000 pianos were produced in
the United States last year. Fine 1 . That
was 5 times as many as were sold by the
retail stores in 1932. However, 136,000 is
not nearly enough volume as we realize
when we consider that this is only 1 new
piano to every 300 homes. Why aren't
more pianos sold?
Mr. Jacobs of Philadelphia has pointed
out to us that every survey and all avail-
able statistics indicate that there are too
many % pianoless' homes and too many
unmusical, antiquated pianos in use or
disuse . . . and this in the face of a gen
erally accepted fact and conclusion that
our country has made and is now making
tremendous strides in musical training,
appreciation and education. Merchants
and manufacturers may well face the fact
Group of Piano Advertisements As Suggested by Vemon A. Libby
that the piano does not yet emjoy the
public acceptance to which it—as as a
Our viewpoint is that the ideal retail devoted to these five elements, Mr. Libby
basic musical instrument—is entitled.
piano advertisement of today must do a demonstrated with lantern slides of the
If—at some future time—there should DOUBLE job: (1) Create a demand for advertisements reproduced herewith.)
be tremendous promotional effort put a piano, and (2) Persuade the reader of
(Turn to Page 12, Col. 3)