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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, MAY, 1U1
17
Direct Mail
As a Sales Tool
Some Valuable Thoughts on This Advertising
Method From C. D. Dietrich, Ad Mgr.
of the Wagner Electric Co.
OW can you use
the mails to locate
prospective pur-
chasers in y ° u r
community? Let's
analyze
that.
That's only ONE
phase of direct-
mail, and it cannot
even begin until
you have a mailing list of piano prospects
to -whom to address your letters, circulars
and other mailing pieces. You first have
to BUILD a good mailing list . . . that is
the most difficult part of the job of car-
rying on direct-mail. And that is one phase
of direct-mail I should prefer to give a
wide berth and sail right on into the field
of the mailing pieces themselves.
The mailing list is actually the most
important part of direct-mail. If it is a good
one, you're on the way to success . . .
no matter how you prepare the mailing
pieces hemselves. I've seen some of the
poorest specimens of printed pieces bring
record returns; and I've seen some of the
finest pieces turn out to be complete
flops. It's WHAT you say, rather than how
you say it, that counts. You can get by
with so-called improperly written and
laid-out direct-mail . . . tho I grant that it
pays in the long run to put out good mail-
ing pieces if a high reputation for your
house is to be built. BUT you cannot get
very far with a poor mailing list; your
direct-mail results depend more upon
WHOM you are reaching, than upon any
other facor. So, lei's dwell for a while on
that first and most important part of a
direct-mail campaign.
In an effort to give you some real in-
formation on that first part of my talk.
How to Build a Mailing List. I've dis-
cussed the question with a number of my
friends . . . and here is some of their advice.
THOSE WHO HAVE PIANOS
One friend sad that your best prospects
are those who now have pianos. I be-
lieve that practically every piano owner
is interested in a better piano than he has
. . . at least sales experience in other in-
dustries has found that radio owners are
interested in newer and better radios, and
that automobile owners flock to auto
shows and sales floors because they'd
Ike to have a new and better car. Human
wants have no limit . . . only pocketbooks
have . . . that is, to as great an extent as
time payment plans will permit.
So, my suggestion is that number one
prospect for your mailing list be the piano
owner, especially one who has an out-
moded model, or whose piano is too small
for the new larger home he is living in,
or too large for his new smaller apartment,
or too dilapidated to give the kind of mu-
sic to which he is entitled.
THOSE WHO HAVE CHILDREN
Another of my helpful friends feels that
the best prospects are those who have
children. Many are the parents who want
their children to learn to play at least one
musical instrument in addition to the ra-
dio . . . and the piano is candidate num-
ber one—for a number of reasons: first,
neighbors (not mentioning members of
the household itself) are less likely to ob-
ject to piano practice than they are to
indiscriminate tooting on a cornet or
screeching on a violin; second, ii is self-
contained, needs no other instrument to
supplement it; and third, as a piece of
furniture, is in evidence, so that neighbors
and friends dropping in can't help but
notice that here is a new piano and with
raised eyebrows acknowledge that the
fact hit straight home 1 . Yes, there's pride
in possessing a piano . . . if it is a new
one and the latest . . . just as there is
pride in possessing the newest and latest
auto. Parents with an eye for the practical
side (musical considerations notwith-
standing) are quite likely to reason that
as an investment a piano is the SAFEST
of musical instruments . . . for little Albert
is not so likely to drop it and smash it,
neither is he likely to misplace it or lose
it, nor is there much chance of a burglar
sneeking into the house and stealing it in
the dead of the night. Chalk those points
down for your sales arguments should
some doting father be on the fence un-
decided whether to make it a piano or
some other musical instrument.
THOSE WITH AN ESTHETIC SENSE
Still another friend stressed this point:
that the man or woman with a so-called
esthetic sense s also a prospect for
pianos. He points out a recent occurence
in his own neighborhood to prove it. A
family bought a spinet type piano even
tho neither of the parents could play and
both their children were married and no
longer living at home. The reason they
bought the spinet piano was because the
interior decorator advised them to buy
one in order to enhance the beauty as
well as the cultural atmosphere of their
home. Now, THERE is ANOTHER type of
prospect, and if you know how concerned
the average person is with keeping up
with the loneses, there's a gold mine in
any town where you can get one of the
Joneses to buy a piano. But, seriously,
why shouldn't every home have a piano!
Must the piano be limited to those homes
where someone is able to play it? Isn't it a
"thing of beauty and a joy forever" (with
apologies to Keats) . . . an embellishment
of the living room, there to please the
eye as well as the ear? So, let's not over-
look those childless and untalented men
and women, whose esthetic sense de-
mands the finer things in life—or whose
social position makes the piano a "must"
item along with statuary, oil paintings,
oriental rugs, and stamp collections.
And that leads quite logically to a fourth
class of prospects, those who tho they
themselves cannot play the piano, have
friends or relatives who can. One of my
relatives has a piano no one in his family
plays, and for some time he has been
considering selling it 01 giving it away.
But one evening during the Christmas
season I visited his home and I spent a
good part of the evening playing his
piano. And a cousin was there also, and
she played the piano . . . and we got
somewhat chummy, she and I, and there
followed duets, in which we drov/ned out
each other's mistakes . . . and presently
the Christmas spirit rose to such a high
pitch that Aunt Johanna and Cousin Nell
broke into song (quite brokenly.) Well,
to make a long story short, the host de-
cided that that old tried and true piano
will never leave his home . for what would
the party have been without the piano!
Need we go further? Do not those four
groups just about encompass each and
every family in your community? Each
group requires a different set of sales ar-
guments, but, mind you, each group can
be sold pianos, and more pianos, and
still more pianos. In my estimation, a
piano prospect is one who thinks he wants
or needs one . . . after YOU have done the
thinking for him.
(Continued in June)