Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
Established 1879
September, 1952
VOL. I l l - N o . 9
2,870Ih Issue
THE
PIONEER
REVIEW
PUBLICATION
O F T H E MUSIC
I N D U S T R Y
Brand Names President Praises Music
Industry for Pioneering Advertised Brands
HREE-QUARTERS of a century
before the now famous brand
names of industry were developed,
the music industry pioneered the idea
of production and distribution of brand
names. Henry E. Abt, President of the
Brand Names Foundation, told the 51st
annual convention of the National As-
sociation of Music Merchants at the
Hotel New Yorker, today (Tuesday).
Mr. Abt praised the past history of
the music industry's application of the
brand name idea. "Basically, no retail
trade, no industry is more deeplv
rooted in this philosophy . . .," he told
his audience. This industry laid the
groundwork for the famous brand name
manufacturers of the modern era, he
said. The "modern streamlined manu-
facturers and their aggressive dealers"
merely followed in the footsteps of the
programs set up by the musical instru-
ment manufacturers and distributors of
the past, he continued.
T
A Century Ago
A century ago, and for many decades,
thereafter, the music trade was the
musical instrument business. From the
outset, the musical instrument business,
particularly piano and organ manufac-
ture (which was between 80% and 90%
of the total volume), was deeply rooted
in some of the greatest commercial
craftsmanship reputations ever built.
Chickering. Steinway, Baldwin. Knabe
and others charted the solid path for
Cadillac. Studebaker. Chrysler. Nash.
Kelvinator. Ceneral Electric. Westing-
house and others of the modern era
when the busgv was still a fancv lux-
ury and electricitv was something to
do with Ben Franklin's kite.
The old industry was built by vigor-
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, SEPTEMBER, 1952
HENRY
E.
ABT
ous competitive advertising, promo-
tion, and specialty selling of these
brand names by manufacturer, whole-
saler and dealer alike, three quarters of
a century before the words "specialty
salesmen" were ever spoken.
In the second decade of the present
century, when the automobile began to
be sold as a requisite for every family;
and the third decade, when the electric
refrigerator, radio, oil or gas burner,
vacuum cleaner, ironer and still later
the dish washer were put into fabulous
numbers of homes, the modern stream-
lined manufacturers of these things, and
their aggressive dealers, merely fol-
lowed in the footsteps of the musical
instrument makes and the house to
house canvassing crew, the hard hitting
national advertising and the "works".
Theodore and Billy Steinway's father
and grandfather, and the generation of
dealers with whom thev were allied.
Lucien Wulsin's father and the rest of
that generation, on the maker and
dealer level alike, "wrote the book" that
made modern America.
Then, as more recently, this was the
brand names competitive system at
work.
It began—as it must always begin—
with valid quality products. It was
backed, as it must always be backed, by
proud uncompromising names. It was
promoted, as it must always be pro-
moted, by vigorous advertising and sell-
ing. The great names, the great reputa-
tions, must get known. It was begun
and maintained, as it must always be
begun and maintained by deep, unwav-
ering faith; faith in the product, faith
in the name, faith in the trade. For the
brand system is another word for the
faith system, faith of maker that is
joined by faith of dealer and engenders
faith of consumer.
Value of the Faith System
That is one of the deeper values of
this system. Our war is in behalf of
faith against the sickly, cringing skep-
ticism, the pessimism, the defeatism
that threatens the modern world. We
—Brand Names Foundation—believe
and preach that the world of faith is
the world of hope.
And what did that gallant music in-
dustry do? The Census tells us that in
1859. 2 years before the Civil War. thev
manufactured and sold S5.261.000
worth of pianos, about Si 0,000.000
worth at retail, which can be estimated
at about 10,000 units at the prices of
those days.
Did you ever read the comment of
the Director of that Census? He said:
"In our country, where wealth is
more equally distributed, the piano
is already no uncommon appendage
to the farm-house and is found in
the cottages of the humbler class of