Presto

PRESTO
The American JVIusic Trade Weekly
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
Editors
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234. Private Phones to all De-
partments. Cable Address (Commercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the Post Office, Chicago. Illinois
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4. Payable In advance. No extra
charge in United States possessions, Cuba and Mexico.
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., 407 So. Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
Advertising Rates:—Five dollars per inch (13 ems pica) for single insertions.
Complete schedule of rates for standing cards and special displays will be furnished
on request. The Presto does not sell Its editorial space. Payment Is not accepted for
articles of descriptive character or other matter appearing In the news columns. Busi-
ness notices will be indicated by the word "advertisement" In accordance with the
Act of August 24, 1912.
Photographs of general trade interest are always welcome, and when used, if of
special concern, a charge will be made to cover cost of the engravings.
Rates for advertising in Presto Year Book Issue and Export Supplements of
Presto will be made known upon application. Presto Year Book and Export issues
have the moat extensive circulation of any periodicals devoted to the musical in-
strument trades and industries in all parts of the world, and reach completfilY and
sffactually all the houses handling musical instruments or both the Eastern and west-
ern hemispheres.
Presto Buyers' Guide is the only reliable index to the American Pianos and
Player-Pianos. It analyzes all instruments, classifies them, gives accurate estimate*
9f their value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general interest to the music trades are in-
vited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street. Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1923
PRESTO CORRESPONDENCE
IT IS NOT CUSTOMARY WITH THIS PAPER TO PUBLISH REGU-
LAR CORRESPONDENCE FROM ANY POINTS. WE, HOWEVER,
HAVE RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVES IN NEW YORK, BOSTON,
SAN FRANCISCO, PORTLAND, CINCINNATI, INDIANAPOLIS, MIL-
WAUKEE AND OTHER LEADING MUSIC TRADE CENTERS, WHO
KEEP THIS PAPER INFORMED OF TRADE EVENTS AS THEY HAP-
PEN. AND PRESTO IS ALWAYS GLAD TO RECEIVE REAL NEWS
OF THE TRADE FROM WHATEVER SOURCES ANYWHERE AND
MATTER FROM SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS, IF USED, WILL BE
PAID FOR AT SPACE RATES. USUALLY PIANO MERCHANTS OR
SALESMEN IN THE SMALLER CITIES, ARE THE BEST OCCA-
SIONAL CORRESPONDENTS, AND THEIR ASSISTANCE IS INVITED.
ADVERTISING INFORMATION
Forms close promptly at noon every Thursday. News matter for
publication should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the same
day. Advertising copy should be in hand before Tuesday, five p. m.,
to insure preferred position. Full page display copy should be in
hand by Monday noon preceding publication day. Want advs. for cur-
rent week, to insure classification, must be at office of publication not
later than Wednesday noon.
STOLEN SLOGANS
The ruling of Judge Westenhaver, in the case of Gulbransen-
Dickinson Co. vs Mans, in the Ohio Northern District Federal Court,
and which appeared in last week's Presto, has created widespread in-
terest. It is an interpretation of the law, as pertains to the rights
of trade mark and advertising- copyrights, which must interest all
manufacturers and nearly all merchants. It was shown that the orig-
inal publicity matter of any industry is property, just as truly as the
things it is designed to promote and sell. It is not safe to appropri-
ate the slogans, the pictures, or the typographic setting" forth, of the
merits, or claims, of a piano of prominence. That is the lesson of the
verdict in favor of Gulbransen-Dickinson Co., as set forth in this
paper last week.
All who have had the responsibility of preparing advertising mat-
ter for publication know that it is not so easy as picking cherries. To
create "copy," possessing the drawing power by which to create a de-
sire in the merchant or public to buy, demands more than average
ability of both thought and expression. It is an art. The capable ad-
writer is, in a sense, a genius. He is at once a literary artist and a
salesman. He must be able to feel as the prospective buyer must
feel. He must have the verbal facility to express much in a few
words. He must understand that space in the printed page represents
an investment—often a large one—and he must have a good sense of
February 17, 1923
proportions as between the character of the article advertised and
the kind of people to whom the appeal is addressed.
Consequently, a good trade mark, slogan or advertisement, has
value far beyond that placed upon it by the average newspaper
reader. While it is true.that the proportion of really effective adver-
tising is not great, especially in the music business, there are some
very able promotion writers associated with the piano industry. The
Gulbransen-Dickinson Co. custains a well equipped publicity depart-
ment. It is composed of experts who have had practical experience
in the piano business, and who know what is required to sustain, by
printed lines, the merit of the instruments advertised. Therefore,
there is a distinctive character in the Gulbransen publicity which
must have value. It can not, therefore, be appropriated for the pur-
poses of competitors, or others, who have no direct interest in the
purposes for which it is prepared.
Many dealers seem to think that whatever appears in print is
public property. This seems especially so of advertising matter. The
result of the Ohio suit brought against H. P. Mans, retailer, and won,
with cash penalty attached, may serve the good purpose of putting
a curb upon the cribbing. And in that a general good to the trade
and industrv must result.
SERVING IS SELLING
There is a whole essay in piano selling in the single line that
heads a full page advertisement in this issue of Presto. And, inas-
much as every reader of this paper is interested in salesmanship of
some kind, it is well worth while to get the lesson of the Steger &
Sons Piano Co. page, when that great concern declares that its real
problem is not selling, but serving.
Whenever there is a real success, of large kind, in any business,
it will be found that back of it has been the desire to serve. In the
piano business this may even seem to be true to a greater degree than
most others.
Very few piano merchants have any intimate knowledge of the
instruments they buy, to sell again, until they have been handling the
lines for a considerable time. All piano merchants have a general
knowledge of the various'instruments, but usually at first they rely
upon what the manufacturers say and, still more, upon the standing
of the pianos with the public. More than all else, the average piano
dealer depends for his initial judgments upon what the reliable trade
paper may say.
We have scores of instances by which to substantiate the latter
statement. Scarcely a day passes in which no request comes to Presto
for expert opinion of one or more pianos. Sometimes even the older
makes of instruments are inquired into. Such inquiries are usually
from beginners in the business. Letters about new industries usually
come from merchants in search of bargains, or something promising
profit-making prices.
But, whatever the motive back of the letters of inquiry concern-
ing pianos, they show that pianos, unlike most other manufactured
articles, require service, personal interest and expert advice. And
this applies to both merchants and public. It is in a sense a profes-
sion, to be an honest piano salesman—a profession in the popular in-
terpretation wherein advice, or service, is as often charged for as
actual and skilled work. Rut with the difference, in piano selling,
that the service is one of the things "thrown in." But it is of value
to the seller, no less than to the buyer, so that the exchange is even.
In the system enforced by the Steger & Sons Piano Co., as well
as other well-equipped organizations, the service is a very strong fac-
tor in the piano's success. The dealers who understand their business
appreciate the service extended by the great industry. They know
that-the support of the source of their supplies is an inestimable fac-
tor in their own possibilities of service to their trade. They know
that, if they can depend upon the kind of assistance that permits of a
steadily widening business, without the energy-destroying 1 anxieties
which beset many retail lines, their progress will be absolutely as-
sured. And that, in its effect upon the manufacturers, means sales. It
means unlimited demand for pianos as long as pianos can be sold.
And so what Emerson said about its being "nobleness to serve" has a
practical meaning in which the profit in service finds place.
It may be a new line of wholesale piano advertising—that of the
Steger. And in that is the novelty that makes the line, "Our Major
Problem is Serving—Not Selling," particularly strong at this time.
But, if you think it over, you will find that "service" and "Success"
have been interchangeable terms for all time. It would be difficult to
find any great industrial or commercial success in which service has
not been a factor. And in the piano business this may seem especially
so. Nor does this apply particularly to manufacturing. It belongs
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/