Presto

PRESTO
November 24, 1923
CHRISTMAN
"The First Touch Tells"
Piano warerooms where the Christ-
man line of instruments is found, at-
tract the best class of trade. The
Christman line is absolutely complete
and, whether upright, grand, player-
piano or reproducing piano, electrically
operated, there is nothing better.
What the dealer must have to induce
high-class trade is the piano possessing
the very finest characteristics and the
most advanced features.
The Christman
Electrically Operated
Reproducing
Grands and Uprights
Are the most artistic instruments in
the entire field of piano manufacture.
It is the latest development of the
Christman.
There is no other line that surpasses
this one, and none in which high qual-
ity and popular characteristics blend
in a like degree, to the profit of the
dealer in fine instruments.
CHRISTMAN
Studio Grand
Only 5 Feet Long
It was the CHRISTMAN GRAND that
first demonstrated the truth that size has
nothing to do with the depth and resonance
of a Grand Piano's tone.
Built with a careful eye to the exacting
requirements of the space at the command
of city dwellers and owners of small houses,
the CHRISTMAN GRAND combines every
essential that wins for the grand piano first
consideration in the mind of the artist.
" The First Touch
Tells f '
Reg. U S. Pat. Off.
Christman Piano Co.
597 East 137th St.
New York
POTENCY OF THE
PERSONAL APPEAL
Veteran Traveler Tells How Advertising
Dealer Visualizes an Individual When He
Addresses a Group of Prospects He
Hopes to Interest.
ONE TYPIFIES MANY
And Oldtimer, as Usual, Uses Story to Prove the
Power of the Right Argument in
Effecting Sales.
The successful ad directed to any group of pros-
pects is the one that presents a real reason for buying.
The dealer with a piano of a certain price and com-
mercial standing has in view as prospect an individual
when he makes his appeal for that piano. The in-
dividual is one of a group. The wise dealer does not
lose valuable type or newspaper space in glittering
generalities about the instruments that are occupying
floor space in his store. Figuratively he gets the
prospective buyer by the button hole and loses no
time or words in telling the convincing reasons why
he should buy the piano made specially to suit his
requirements and pocketbook.
It is the personal appeal made in type and the
strongest thing next to the face-to-face conversation
of the piano salesman. In making the personal ap-
peal the writer of the ad copy or the spieler of the
oral piano argument sensibly bears in mind the point
of view of the prospect addressed. This is the result
of the cultural condition and the financial position of
the prospect.
The Common People.
Great quantities of pianos are sold every year to
that worthy group of citizenry called the Common
People. I give the group the distinction of caps be-
cause it is the great standby of the average dealer.
Some of the common people are rich, others are well
off and most of them listen understandingly to the
so-much-down and so-much-a-month terms of the
dealer.
A few of them have an understanding of the merits
of a fine artistic piano and some are willing to make
sacrifices in comforts to keep up the bigger instal-
ments on such. But what you might call the bulk
of the common people are devoid of the cultural
qualities which are usually accompanied by an under-
standing of the musical necessities of a piano. Most
of the common people are worthy but they care as
little about art as Jack Dempsey or Sefior Firpo.
That is why they don't understand the dealer's lan-
guage if he talks too glibly about art when he is sell-
ing a good, worth-the-money commercial piano.
Talking Right.
There are pianos whose very mention suggests art
to the people, common or distinguished, who appre-
ciate and understand the finer things of life. These
pianos represent the best and they are associated with
the highest art in the minds of musically appreciative
people. A good deal of advertising for these pianos
is done by their admirers.
The wise piano dealer values the word of mouth
advertising of his customers and every worthy piano
of the so-called commercial kind is a subject of such.
A dealer friend of mine puts a big value on this kind
of advertising for a good piano of that kind he rep-
resents in a Kansas town where the community might
be described as plain but intellectual. He frankly,
too, pays a tribute to the tuner's aid in making the
pianos keep up their part in bearing out the claims of
the oral boosters. This dealer believes that what is
orally stated about his pianos is more potent for
sales than what is printed in the decorous weekly
newspaper.
Reminded of a Story.
And that reminds me of the story that, according
to custom, should conclude this article. The story
was told to me by William L. Bush, of Chicago and
Dallas, than whom no more forceful personal appealer
exists in the locations named. It is an illuminating
incident worth a world of theories.
In what the blase metropolitans would call a jay
town in Texas two attractions were billed for the
same night. One was a minstrel show and the other
a lecture, under the auspices of a piano dealer keen
on the musical uplift. Now, offhand you will say the
lecture was a thing outclassed from the first notice.
And you will be stronger in your opinion when the
subject of the lecture is told. It was on Wagner;
not the bleacherite's hero Hans of baseball fame, but
the musical heavyweight, dear old Vogner.
Home of Wagner Fans.
There are halls in Milwaukee and Cincinnati and
St. Louis and the North Side of Chicago where
"standing-room only" would bo the sign fifteen min-
utes after the opening of the doors for a Wagner
lecture, illustrated by Wagnerian music by a band,
of course. But in a Texas town of the semi-rural
kind a Wagner lecture in competition with a rousing
blackface show looked like a large, unripened lemon
in advance.
The town was luridly billed by the minstrel show
manager. Every place you looked pictures of Tambo
and Bones grinned back an invitation to an evening
of uproarious fun. The lecturer's manager did little
wall papering. In the music store and the hotel office
and a few other places were scattered pictures of the
great composer with the date of the lecture by Prof.
Thingumy. Even the highbrow music dealer under
whose auspices the lecture was to be given did noth-
ing to boom the attendance. He actually believed
the town marshal would be needed to make the frantic
throngs keep to the line forming on the right.
Son Took a Hand.
But the dealer's son was doing some very effective
advertising of the oral kind for the lecture. The
lively youngster had observed the potencies of the
face-to-face piano argument and knew its operation
would be equally effective in the case of the Wagner
lecture—if the proper personal appeal were made.
When the night of the double dates arrived the
town got the surprise of its life. The minstrel show
mustered about a quorum, mostly old and middle-
aged folks. It was an awful frost. But the lecture!
Wagner was the favorite for fair.
A clamorous
crowd of young men, for an hour before the opening
of the doors, actually begged the box office to take
their money.
The Effective Spiel.
You see the wily son of the piano dealer went
about among the young men of the town with the
winning personal appeal, a hand-made argument that
sent Wagner stock a-kiting and put the blackface
chances on the blink. He explained how the lecture
was really a moving picture show in which the house
was in darkness from start to finish. There would
be a little Wagner music by his worthy father and
others, but they needn't listen to that. The main
point was that the place would be dark.
A fine
chance in fact to take their girls and sit holding hands
for two hours. The boy knew human nature. Every
young fellow with a "steady" fell for the argument
and later fell over each other to buy Wagner lecture
tickets.
M. D. S.
DECALCOMANIA SIGNS
TRADE=MARK DEALER'S STORE
"Give Manufacturer Distributing Them Immense Gen-
eral Circulation," Claim of Meyercord Co., Inc.
In a slip enclosed in communications to the manu-
facturers and dealers, The Meyercord Company, Inc.,
Chicago, draws attention to the value of decalcomania
window signs of the kind made by the company. A
reduced sample of a sign 7 in. by 9 in., in two colors
and gold is shown. The furnishing of such signs by
manufacturers is called "trade-marking the dealer's
store, ' by the Meyercord Company. Inc. This fol-
lows:
"The use of a Window Sign like the one shown
above benefits the manufacturer and dealer alike. It
gives the manufacturer an immense general circu-
lation in that it is seen by thousands daily. At the
same time it gives the dealer the benefit of the adver-
tising and reputation of the manufacturer.
"They strengthen and supplement all other forms
of publicity by connecting it in the consumer's mind
directly with the place where the sale must take place.
"Applied in a few seconds by anyone they are the
same as hand painted work, resist window washing
and do not become soiled or broken. Samples, sug-
gestions and prices without obligation."
THE OHIO SPIRIT.
"It takes more than a big fire to put us out of
business," is the statement this week of R. P: Seiler,
Portsmouth, O., whose store was destroyed in a re-
cent disastrous fire in that city. "We have opened a
temporary office next door to our old stand. Within
a few days we will have our pianos on display in
another store room. ' To all who so bravely gave us
their aid in removing our pianos to a place of safety
during the fire Friday night we extend our most
sincere thanks."
PROBLEM SOLVED ITSELF.
The Adams Music Company, Canton, III., which re-
cently moved into its new quarters, 31 South Main
street, with a complete new stock of pianos, player-
pianos and talking machines, at first wondered what
they were going to do when a call came in for second-
hand instruments, with not one in stock. This con-
dition, however, according to manager Burnett Ball,
has changed, as six used instruments have been
taken, as part payment in exchange for playerpianos.
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