Presto

PRESTO
December 29,. 1923.
CHRISTMAN
tt
The First Touch
Tells"
TRUE AIM OF THE
PIANO ADVERTISER
On Whom Does He Depend for Responses to
Appeals Is Question Propounded and
in Turn Answered in
Detail.
DUMMY WITH THE WALLET
Mr. Man's Functions Are Merely Honorary When
Milady Adds Him to Her Piano Store
Party.
Every day you are
without the CHRISTMAN
agency you overlook
a good source of profit.
The Christman
Electrically Operated
Reproducing
Grands and Uprights
Meet the Most Exacting Require-
ments of the Most Critical. To be
Satisfactory the Reproducing Piano
must be the best representation of the
Piano Maker's Skill.
The Christman is recognized as the
very highest type of the most ad-
vanced development of the Reproduc-
ing Piano. It has no superior and it
is representative of the
Entire Christman Line
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.
t€
The First Touch Tells"
Reg. U S. Pat. Off.
Christman Piano Co.
597 East 137th St.
New York
Upon whom do music dealers depend for responses
to their advertising appeals, men or women? At first
glance it seems like a foolish question. One may say
the value of an advertising appeal depends solely on
the article advertised. But wait. Before getting down
to facts and figures it may be well to consider the
matter from a purely personal standpoint. Which sex
would naturally be supposed to be most influenced by
an ad appearing in any medium?
Some interesting facts were recently compiled by
an expert concerning advertising along this view-
point. A careful summing up of ads as they appear
in the most prominent publications would indicate
the fact that about 15 per cent of the articles sold by
mail appeal directly to men. Possibly 25 per cent
will interest women directly. The remaining 60 per
cent may be classed as household articles, interesting
alike to both sexes. This being the case it is only
necessary to state that in nine cases out of ten a
woman will write for, bargain for and buy the article
of general use, and so far as the mail order business
is concerned we may safely say that women are re-
sponsible for at least eighty per cent of the business
done.
Man's Part in Scheme.
Still discussing the general proposition, consider
the man. As a rule the male head of the household
has the purse strings in his control and the woman is
usually dependent on his consent before money is
spent for anything outside of the household require-
ment, the necessities supplied by the butcher, baker
and grocer. No matter how much the women of the
family discuss the desirability of a new small grand,
a new player or a new reproducing piano the ques-
tion must be formally laid before Friend Husband,
chancellor of the exchequer.
Mr. Man even exercises a sort of censorship over
madam's purchases to a certain degree. From which
fact one might deduce the fact that man is indirectly
concerned in all sales whether of potatoes, petticoats
or pianos. And although indirectly you can't mini-
mize its importance remember the man is the wallet
holder!
How Advertiser Sees.
But the piano advertiser, for instance, does not see
anything to distress him in the fact of the big chief's
grip on the finances. He sees things in a light quite
cheery to the advertiser. Male members of the house
are as a rule busy people. When the family decides
to buy a piano or player the man's appearance with
the female entourage that comes to the music store is
merely a formality. Usually he is frankly bored
and shows animation only when he signs his name on
the dotted line and fills out the check for the first
payment.
The Wallet Holder.
The wallet holder has little opportunity even if he
has the inclination to read the ad columns. That is a
luxury monopolized by the female portion of the
family. News, features, editorials, all come after the
ads in importance in the minds of milady. The aver-
age city man skims the morning paper and the skim-
ming is done in the news columns.
The difference in tastes and temperaments of the
sexes is shown in a marked way by the different va-
rieties of interest evoked by the newspapers and other
reading matter. In her first choice a woman shows
her domestic disposition. Long before men were
aware of the reproducing piano women of a musical
turn knew the characteristics that made it different
from the playerpianos. The reading matter was
wisely directed to the female members of the families.
It was to the women the dealers directed their atten-
tion when the reproducing piano first came to be
presented. Women composed the invited audiences
in the recital halls of the music firms.
Talks to Women.
If the piano dealers among the retailers depended
on the male readers of newspapers for results a de-
pressing air of calm would be found in the ware-
rooms and the cold chain of silence would perpetually
hang 'round the cash register. The respected wallet
holder is usually blind and deaf and generally in-
sensible to the fetching appeals of the bright young
men of the ad department.
Here stands the insensible wallet holder and there
the piano, playerpiano and reproducing piano adver-
tiser with an eye on the bulging rotundity of the wal-
let. The piano advertiser has an affinity for that
wallet. On the other hand the deaf, blind and in-
sensible wallet holder hates to let go. But in between
steps the medium—the woman. There you have the
desirable combination potent for results. The adver-
tiser, the woman who is impressed with the instru-
ment and the silly with the wallet. Seeing the com-
bination the department head murmurs, "There's
Nothing to it," which means that the instrument is as
good as sold.
GULBRANSEN=DICKINSON
BABY FOR PARTY QUESTS
Interesting Incident at Joint Christmas Party of Ad-
vertising Councils at La Salle Hotel.
The Advertising Council of the Chicago Associa-
tion of Commerce and the Women's Advertising Club
gave a joint Christmas Party last week in the Ball
Room of the La Salle Hotel. The program presented
for the entertainment of the more than 500 men and
women of the advertising world who attended the
luncheon had on it a number of headliners in musical
and dramatic art, and was acclaimed one of the most
successful of the many arranged by the Advertising
Council.
Those who entertained were Florence Macbeth,
coloratura soprano of the Chicago Civic Opera Co.,
Florence Hedges and Yerkes Happy Six Jazz Or-
chestra of the "I'll Say She Is" company; the Chi-
cago Association of Commerce Glee Club; Grace
Trost, whistler, and Bill Riedell, manager Oxford
Quartette.
At the close of the performance Santa Claus ap-
peared and distributed more than 500 shopping bags
filled with presents from national and local advertise-
ers, such as Wrigley's, Quaker Oats Co., Cudahy
Packing Co., Gulbransen-Dickinson Co. and a score
of others. The Gulbransen-Dickinson Co. contributed
to each shopping bag one Gulbransen miniature Baby
cut-out with 1924 calendars.
STUDY IN PIANO ANATOMY
HELPS PIANO SALES STAFF
Reader of Tonk Topics Offers Suggestion That
Would Be of Value to Salesmen.
A large western dealer whose manager is a very
practical piano man, as well as a thorough sales man-
ager, has procured from a factory that furnishes his
pianos, a back of a piano together with the parts that
go into the upbuilding from that point, and every so
often at their salesmen meetings, which occurs regu-
larly, they build up a piano, says Tonk Topics.
Of course the whole task cannot be accomplished
at one meeting, but it is built up progressively from
one point to the other. This shows the salesmen
just how the job is done, the quality of material going
into the piano, and naturally it makes him much better
able to answer questions when his customer asks
them, and enthuses him very greatly on the quality
of workmanship that is put into that particular
instrument.
NEW TACOMA BRANCH STORE.
The Montelius Music House, Seattle, Wash., last
week opened a branch store at 736 St. Helens avenue,
Tacoma, Wash. Space suited to the anticipated big
business in Tacoma has been secured in the choice
location.
Fred E. Cromwell, well known in the
Tacoma world of music and in the trade, is the
manager.
ADD PIANOS TO FURNITURE.
The John A. Ryan Furniture Company, 122 Collins-
ville avenue, East St. Louis, 111., has opened a piano
department and at present is marking the event by
a widely advertised sale of pianos. John A. Ryan,
the proprietor, is confident that his new department
will be a great success.
NEW STRAUBE TRAVELER.
Harry Snyder has been added to the wholesale
traveling staff of the Straube Piano Co., Hammond,
Ind., and will at once begin his activities. His field
will include New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Maryland, the District of Columbia and'" the New
England states.
The music store of Henry Morans, 365 Main street,
New Britain, Conn., was recently remodeled.
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