Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1924 1989

Page 8 Text:

PRESTO
Presto
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY.
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
- Editors
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com.
merclal 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. Rates for advertising on
application.
Items of news and other matter are solicited and if
of general interest to the music trade will be paid for
at space rates. Usually piano merchants or salesmen
in the smaller cities are the best occasional corre-
spondents, and their assistance is invited.
Frr-nc c'ose at noon every Thursday. News mat-
ter 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 current
week, to insure classification, must not be later than
Wednesday noon.
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 1924.
"SOME" PRODUCTION
A country newspaper published in a town
where there is located a very live piano in-
dustry recently printed an item to the effect
that "fifty Uprights and fifteen grands are
now being turned out every day at the piano
factory." The name of the manufacturer was
given, but he is one of the kind of men who
object to having their business reported in
detail. And the item appeared in the first
week of August.
What would you call that—for the item
was accurate as to the output of the piano
factory? Would you read it and whimper
about the piano business being "dead," or any-
thing of that kind? Why not, rather, use that
item to stimulate your own business, and ask
why it is that one manufacturer can be pro-
ducing sixty-five instruments every day, dur-
ing the "dull" season, while you acquire the
habit of telling your associates that trade is
"dull," or words to that effect?
Perhaps you will say that there must be a
reason beyond the understanding- of your
methods of making or selling pianos. Pos-
sibly you think the sixty-a-day manufacturer
—with fifteen of them grands—is giving them
away; that he is using them for advertising
purposes, just as baking powder manufac-
turers present their "samples" to thrifty
housewives.
If you have any such notion as that, you
certainly do not know the manufacturer who
is keeping his factory humming and his cus-
tomers supplied. You don't understand his
vision, and his "dreams" are not within the
realm of your imaginings.
The straight fact is that the piano is an
article that can be sold if it is properly pre-
sented, by really live salesmen. That the re-
tail end of it must be kept alive is obvious, if
the factories are to be kept busy. And it is
equally clear that the piano is an article that
must be made if it is to be sold. You can't
sell the thing that is not in existence, or in
promise of coming through. It's again the
man, and not the "times" that decides whether
trade shall be "dead," or very much alive.
September 6, 1924.
an active business, like that of piano selling,
there is no time or place for dull times.
Last week an item in Presto told of a new
* * *
metal action for pianos designed for export.
Today the music roll makers offer every
But there is nothing new about the metal possible help and support to the retail trade.
action idea. Many years ago—fully forty— A well-stocked music roll department should
Chickering & Sons produced an all-metal ac- be conspicuous in every piano store.
tion and made a specialty of it in their Style
* * *
10 upright, which was very popular at that
Get out that old prospect list and set the
period. But it was not long before the metal boys on the trail of the good citizens who, in
action was discarded and, in many instances, more or less remote days, promised to buy
actually taken out of finished Chickering "at some later time."
pianos and the wooden action substituted. It
* * *
[;; even true that at the time it was common The En-ar-co National News, a house or-
trade discussion that the metal action had gan, plays this one: "What's a nasty pianist?
given to the old Boston industry a hard blow, One who claws a mean batch of ivories."
from which it slowly recovered. When the
* * *
Chickering house became financially stranded,
It was just twenty years ago that the foun-
in the late '80's, there were not lacking piano dations of the big American Piano Co. factories
men who charged it to the metal action ex- were laid at Dispatch, now East Rochester,
periment.
New York. It was then the Foster-Arm-
There also have been metal player actions strong Company.
* * *
Mid, in one instance, it proved so good that it
was a stiff competitor because of its construc-
From now till Christmas—keep plugging.
tion and the material used. The argument As you end this year you will begin the new
that rubber was liable to lose its viscosity one.
afforded a fine opportunity for the agile sales-
man, and they made the best of it, with plaus-
ible reason. So that metal in piano actions
30 YEARS AGO IN THE TRADE
is not new, nor is it exactly a subject for an
From the Files of Presto
argument, inasmuch as it had been pretty
thoroughly tried.
September 6, 1894.
Whether metal is better for export, because
Major Howes, of the Hallet & Davis Co.,
of climatic conditions in other parts of the is Genial
expected to shed the light of his countenance on
world, is another matter, and may be tried to the Chicago music trade this week. At this writing
has probably arrived.
advantage. The pianos that have the greatest he Mason
& Hamlin at Antwerp. The Mason &
sale in foreign countries—all over the civilized Hamlin instruments intended for display at the
Exposition and wheih were not sent from
world—contain wooden actions. And they do Antwerp
Boston until about the middle of July, created a great
not seem to have had much trouble because of deal of interest when they were put on exhibition
climatic changes. And yet there is never an there.
Messrs. H. D. Cable and Geo. W. Tewksbury, of
end to improvement, and no lack of inventive the Chicago Cottage Organ Co., reached Chicago on
Sunday
Mr. Tewksbury will pay but a short
genius. If American pianos need metal actions visit to last.
this country, returning to Europe to spend
in order to win and hold the export trade, it still further time in travel.
It may be that Presto is not the first or the only
is certain that metal actions will be made, for
paper this week to publish the list of awards in musi-
our action industries are as progressive and cal instruments of the Antwerp Exposition as the
of two, at least, of our contemporaries are
competent as those of any nation—and more editors
now in Europe and presumably are looking to the
so.
interests of their respective publications. Should our
METAL ACTIONS
The Department of Commerce at Washing-
ton is trying to make manufacturers realize
that the production of seldom-used varieties
of "every day commodities" represents waste.
Of course the suggestion is not at all novel
in the piano industry, although there are still
too many styles turned out by some of the
manufacturers.
* # *
In nearly all lines of trade it is the ex-
pressed opinion of experts that an era of new
prosperity is just about to begin. The piano
is one of the things that is sensitive to the
general awakening of business. It is time for
the piano dealers to brace up and go after it.
* * *
Go out into the highways and by-ways and
collect all the past-due installments and open
accounts. We are all at the threshhold of bet-
ter times, and "the open door" is for the
salesman to go out of as well as for trade to
enter in.
* * *
The upward trend of trade is felt in the very
air. Few of the piano makers or dealers will
say that they can't detect it. The watchword
to the retail piano men is Get Busy.
* # *
There was never an honest dollar made by
talking "dull times." It's unfair to your
neighbors and equally unfair to yourself. In
publication of the Antwerp awards be the first, it is
worthy of remark that this paper was the first also to
publish the awards of the Midwinter Fair, at San
Francisco, as we were also the first to publish the
World's Columbian Exposition list, a year ago this
month.
20 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
From Presto, September 8, 1904.
Poole piano pushers prove pre-eminently progres-
sive. Profit pours persistently, provided Poole piano
pushers present Poole pianos properly. Particular
people prefer positive proof, presented pointedly.
Poole pianos progress pleasantly, proving Poole piano
profit plentiful.
Edgar C. Smith, manager of the retail department
of the W. W. Kimball Co., Chicago, was seen out
guiding a new and handsome automobile a day or
two ago, which indicates that he, too, has "caught the
fever" and is taking his medicine.
There is a steady upward tendency in the Price &
Teeple market. The Price & Teeple pianos are win-
ning a great demand, and the demand is due to the
popular character and real merit of the Price &
Teeple pianos. Something Price & Teeple special
next week.
The first of a new style Conover New System up-
right piano was delivered from factory to warerooms
of The Cable Company yesterday. The instrument
is the smallest yet produced by The Cable Company,
being but 4 feet 2 inches in height.
The strike in the Ludwig factory in New York is
practically over. The places of the men who went
on strike have been all filled and a full force will be
at work before the close of this month. And the
Ludwig pianos continue to give the utmost satisfac-
tion to trade and public.
President Fayette S. Cable, of the Cable-Nelson
Piano Co., says that the new factory at South Haven
will be ready by the first of the new year. The new
plant will be one of the largest in the piano indus-
try and it will also be one of the best. "Lakeside"
and "Cable-Nelson" pianos will be coming from
South Haven before next spring arrives.
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/

Page 9 Text:

September 6, 1924.
THE PROCESSES OF
PIANO ADVERTISING
Manufacturer, Dealer and Ultimate Consumer,
Each Concerned in Means and Governed
by Results That Too Frequently
Are Not Desirable.
PRESTO
And you cannot coerce him into buying by making
the consumer demand certain things. But the manu-
facturer must co-operate with the dealer, and make
him to recognize that your problems are his, and
that his problems are yours also.
Dealer in Strategic Point.
The dealer is in the strategic point in our whole
marketing system. He is the neck of the bottle, and
the neck of the bottle controls all the rest of the
bottle, and if you control the neck, you control the
whole marketing system.
DUNCAN SISTERS USE
BALDWIN IN BROADCASTING
FALLACY OF BIG CIRCULATION
Circulation Is Useless and Wasteful and Often Harm-
ful When It Exceeds the Maximum of
Papers Read.
The whole process of piano advertising is getting
the manufacturer to appeal to the dealer; to train
the dealer to sell to the ultimate consumer; to induce
the ultimate consumer to buy from the dealer. To
all three advertising has the same significance.
To the ultimate consumer, who buys the local
paper, reads the dealer's ad and eventually buys the
advertised piano, advertising is a means to sales.
The dealer who places an ad in the local paper
appeals to his limited field of prospects. He does
not make a contract with the editor of the paper on
the basis of a big circulation, but because the local
paper is the surest means of reaching the number of
prospective buyers in his territory. He pays for the
value of his ad in a thousand, two, three, five or ten
thousand copies, sufficient to supply the subscribers.
Presuming that the editor had achieved the biggest
subscription results possible in his town and its en-
vironments, any number of copies printed over that
would be waste, as far as the piano dealer using the
pages is concerned.
The Manufacturer Advertises.
Where the piano manufacturer is concerned the
best means for reaching the dealer is through the
piano trade paper. Like the dealer, his field is
limited in prospects. But too often the fallacy of big
circulation beguiles him. If a piano trade paper
covers the retail piano field his end is served by it.
There are so many piano dealers in the country, and
if the piano manufacturer can reach them in the pages
of a trade paper his reasons for advertising therein
are served. As far as the piano manufacturer is
concerned any number of copies of the trade paper
printed over and above the number of piano dealers—
his possible customers—would be waste copies.
What Manufacturer Needs.
What the piano manufacturer needs is a trade paper
circulation that actually goes to piano dealers, not a
"big" circulation most of which circulates where it
does not do the piano manufacturer any good or
maybe circulates only in the imagination of a valu-
able ad space seller.
Prof. Paul W. Ivey, of the University of Nebraska,
who recently delivered an address before the conven-
tion of the National Association of Stationers and
Manufacturers, told a few interesting things about
methods; about the relation of the manufacturer to
the dealer and the manufacturer's means of reaching
him. He spoke in part as follows:
Change in Marketing.
What is the' change taking place in marketing and
merchandising? In the nineteenth century the manu-
facturer spent his time in manufacturing. The manu-
facturer's main idea was to increase the amount of
goods put out. But manufacturers now recognize a
new problem—the problem of marketing.
It would be fine if the manufacturer could manu-
facture his merchandise and turn it over to the dealer,
and then have his responsibility with reference to it
cease. That would be the manufacturer's millennium,
because he doesn't want to be the fellow who sells;
he wants to manufacture his products according to
his specifications and in the best possible way; he
wants to keep his ear to the ground and find out what
is wanted and then manufacture it. The manufac-
turer wants to keep out of the sales end, but he is
forced to enter it; he cannot get away from it. He
must enter into sales activities because he cannot get
an outlet for his product unless he does.
Methods Today.
The new idea in marketing is to recognize that no
man is independent, the manufacturer of the line, the
dealer that handles it; the manufacturer is interde-
pendent with the dealer, and he must help the dealer,
or he won't get the market for his goods that he
should get.
Eliminating the Dealer.
Some of the manufacturers are eliminating the
dealer, jumping over his head and selling to the con-
sumer. And some manufacturers are trying to get
the consumer to demand goods through national ad-
vertising, and they feel that through that medium
they can force their goods on to the dealers' shelves.
But the dealer is here to stay, in most lines of activity.
He is inefficient sometimes, but he is here to stay.
Cincinnati Instrument Favored by Famous Pair,
Who Give Popular Programs on Radio.
Vivian and Rosetta Duncan, "Topsy" and "Eva"
on the stage, have won many admirers through the
singing programs which are broadcast as well as
given on the stage. The popular artists in their de-
sire to please the radio audience have selected a
Baldwin piano for accompaniments.
The indorsement of the Baldwin by the Duncan
Sisters is another step in the popularity of the Cin-
cinnati product among the great artists.
The artists of the Grand Opera at Ravinia Park,
111., which closed August 31st, chose the Baldwin as
the official piano and it has won the praise of all
those who have heard it. The artists considered it
of prime importance to their performance to have
perfect piano accompaniment, and accordingly se-
lected the Baldwin as the instrument meeting the
exacting requirements.
PROTECTION FOR ALLIANCE MEN.
Itinerant merchants w T ill find their plans to open
stores in Alliance, Ohio, disturbed by city ordinances.
Anything conflicting with retail music dealers will
not be permitted. A stringent ordinance protecting
residents from unscrupulous dealers is now on the
law books of the city. At a meeting last week of the
City Council a bill licensing visiting merchants was
passed, following the endorsement of the judiciary
committee, Mayor L. E. Stevens and Police Chief
H. E. Morton. All merchants coming to this city
to open a temporary store of any kind must furnish
a bond of $500 and arrange to spend at least four
months in the city. For every week they are here
they will be charged a license fee of $100.
HARDMAN IN MILITARY SHOW.
A Hardman piano was supplied for the Annual
Military Show held recently at Peekskill, N. Y., by
R. S. Dunlap, who represents Hardman, Peck & Co.
line in Peekskill. The affair was highly successful,
being attended by more than two thousand visitors,
and the Hardman piano was given due publicity in a
special edition of one of the local papers. A music
program was given, including quartet numbers, group
singing and violin solos by Stephen Czukor.
E. B. JONES ANTICIPATES
BIG FALL BUSINESS
President of Schiller Piano Co., Oregon, 111.,
Cites Convincing Reasons for His
Optimistic Views.
"You know how optimistic I have been over our
business throughout the entire year," said E. B.
Jones, president of the Schiller Piano Company,
Oregon, 111., to a Presto man this week. "Well, it is
emphasizing my former statements when I say that
we are entering the busiest fall in the history of the
business."
The words are significant coming from a man not
given to verbal or printed exaggerations. Mr. Jones,
who is head of an old and responsible industry which
has retained its enviable place in the estimation of
the trade by strict adherence to admirable manufac-
turing ideals, is naturally enthusiastic at the recog-
nition of Schiller merits by the trade and the piano
buyers. For the business activity which Mr, Jones
considered in his anticipations concerned the Schiller
line.
"Our orders are not limited to letters. Telegrams
with urgent orders continue to pour in," continued
Mr. Jones. "Here is one from Alabama ordering
five pianos. Here is a telegraph order for three play-
ers from Idaho, and here is a carload lot order from
Georgia from an energetic dealer who believes in
spirited buying as well as spirited selling.
"Now if you want some real food for optimistic
thought, it is in this letter from Minnesota telling
of wheat fifty bushels to the acre; oats as high as
eighty bushels to the acre. I am glad that I closed
my ears to the pessimistic talk and kept pushing
ahead just as we have been doing, as now we will be
in shape to take advantage of the situation this fall.
"About six weeks ago when others were curtailing
I gave instructions to have set up on our floor three
more cases a day, also to double on our grand pro-
duction. Part of our plant is working nights until
nine o'clock; in fact, the boys have all agreed to co-
operate in every way to give service in filling orders
and turn out the work in the very best manner."
BIG ORGANS BURNED.
A large section of the Page Pipe Organ Co.'s
plant at Defiance, O., was destroyed by fire last
week and four organs ready for shipment were
burned. The instruments burned were for the St.
John's Catholic Church, Defiance, O.; Indianolo
Church of Christ, Columbus, O., and theaters in Win-
chester, Ind., and Grand Rapids, Mich. It had been
planned to build a new factory next year, but at a
meeting of the company's officials it was decided to
proceed immediately with the building plans.
Chas. Wright, Continental, O., has opened a music
store in his own building.
If You Have a Grand Piano Trade
(and of course you have)
You must be interested in the in-
struments developed by the Pioneer
Exclusive Grand Piano Industry.
jflorep
GRANDS
have steadily extended their influence
with trade and public until their demand
has become the realization of the makers'
vision of 1909.
Discriminating Dealers
are invited to consider the opportunities pre-
sented by Grands which are moving forward by
reason of a policy of standardized merit con-
sistently adhered to.
If you have discriminating compe-
tition please write for literature.
Jlorep Pros.
Washington
New Jersey
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/

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