Music Trade Review

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t H E MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL < • < •
Editor and Proprietor
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY"
~~
3 East 14th St., New York
SUBSCRIPTION (including: postage), United States,
Mexico and Canada, $200 per year; all other countries,
I3-00.
ADVERTISEnENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
count is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite read-
ing matter $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 29, 1898.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745--E10HTEENTH STREET.
THE KEYNOTE.
The first week of each month, The Review will
contain a supplement embodying the literary
and musical features which have heretofore
appeared in The Keynote. This amalgamation
will be effected without in any way trespassing
on our regular news service. The Review will
continue to remain, as before, essentially a
trade paper.
TRADE DECEPTION.
TS it right for dealers to have emblaz-
oned across their show-windows the
names of instruments which they do not
handle?
Is it right for a dealer to give the im-
pression to the purchasing public that his
establishment is headquarters for certain
makes of instruments which he has not, as
a matter of fact, represented for years?
There are instances wherein dealers evi-
dently delight in continuing these public
advertisements, which constitute a decep-
tion, in order that they may get even with
manufacturers who possibly may have
withdrawn the agencies from them without
just consideration of the rights of the
dealers.
Possibly there are—in fact we know of
Some—instances where manufacturers have
hardly extended business courtesy to the
dealers in removing their instruments
from their control. They have been
baited by some alluring promises made by
competitors to dispose of a largely in-
creased number of instruments over the
former agents, who may have expended
considerable money in advertising the
piano in their territory. These cases, how-
ever, are sporadic, and the removal or dis-
continuance of an agency is usually done
with just cause, and even if it were not,
two wrongs do not make a right, and no
dealer has a moral right to continue in a
prominent place the name of an instru-
ment for which he is not a regularly con-
stituted agent. Further, he is a party to
deception—to continue the sign and to
carry a few old instruments in stock for
the sole purpose of blackening the reputa-
tion of the instrument in question is
neither decent nor dignified.
We have in mind a case wherein a dealer,
located not a thousand miles from New
York, carries the name Chickering emblaz-
oned in alluring letters across the entire
front of one of his large show windows,
thus giving to the public the idea that he
is a Chickering agent, when, as a matter of
fact, he is not. If it were the sign alone,
perhaps a criticism could be materially re-
duced. But to use the sign as a drawing
card as some have done, simply to slaught-
er the reputation of an instrument and
give the public the idea that there has been
a great depreciation in its artistic worth,
is not fair business, and it surely, in the
end, must result to the business disadvan-
tage of the man who trades under such
false colors. We may as well be fair to
each other, and it is only fair to the manu-
facturer that the dealer remove his signs
when he becomes no longer a representa-
tive.
This is one of the'matters that The Re-
view proposes to take up at considerable
length later.
ANENT ADVERTISING.
I F we scan the advertising columns of
our metropolitan papers carefully, we
will find that the piano manufacturers and
dealers are liberal patrons of the public
press. We will find, too, as a whole that
the advertisements are lacking to a large
degree in originality and in force which is
apparent in many other lines of trade.
It were better that more attention should
be paid to the wording and arrangement of
the advertisements of musical wares. In
fact, if we trace up the history of piano
trade advertising by consulting the files of
the metropolitan journals for the past
forty years, we find that there is a lack of
system in the arrrangement, display and
wording of the advertisements. It seems
that much better results could be obtained
if more attention were paid to this im-
portant part of the business. As a whole
piano manufacturers have paid compar-
atively little attention to the advertising
end of the business in so far that it relates
to the general public. Their advertising
for wholesale trade shows more originality
and force than may be found in their bid for
retail trade. It only shows that they have
not made a study of how to reach the retail
buyer through the advertising columns of
the daily papers.
It occurs to us that if this department of
the business were watched more closely
there would be much better results
acquired. A man who works all day
selling goods or overseeing a manufactur-
ing department is not usually in condition
to write catchy advertisements which will
appeal directly to the purchasing public.
In other words he is not in correct form to
solve the advertising problems to the best
advantage. Brain work is quite as necessary
in carrying out any advertising scheme as
in any part of the manufacturing or retail
departments of the business. The adver-
tiser of to-day must be shrewd and must
take advantage of circumstances to place
his business and the instruments which he
handles, intelligently and favorably before
the public.
There has been considerable criticism of
a certain advertisement which was pub-
lished by one of the most prominent houses
in the trade where pianos were offered at a
payment of ten cents a day.
Some have argued that such an an-
nouncement detracts from the dignity of
the time honored concern. Others say,
dignity to the demnition bow wows, it is
business we want, and any method by
which we can influence the public is per-
fectly correct.
We learn that the advertisement in
question acquired the results desired by
the advertisers. It attracted the public
attention and brought customers to the
warerooms.
This advertisement was
arranged by a gentleman who has no
special knowledge of music trade history,
but he evidently figured that an advertise-
ment that goes into a newspaper should
contain some definite information.
Advertising is the greatest of all modern
engines for facilitating business, and it is a
mistake to think that the same laws which
apply to advertising in other trades
should not be used in this—that is in
advertising reputable articles.
It is hardly necessary to slur competitors
to achieve satisfactory results. Our atten-
tion is called from time to time to certain
forms of trade advertising which we do
not consider legitimate. We have called
attention through the columns of The
Review to the fact that some dealers think
it necessary to slur their competitor's wares
in order to attract the attention of the
public to their own. This is manifestly
wrong, and contrary to the ethics of good
business. A man should have sufficient
confidence in his own goods and have
intelligence enough to push them without
bringing into disrepute through his adver-
tisement the wares handled by another
merchant in his respective city.
We have printed on different occasions
the advertisements of dealers and com-
mented upon them. Before us is a recent
copy of the New Orleans Picayune con-
taining the following, which is an adver-