Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
It is not what we have been, but what we
are to-day, and what we must be in the fu-
ture is dependent entirely upon our actions
in the living" present. "The great piano firms
whose names are intimately associated with
American musical art cannot afford to
slacken in the slightest their labors in keep-
ing their instruments constantly before
the best music patrons of the country. To
disregard the advantage won by failing to
follow it up is to sacrifice an asset far more
important than the expense involved in
maintaining and creating a still further
prominence for their product.
It is suicidal for any business concern,
however strong, or apparently enjoying an
advanced eminence, to stop advertising, or
to permit their wares to be withdrawn
from certain avenues where they have at-
tained great popularity as well as publicity.
Especially hurtful is this when a great
name, which in itself constitutes a valu-
able trade-mark, is considered. To ignore
these facts and let them slip away from re-
membrance is to destroy one of the chief
props of business.
A STENCIL SUGGESTION.
IT occurs to us that the manufacturers to-
day of reputable pianos who are''also
making instruments in their factory for
dealers will see that in the end this will
lead to business disintegration, not be-
cause there is an element of fraud injected
in the transaction, but for the simple
reason that the manufacturer after years
of labor will find that he has created no
stability whatever to his business. That
instead of having built a valuable trade
mark which is represented in his name,
he has buiti on sand, and that sand is
shifting at the whims of the dealer.
To illustrate: Suppose a manufacturer
in order to keep his wheels busy has ac-
cepted some orders, we will say, from live
different dealers to build a hundred pianos
each for them during the year. Every-
thing moves along steadily until another
manufacturer offers to reproduce the same
instruments for a five dollar note less. The
manufacturer has to meet this price or
quit, as there is no sentiment in the trans-
action. If he meets it, he cuts his profit.
If he doesn't meet it, instead of having a
following for his own instruments in the
respective localities, he has built nothing
substantial. His genuine instrument is
entirely unknown.
How much better it would have been to
have permitted the dealer's order to go by
and better to have impressed upon him the
advisability of selling instruments bearing
the manufacturer's brand. By adhering to
these principles it is the only way that a
manufacturer can build safely and on a
sure foundation, for on any other basis he
is at the mercy of the varying whims of
the dealer instead of creating a valuable
trade mark, which in itself constitutes a
strong asset to his business, he has built no
thing. A manufacturer can start in busi-
ness to-morrow and compete with a legiti-
mate stencil maker on the proposition of
getting the dealer's trade for pianos made
for them.
If manufacturers would look at this
stencil matter in this light, we believe that
there would be a material lessening of the
stencil product. To our minds it is the only
salvation of the manufacturer, that is, if
he wishes to create a property which will
be enduring.
REASONS WHY.
T H E piano trust idea has not gained
ground. One manufacturer remarked
the other day that " trusts which produce
staple articles may succeed with economy
and prudent management, although the
public to-day is rising against the trusts.
It is difficult to believe that a trust will
succeed in which there is a combination of
men who* engage in manufacturing mer-
chandise similar to pianos which are alike
in the main, but yet varied in point of
style, design and other particulars."
There is a good deal of truth in this, for
the manufacturer whose ingenious original-
ity, taste, or other form of ability, is great,
will not be content to see his fellow members
in the combination reap just as much as he
himself does from the exercise of his
higher mental and physical gifts. It is
doubtful if such a combination possesses
the cohesive force to keep together, parti-
cularly when subjected to the kind of com-
petition which would immediately spring
up in this trade.
accurately informed as to the announce-
ment of the department stores which have
added pianos to their list.
In Philadelphia there has been too an
appreciable diminution in the advertising
space used in the columns of the Philadel-
phia papers by the Wanamaker and Gimbel
establishments.
The advertising announcements, how-
ever, of the Philadelphia concerns, continue
to be attractive in make-up and dignified
in expression. There is a strong senti-
ment embodied in them which appeals di-
rectly to the cash purchaser, but there has
been not the slightest suggestion thus far
of cut prices in order to gain the cash pa-
tronage which all merchants are desirous
of obtaining.
To our minds, in order to attract a gen-
erous trade, department store advertising
must contain bargains, as the whole idea
of a department store as associated in the
public mind, rests upon the fundamental
principle of bargains. Remove the idea
that bargains are to be found in depart-
ment stores, and you remove a tremendous
percentage of their trade and if piano bar-
gains are aimounced, what then?
DOTS AND DASHES.
T R A D E paper advertising in order to be
effective, must be intelligently sup-
ported by active work on the part of the
manufacturer. By reason of non-support
a great deal of advertising fails of its re-
sults, because the advertiser expects too
much from a limited outlay of money in
advertising channels without supplement-
ing it by vigorous and intelligent assistance
Behind every trade advertisement there
should be a vitalizing effort to act in con-
junction with the advantage which the in-
dustrial publication is giving to the busi-
ness. A manufacturer who is hungry for
green fields and pastures new, should
bring to bear intelligent co-operation with
THE "D. C." SITUATION.
'"THERE has been a noticeable decline in his favorite trade publication.
the department store piano advertis-
ing in New York. A consultation of the T A K E up all the leading magazines and
advertising columns of the local press will
you are sure to find there in a promi-
demonstrate the proof of this statement. nent place the advertisement of Vose &
During the past week not one of all the Sons. Vose & Sons in this way, perhaps,
department stores has spent one penny for more than any other manufacturers have
piano advertising.
given intelligent assistance to their dealers
What are the deductions which we shall in every part of America. They have ex-
draw from this action on the part of the pended vast sums of money in advertising
for the home trade, all of which has
department stores?
The natural one is that they have not resulted in business, first to the local agent
found, thus far, that branch of the business and through him to Vose & Sons.
sufficiently responsive to warrant great
We have seen in our recent travels over
outlays at this particular juncture.
America numerous illustrations where
We are watching this movement care- dealers have named hundreds of inquiries
fully, and we shall refer to the matter each sent them by the famous Boston house in
week, so that the distant trade may be reply to their advertisements in the maga-