Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE TA\JS\O TRADE
leave a great name, but he failed miserably.
If Stewart had manufactured pianos the
trade mark would be worth a fortune to-
day.
Take piano men who lived in the days of
Stewart, and who. were insignificant as com-
pared with the merchant prince; yet to-day
their names are household words throughout
the land; but nothing is heard of the name
of Stewart.
There is individuality about this trade that
cannot be removed, and no trust can absorb
if. The piano business is the one. enterprise,
the one industry that can never be success-
fully absorbed into a great combination, it
can never be run on the basis of sewing ma-
chines and roller skates. There is individu-
ality about a piano. There is, to a person of
musical temperament, a soul, and sentiment
that cannot be effectually removed, or even
temporarily suspended. It is all well enough
for scheming speculators and alleged ex-
music trade editors to work themselves into
a frenzy over the benefits of a trust, but the
piano industry will remain independent and
individualized. This fine plan of factories
working in a great combination and having
trust districts mapped out for certain deal-
ers, who should also be stockholders, is great
in theory, but it is impossible to resolve it to
an actuality. It can't be done, and all the
fine-spun theories amount to naught.
SOME ADVERTISING
S
OME
CRITICIZED.
of our recent
criticised—T h c Ke-
criticisms upon ad-
view asks that objec-
. .
1 1 1 .
tionable advertising vertismg methods adopt-
1 3 1 'good £ ! «' by certain firms have
by one dealer.
i e x c i t e d considerable
comment, and we have received a number of
lttters from dealers who have asked our
opinions regarding certain styles of adver-
tising pursued by them.
We may say of advertising, as the Kentuck-
ian remarked regarding the favorite product
of the Blue Grass region, that there is no poor
whiskey, but some brands are better than
others. Now, all advertising may result in
certain kinds of publicity, but some is a pow-
erful sight better than others in bringing
about desired ends, and we say unqualifiedly
that the piano merchant who is advertising
in such a way that he is lowering the busi-
ness in which he is engaged is treading on
very thin ice, and that his is the kind of ad-
vertising which is decidedly poor. It may
bring some results, but the results will not
repay him for the subsequent injury, amount-
ing to almost destruction, done his business.
There are some men who indulge in dig-
nified and conservative methods in advertis-
ing. It does not necessarily follow that all
men should do this. Advertising can be
breezy and up-to-date, but there is no use of
degrading or cheapening one's business in
this connection ; no use in encouraging busi-
ness destruction by contributing towards -the
annihilation of public faith and confidence^ in
the piano business.
We desire any of our readers to forward
to this office forms of questionable advertis-
ing appearing in local papers—we do not
care by whom issued, because the individ-
ual is only an incident in a campaign of this
kind. It is the principle we are supporting,
and we are going at this subject in no abu-
sive way, but by logical arguments we
propose to show precisely just where de-
grading advertising is leading the trade. It
is very much better, although not as easy,
to build up rather than to tear down, and
The Review is working for the best interests
of dealers as well as manufacturers.
In this connection it is a pleasure to refer
to the following advertisement which was
gotten out by H. A. Slick, of Charles City,
la. Mr. Slick asks our opinion regarding
this:
T Do not Offer a
$600 Piano for = $150
150 Organ for = 50
65 Sewing IttacWnc for 15
That's not the way I do business.
I have one price. Your money is
as good as yeur neighbor s. If
you do not know the difference
between high grades and cheap
stuff, get posted or buy of a man
that has one price and does not
misrepresent his goods.
H. A. SCHLICK.
There is a heartiness and sincerity about
his advertising which is at once convincing
and we commend this form to others.
Advertising is certainly a vital principle
in business nowadays, and the subject cannot
but b e one of growing interest to all inter-
ested in the welfare of the piano industry.
Some men are endeavoring to place the
trade in pawn. We are anxious to redeem it.
ADVANTAGE OF EARLY ORDERS.
L AST
summer upon
several occasions
we urged upon the deal-
ers the business advan-
tage which would ac-
crue to them by placing orders far pianos
early, in order that the manufacturers might
be enabled to place an approximate estimate
upon the demands which would be made
upon them during the early fall months.
We considered this matter of sufficient im-
portance to address communications to lead-
ing manufacturers asking for their expres-
sions regarding their ability to supply the
erirly demand for pianos. *
These opinions were presented in The Re-
Early suggestions
regarding the stock
question—Some deal-
ers find it difficult to
get stock and many
manufacturers are un-
able to fill orders.
Trade Journalism
was complimented by the jury of
awards at the PAN-AMERICAN
exposition, by the awarding of
a diploma to
THE REVIEW
view during the summer months, and readers
of the paper everywhere were urged to con-
chide their arrangements for stock as speed-
ily as possible, while some other trade papers
—notably the trust organ—were urging pre-
cisely the opposite, stating that the crop failure
throughout the central West would paralyze
business. We repeated in our summer issues
that, excepting in sections, happily small in
area, where crops had been pretty well de-
stroyed, dealers were anticipating a big trade,
and that extreme caution at such times was
not particularly desirable; that there was
nothing that savored of plunging by piano
merchants placing substantial orders for fu-
ture shipments, and it was up to the man-
ufacturers to use all means at their hands
to prepare for an unusual demand which
was sure to be made upon them.
We cover thousands of miles in travel an-
nually, visit hundreds of dealers as well as
manufacturers, and keep in pretty close touch
with trade conditions everywhere; and it is
most gratifying to Jearn of the growing
strength of this paper, as a guide as well as
a purveyor of information.
These lines are called for, from the fact
that during the past week we have received
from a number of manufacturers and dealers
letters containing the strongest endorsement
of The Review's position, and how a number
of men have profited by its advocacy months
ago of the advantage of early orders.
A PHILADELPHIA
SQUEEZE.
T"" HEY have a funny
The odd way of
doing things in Phila-
delphia - Piano fight-
ing—A twenty-five
dollar squeeze—Was
it a put-up game?
way of d o i n g
things down in Phila-
delphia. There the good
old Quaker blood reaches
a fever heat, and perhaps there are more
"piano scraps" indulged in along Chestnut
street* than in any four other cities in the
United States. There are more windows
placarded with debasing signs, and while
Philadelphia may still be a good piano town,
it would be a mighty sight better if some of
the dealers there would adopt more civilized
methods in the conduct of their affairs. But
Philadelphia is quaint and she can beat New
York on some things, particularly on squeez-
ing.
To illustrate: In a recent case before a
court in the good old Qmker city,- one Fred-
erick Farrow was fined $25 for squeezing
the hand of Edith Boone. Edith claimed that
Frederick squeezed her hand so hard that for
several months afterward she could not play
the piano. The name of the piano is not