Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE
in the past few years towards the special brand line means that if the
business is permitted to go on unchecked that serious and almost ir-
reparable injury will be done manufacturers as well as dealers. Some
of the dealers who have the agency for high grade and reputable
pianos are simply using them as pullers in. They trade upon the
reputation of the great names. It gives them position in their respec-
tive towns, and dignifies their business, but all their sales emphasis
is placed upon their own special brand instruments, which in most
cases bear their own names, and are sold as the just as good. They
are bolstered up and foisted upon the public simply by the associa-
tion of the dealer with some of the great names in piano history.
What is the remedv ? How shall this move be checked ?
T
H E best way to effectually check this growth is to have manufac-
turers themselves fix the prices at which their various instru-
ments shall be offered at retail. When this course is adopted, and it is
thoroughly understood through the mediums of great circulation that
manufacturers place certain values upon their instruments, no one
will pay more than the asking price.
The retail prices on Steinway pianos are published broadcast, and
when the prices are fixed by the manufacturers no dealer can place
a fictitious valuation upon them in order to bring his own special
brand up, so that he can take a wide gap between his special and the
regular make. If a Steinway vertegrand is advertised by the manu-
facturers at $500, the dealer cannot say it is worth $650, and put his
own in the $500 class. The best way is the establishment of prices
bv the manufacturers. Boot and shoe men, cigar men, hat manu-
facturers, all have regular prices on certain products, and why should
not piano manufacturers, particularly those whose products have been
unfairly treated bv dealers?
T
HERE is but one way out of the difficulty; and that the adoption
of the right price at retail, Crave questions confront the
piano industry—questions that require exceeding care and judgment
in handling. Associations which hope to accomplish good must be
conducted on broad lines and supported by the best ideas of all mem-
bers working in harmony for the betterment of conditions. The mere
existence of an organization which may be at once called into active
support or condemnation of any particular move is excellent, but
there can be no strong forward movement unless it is supported in
a irenuinclv enthusiastic manner.
I
F pays to get out good trade literature, and to have it attractive in
every way. The great success of the catalogue houses results
largelv from the fact that their catalogues are skilfully compiled, giv-
ing complete, sometimes glowing, perhaps exaggerated descriptions
of the devices to which they relate. A great deal of business is se-
cured in this way. Similar information given bv piano men relative
to their respective claim?; would result in awakening interest in their
particular ware, simply to advertise that a piano is good and has splen-
did qualities is not enough. Some reasons should be advanced why
that particular piano is better than those offered by competitors.
P
IANO advertising in order to be interesting and successful must
be dealt with in an exhaustive manner. Specific claims should be
made and supported in a good argumentative and entertaining form.
Most of the piano advertising in the magazines is dull and uninter-
esting because it is prepared by advertising men who have no knowl-
edge of piano construction or of the science of acoustics.
They
simply treat the subject from the standpoint of sewing machines,
washboards or corsets. The pianos advertised are all good, but that
statement is not enough for so expensive and so artistic a product as
a piano. Reasons should be offered.
HE Aeolian Co., admittedly the largest trade advertisers, for
years put forth the most interesting style of advertising, pur-
sued in this or any other industry. They created a new standpoint
for music trade advertising, and they caused people to think; they
aroused interest in homes where indifference formerly reigned.
That was the kind of advertising which struck the solar plexus of the
public in a manner that was Corbettesque.
And results, why bless you, they have been getting them, their
dealers have all been beneficiaries under the system. Correct adver-
tising has been really one of the strongest inground principles in the
root of Aeolian success. It was not merely indifferent, spasmodic
advertising, but carefully thought out, skilfully planned, unremitting
advertising of the right kind.
T
REVIEW
9
T a recent meeting of the Buffalo Credit Men's Organization the
parcels post bill was warmly denounced. The members con-
sidered it advantageous to the catalogue houses, but a great detriment
to the wholesale and retail interests of the country. They figure
that it would tend to crystallize and concentrate the business interests
of the country in the hands of a few, which would result in a gigantic
monopoly and the killing off of merchants throughout the country
who pay taxes for the support of trade municipality, and are entitled
to the retail business in their locality. They figure that this class
legislation is in the interests of a very few and a detriment of the
manv.
A
N O T H E R thing, a parcels post would burden the mails with
packages to the delay and detriment of first-class matter. There
is no doubt but that it would be one of the most serious blows to the
small goods dealer that has ever befallen them and still there has been
no concerted move in this trade to take the slightest action to prevent
the passage of this bill, which, if it goes into effect, deals a severe blow
to the small goods man in every section. When Uncle Sam will take
a package from Maine to California at the same rate as from New
York to Brooklyn as he does a letter, making the short distances pay
for the long, the fat routes for the poor ones, and charging upon
the general taxation, why then he is going to make indeed short work
of the country retailer.
The Review again sounds a note of warning in this matter and
urges the dealers not to remain indifferent to this very important
question.
A
T
HE ideas become ingrained because these industries have existed
for years, that no condition could bring about their removal to
tolerant labor conditions, should furnish an object lesson to those
who seek to hamper the manufacturer by unjust restrictions.
It is not alone labor organizations, too, that are having a tend-
ency in all cities to cause industries to move, but unfair control of
municipal affairs as well. Cities whose affairs are in the hands of
wise, honest and discerning men, are usually generous in their treat-
ment of their local industries. Over-taxation of the manufacturing
property is a poor policy, so is overcharging for water furnished by
the municipal w r ater supply, yet a tendency to do both exists in many
places, especially in older cities where industries arc regarded as un-
questionably permanent fixtures.
T
H E ideas become ingrained because these industries have existed
for years, that no condition could bring about their removal to
other cities, that because they have prospered in the past, nothing
could prevent their continuing to increase in importance. l>oth pre-
mises are wrongfully taken. The manufacturer has to compute his
course very carefully in these days of sharp and close competition ;
he cannot afford to pay a greater percentage of taxes than his compet-
itor in another city. The manufacturer must get business at a
profit, or he will require less labor in his works, and he will have to
pay less wages. In either case his city is the loser.
It is always
better for owners of property in a community to pay larger taxes that
the manufacturers may pay less. His property should be assessed
for taxes at a minimum figure, not for his own benefit any more than
for the benefit of all those people whose property values and whose
business depends upon the general prosperity of the community. We
have in mind some localities which have important music trade indus-
tries which the tax assessor has viewed with hungry eyes.
T
HE death of J\ J. Healy removes one of the most remarkable
men that this industry has ever produced. Eroni early boy-
hood to the close of his life, he was ever a worker, ever striving to
win higher points. His close application to business shortened his
days, but in the winning of his laurels his nature was never hard-
ened. His warm generous heart pulsed with nothing but kind-
ness toward his fellowmen. The magnificent business enterprise
which he reared will stand as an imperishable monument to his busi-
ness accumen, while mourning friends everywhere will recall his
manly attributes.
H E N we first visited Cuba some years ago, we stated that it
would be a half dozen years after the American occupation
before the Island would form a market of any magnitude for our
musical instruments.
[ust now the prosperity of Cuba is causing many manufacturers
to make investigations regarding the sales chances in that country.
While the market is slowly improving it will be some years yet be-
fore there will be a large purchasing power among the people for
pianos.
W