Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE: MUSIC TRADE
the spurious as meeting every requirement, he is pretty apt to do so.
In the piano trade there has been, in many instances, just as
great misrepresentation as in other mercantile lines. There are
some dealers who emblazon their windows with gold-lettered signs
containing the names of the great piano makers as a drawing power,
while their selling energies are placed on cheaper lines of instru-
ments which too often bear other names than those of the makers.
There is no denying the fact that there has been a steady trend
towards the selling of special brands of pianos. In many cases these
are offered as "just as good"—in other words, the dealers use the
great names as a getting in power and then sell their own cheap
special brand pianos for which extravagant claims are usually
made. There has been a steady growth in the special brand busi-
ness, and if the sales continue to increase during the next few years
as they have in the past, the results must make an appreciable
effect upon the sales of the instruments which bear only the manu-
facturer's brand.
EALERS may have their special brand pianos made in a half
dozen different factories, and still the old statement is made
that these are made for them under certain patents which they con-
trol, and numerous other arguments which may influence the un-
informed in the purchase of a piano.
In the old days it was the illegitimate "stencil" piano which
was a menace to the trade. These instruments bore names which
closely imitated those of the great makers of instruments, and were
sold in many instances as the genuine product.
In later days, however, the special brands have been sub-
stituted for the illegitimate "stencils," and many dealers have their
own trade-marks which they exploit in their vicinity.
D
S not the special brand business one full of grave menace to the
piano industry? In this connection it might be well to state
the experience of dealers in some other trades.
Take in the matter of ready-made clothing. The jobbers and
dealers who formerly have had brands created for them have now
gone back to the old policy of selling clothing which bears the
manufacturer's name only.
A well-known clothing man while discussing this change with
us recently, remarked, that to offer clothing bearing the dealer's
name was an insult to the intelligence of the customer, and he
resented this reflection upon his common sense. He knew that the
dealer did not make clothes. And as a result of the agitation on the
part of the clothing men who believed in selling only the manu-
facturers' brands people would ask for suits bearing the label of
the maker, whose quality was well known and well advertised.
The experience of the clothing men is well worth considering
for it has been found that the kind of deception practiced by putting
the dealers' names on the clothing labels has failed utterly in pro-
ducing results because every customer knew that the dealers did
not have the facilities to manufacture clothing, and it naturally
followed that if there was deception in one thing there might be
in others.
I
OW much stronger the argument can be made in the piano
line because each individual product represents a consider-
able outlay of time, experience and money, and if the name of the
actual manufacturer is not on the instrument itself, it is argued that
he . is not proud enough of its construction to acknowledge its
paternity.
People are beginning to look with .doubt upon anything which
is offered as a substitute. They know that it lacks in some strong
essentials the qualities which made the product great which it
imitates. It is much better to do business along the lines of easiest
resistance, and when a dealer is offering for sale well-known brands
of pianos he certainly knows that he has the manufacturers back
of him, a fact which must be to his advantage.
H
IT1 7 . manufacturer who does not put his own name on an article
of accepted quality is deliberately denying himself a positive
advantage, and destroying an absolute asset that represents con-
siderable monetary worth. For the sake of temporary trade activity
he is, to a large degree, sacrificing his business future. It seems
that the sale of special brands should obtain less in the piano in-
dustrv than in any other, and one of the greatest factors which can
T
operate to the advantage of all the regular brands created, will be
the establishment by the manufacturer, of prices at which his
pianos shall be offered at retail.
If manufacturers of reputable grades of instruments place
their retail selling figures upon their various styles it will at once
classify all the legitimate makes, and there will be for the first time
an actual grading of pianos. In this way the special brand instru-
ments will find their true position at the bottom of the line. Regular
brands in every line pay the dealer best to handle, and there is no
argument that the retailer can bring to bear that will convince
the consumer that the latter's interests are being fairly protected
by the substitution of specially branded goods for the genuine
standard product.
B
Y the acquisition of new members the Piano Manufacturers'
National Association is to-day stronger than at any time since
its birth at Manhattan Beach many years ago, and the discussion
of the subject, "Should not the manufacturer establish a uniform
selling price for his instruments ?" which is listed for the May con-
vention, is an important one, and one which has great bearing upon
the future of the piano industry. There is no subject to-day which
is fraught with deeper meaning for the entire trade than this very
one of the fixing of retail prices by the manufacturers. It will do
more to regulate and better trade conditions than any move that has
ever been made, and whether the discussion this year will result
in anything definite or hot being undertaken, is, of course, one of
the secrets which the future holds. It is, at least, a move in the
right direction.
In the talking machine industry the manufacturers have worked
along progressive lines. They have refused to create special brands
of machines, and in selling their products they have established busi-
ness rules which meet with the approval of the entire trade. They
believe that the just and equitable way of doing business is to have
one price for all consumers, one price for all retailers and one price
for all the jobbers.
r
I 1HE exposition plan has met with the strongest opposition from
X * the local dealers of Washington, and they have already held
a special meeting, and will issue a protest against the attitude of
President Werlein, who obviously disregards the action of his
joint committee, appointed to consider the feature of the exposition.
Judging from his expressions, which appear in this week's-
Review, he assumes that the resolution passed at Put-in-P>ay, ex-
tending an invitation to possible exhibitors, is to stand, notwith-
standing the majority of manufacturers, as well as the Washington
dealers, are strongly opposed to such a project at this time.
A well-known member of the trade said that it was believed
that when a committee was appointed to handle this matter that
it would dispose of it effectively in some way or other, but it
seems to-day that there is a variance of opinions between the official
head of the dealers' association and the joint committee of the two
associations appointed to deal with this subject.
S
OME of the best posted trade men assert that in recent years
there has been a retrogression in the American standard of
values in our manufactures.
While this may apply with truth to some industries it has no
place in the piano trade. While there may be a tendency in some
lines towards reducing the quality standard on account of higher
prices in raw material and price of labor, it does not apply to this
industry, for while pianos cost more to build to-day on account of
advance in values of everything which enters into a piano, there has
been no inclination on the part of our piano makers to do anything
either in the way of purchase of raw material or methods of manu-
facture that would in any way deteriorate the quality of the instru-
ments which they have been manufacturing. On the contrary there
has been an astonishing betterment all along the line so that the
cheap piano of years ago has advanced to a present position of con-
siderable strength. It would be suicidal for any manufacturer to
materially cheapen his product and expect to hold his trade in the
face of the keen competition of to-day. The closest analysis of the
instruments which are placed on the market in 1906 will show that
there has been surprising betterment, that the pianos of our day
are both superior in material and workmanship to those that wei t
offered a few years ago.