Music Trade Review

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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Should Piano Prices Be Advertised?
A Question in Which the Entire Trade is Vitally Interested—Should Manufacturers Themselves
Advertise Prices at Which Their Instruments May be Purchased at Retail—Would Not This
Plan Do Away With Misrepresentation and Improper Grading of Pianos—It is Admitted
That One Price is a Mockery Unless the Price be the Right One—Some Manufacturers
Have Already Adopted This Plan and If It Comes in General Use It Will Do Away With
Improper Grading of Instruments—The Special Brand Piano Would Be Forced Into Its True
Position—What is There Sacred About a Piano Price That It Should Not Be Advertised—
A Simple and Straightforward Business Plan—The Music Trade Has Suffered in Reputation
Through Questionable Methods Adopted By Unscrupulous Men, and As a Consequence, a
Portion of the Public Has Lost a Certain Degree of Confidence in Piano Values—The Evil
Accomplished by Sensational Methods—The Need of a National Trade Policy Whereby the
Question of Piano Values Would Be Fairly Considered—No House Has Ever Suffered
Through the Adoption of One Price, or Through a Failure to Adopt Flamboyant Methods.
S
HOULD PIANO PRICES BE ADVERTISED? That is a
question on which there is considerable trade disagreement.
Years ago we began the first campaign for the establishing of
one price at retail; we urged, among other things, the adoption of
the plan by manufacturers themselves whereby prices on their in-
struments should be advertised broadly.
Such a definite stand by the men who make the instruments
would do much towards the maintenance of price stability every-
where; and, while it would not be feasible to penalize dealers for
the lowering of prices, yet there would be the satisfaction of know-
ing that correct prices were placed upon all pianos; and it is pure
tommyrot to shout one price and not have that the right price, for
there is no business honesty in charging a price far beyond the
actual value of an instrument and sticking to it.
If the makers themselves would advertise the figure at which
their instruments could be purchased at retail, it would do more
to rehabilitate the piano business in the estimation of the public
from the shock it has suffered through an encounter with the
guessing contest schemes than any single act that could be per-
formed.
Such a method would do away completely with misrepresenta-
tion on the part of some dealers who frequently place exorbitant
prices upon reliable instruments which they are not desirous of sell-
ing, but keep simply to use them as a drawing power, while they
place upon nondescript pianos prices which are far beyond their
actual worth. They then endeavor to dispose of the no-name pianos
at high prices, placing them among the "just-as-good" class.
In this way the sales of reputable instruments are diminished
by a condition which the dealer creates through an "any-old-price"
system. If manufacturers fix their own retail prices they would at
once destroy all possibilities of dishonest pricings.
The cheap piano and the special brand piano would be forcetl
into its true position.
Instruments would be sold in their proper class and with price
gradings by the men who created the instruments, for who, after
all, is more competent to judge of piano values than the men who
make them?
Surely if hat manufacturers and cigar manufacturers can ad-
vertise their prices broadly, why should not the men who manu-
facture the King of musical instruments?
What is there about a piano price that it should be religiously
kept in the background and screened from public gaze?
Is it too sacred for the light of day, or what?
We believe that if 25 per cent, of the manufacturers would
agree to do this, in less than twelve months thereafter 75 per cent,
of the industry would have joined, and it would be practically
impossible after a little to dispose of pianos out of their class.
In other words, the special brand instruments—that is, pianos
whose origin is not directly traceable—would occupy their true
position.
Obviously the dealers could not, by false pricing, force a special
brand piano into the class where only a legitimate instrument
belonged.
In a little while the policy of fixed prices would restore con-
fidence, so that people would understand full well that they were
not being overcharged in purchasing pianos.
The instruments would be sold in their proper class and the
future stability of the trade assured.
One stumbling block to the adoption of this plan has been
the fact that some piano men, through a system of local advertising,
have boomed some instruments of the cheaper class to such a
point that they have acquired a splendid representation locally.
The prices placed on the same make of instruments differ so
materially in different sections that manufacturers have been loath
to advertise prices broadly, because it would interfere, it is alleged,
with certain acts of their trade representatives.
Of course, such action requires backbone not of the chocolate
eclair variety, and backbone is a necessary requisite in carrying out
radical rules in any business; but every thinking man knows that
the trade has suffered, in reputation by reason of questionable price
methods pursued by a certain class of men.
Such not only reflect upon the men putting them forth, but to
an extent upon the entire trade.
Intelligent dealers know full well that the confidence of the
public in piano values was very seriously shaken through the puzzle
contest schemes.
This evil The Music Trade Review fought single-handed, with-
out the support of another trade publication in this country.
Some of the conductors of papers were afraid to offend certain
clients and they remained quiescent upon this vital subject until The
Review had aroused the trade to such an extent that the puzzle
scheme was taken up by the Dealers' National Association at two
consecutive annual conventions.
Then the United States Government stepped in, and the puzzle
schemes are now practically extinct.
It is the evil which men do that lives after them, and the effect
of the puzzle-coupon scheme has been to leave a legacy to the trade
which has been rich in depressing influences.
Now, suppose manufacturers had established their prices at
retail for pianos!
The people of this country would not have bitten at the puzzle
schemes with such avidity, because they would have easily found
that the prices on the "puzzle" pianos had been elongated to cover
the giving of the $100 coupon.
That is one way in which the guessing schemes could have
been stopped earlier in their progress.
It is conceded by the most progressive minds in this trade that
the more simple and straighforward the methods adopted the better
it is for business.
In other words, pianos must be sold under correct pricings,
and the sensational forms of misrepresentation must be abandoned
else the whole business will suffer very seriously.
(Continued on page 7.)