Music Trade Review

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46
THE
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
S. ROLAND HALL TALKS ON CONSTRUCTIVE ADVERTISING
Advertis ng Manager of the Victor Talking Mach'ne Co. Delivers Forceful Address at the Jobbers'
Banquet Held Last Week in Atlantic City—Outlines Policies Which Make for Success
At the annual convention of the National As-
sociation of Talking Machine Jobbers held last
week at Atlantic City, one of the most interest-
ing addresses at the banquet which concluded
the convention was delivered by S. Roland Hall,
who recently became advertising manager of the
Victor Co. Mr. Hall's speech was as follows:
Hack in the days when I had the temerity
to run a school of advertising and a school of
salesmanship one principle that I always stood
for was that a man should know a business
pretty thoroughly before attempting to give defi-
nite advice about marketing methods. For six
months or a year 1 prefer to absorb what I
can of this great business before posing as a
wise counselor.
They said of me when 1 went from the edu-
cational field to the Portland Cement industry
that I passed from the "abstract" to the '"con-
crete." I suppose it might now be said that I
have gone from the "concrete" to the "con-
cert"—a field considerably broader though prob-
ably not a harder one. 1 think if some of you
gentlemen who have been telling me your trou-
bles about shortages of stock and inability to
fill orders could have a little experience in the
Portland Cement field where there is an over-
production, capacity of millions of barrels a
year, you would feel that your present difficulties
are small ones. You would know, too, how it
feels to now and then have to sell your product
at cost or thereabouts and have dealers tell
you that they didn't care whether they handled
it or not—would rather sell something else in
which there was more pro!It.
Long before 1 ever dreamed of coming with
the Victor organization I admired its great pub-
licity campaign. 1 am familiar in a general way
with the campaigns of most of the national ad<
vertisers, and 1 do not say this because 1 am
now part of the Victor organization, but 1 firmly
believe that our company is doing more toward
making a positive demand on dealers for our
product than any other manufacturer in the
country. The big fundamental things in a pub-
licity way have been done and are now being
done. As Mr. Geissler said to me when he
invited me to come with the company, what
the advertising department will do from now on
must be an evolution rather than a revolution.
Of course, we do not think we are working up
to a 100 per cent, point standard. I know that
there, are a number of things that we can do
and will do in the way of improvements, and 1
hope in time to play my part in your great work.
I have been giving some study lately to
what you distributors are doing in the way of
furnishing selling aids to dealers, and I am go-
ing to tell you that some dealers have written
us that they like your aids better than they do
those sent out from the home office of the Vic-
tor Co. We take off our hats to yem when you
get these compliments. There is no jealousy on
our part. I believe in this healthy, harmonious
competition. Go to it and set us a mark.
My viewpoint right now is rather that of the
outsider—one who has been an enthusiastic Vic-
trola user and record buyer for a number of
years. This fresh point of view is sometimes
very important in a big business. Men who are
constantly in the midst of a business, whether
in the retail end or the manufacturing end, are
likely to get what we call the "mirror habit"—
that is, looking at their work from their own
viewpoint and saying, "This is fine, fine because
it pleases us, the big boss, or the board of di-
rectors." Herbert Casson, in one of his talks,
tells a story of traveling on a train one day with
a manufacturer who said he had no use for the
outside expert.
Casson replied that he hap-
pened to be one of those individuals himself
and offered to bet a dinner in the dining car that
if the manufacturer would reveal his business
Casson could suggest some viewpoints to him
that he had not been considering, but which he
would admit should be considered. The wager
was taken and the manufacturer confessed to
producing go-carts. Casson wanted to know
if the manufacturer had ever asked a woman
what kind of go-cart she preferred, whether he
had ever given any consideration to the fact
that women knew little about mechanical mat-
ters and that a go-cart should be very simple,
whether any regard had ever been had for the
fact that women have no pockets, and that there-
fore it might be well to have the go-cart
equipped with a pocket for a bottle of milk,
also whether or not any consideration had ever
been given to putting a little bell or some other
device on the cart for the entertainment of the
kid while he was having his ride. At this point
the manufacturer gave in and led the way to the
dining car.
Robert Ronner, when he ran the old New
York Ledger, used to keep in his mind's eye a
p'cture of a mythical old lady and her two
daughters up in Vermont, and every time he was
S. Roland Hall
in doubt about publishing an article or story he
asked himself how it would strike this old lady
and her two daughters.
Edward Bok, who has made a great success
editing the Ladies' Home Journal, has said that
he has also kept in mind a certain representa-
tive type of woman and tries to conduct the
magazine according to her viewpoint.
In my own work I have always kept in mind
an individual whom 1 call "John Smith" out at
"Blanktown." 1 try to remember that "John"
has only a passive interest in what I am adver-
tising and that hundreds of advertisers are try-
ing for his attention.
Thus, you see, good advertising calls for
imagination—not imagination in the sense of
misleading description or argument. We don't
need overdescription in advertising the Victrola.
If we can find ways and means of painting the
truth realistically—no small job—we shall do our
work well enough. But we need imagination to
see these people that we arc trying to appeal to
and address them properly. A good Victrola
dealer must have more imagination than that
man who said he didn't want to go into the hat
business because everybody had a hat. Yet, I
suppose there are dealers who don't bother very
much about selling records to some customers
because they may truthfully say that these cus-
tomers already have some records. If any of
you gentlemen haven't read the little book by
Lorin Deland entitled, "Imagination in Busi-
ness," I assure you that you will find it a delight-
ful and stimulating volume.
Advertising differs from face-to-face selling.
In face-to-face selling we can often appeal to
all of the five senses and we have an individual
instead of a group to work on. In advertising
ordinarily we can appeal only to the eye, and
we must make our appeal to the eye so vivid and
true to life that other senses will be stirred.
My experience in selling educational courses
with the International Correspondence Schools
makes me a strong advocate of the human
appeal in advertising. In the I. C. S. work we
couldn't advertise "Home Study Courses for
Sale" and do a successful business. Home study
was not attractive in itself to many people. We
had to paint the rewards or the outcome of
spare-hour study. If you were selling insurance
you might sell a policy once in a lifetime with
the headline of "Insurance Policies for Sale,"
but if you believe, as 1 do, in human appeal, you
will use headlines like that one in my scrap-
book which reads, "Don't Force Your Widow
to Marry Again."
The thing that impressed me most on my
recent trip through the Middle West was the
great development in record sales that many of
our dealers have brought about. Evidently these
stores have trained a considerable number of
people to buy records regularly. I came back
with the vision that we can and should fasten
the record-buying habit on a large part of the
American public so that they will think of buy-
ing records regularly every week or every
month just as they buy the Saturday night box
of candy or lay out a program of attending a
show so many evenings each month. Referring
again to my I. C. S. experience, we used to say
irp there in Scranton that we were fastening the
study habit on young men to the exclusion of
various time-wasting habits. 1 would like to
feel that in this new field of work 1 can play a
part in fastening the record-buying habit on the
American, people 1<> the exclusion of some other
habits that yield them much less in real en-
joyment.
As I get my grip on this wonderful business,
I hope we can make the advertising department
an even greater clearing house for advertising
and selling aids than it has ever been, and this
is said with respect and admiration for what
has already been-done in this direction. It does
not follow that we must ourselves discover all
the good new plans. It is just as important
for us to find out here and there what successful
dealers are doing and give the entire trade the
benefit of this information. Nor do I think that
the home office should discourage the efforts of
you distributors.
You, too, can continue to
play a stronger part. There is work enough
for all of us to do, and working together as well
as we can we will not live to do all that might
well be done. We will co-operate with «you
whenever the advertising department can help
you carry out your plans. In time I am likely
to ask your aid in getting groups of dealers to-
gether for discussions of their advertising
methods. I want to get this direct contact with
the trade.
COLUMBIA COMILEANINGS
The Columbia Graphophone Co., New York,
has just furnished its dealers with a mid-month
record list which contains eight records featur-
ing sixteen popular selections. This list goes
on sale August 10 and the company states that
it is planning to issue this mid-month list regu-
larly so that the dealers may get more business
during the ten dullest record days of the month
—from the 10th to the 20th of the month.
Edw. M. Baker, advertising manager of the
Columbia Graphophone Co., spent a few days
last week in Asheville, N. C , attending a news-
paper publishers' convention. On his way home
he stopped at the company's Baltimore whole-
sale division where he found Manager Heath
optimistic in his reports of the situation.
W. C. Fuhri, United States manager of the
Columbia Co., is receiving splendid reports from
the district managers throughout the country
relative to the sales totals for the month of
June. The prosperous condition of the Colum-
bia trade is evidenced in the reports submitted
by District Manager Dennison with headquarters
in San Francisco, showing that the month of
June closed with an increase of 125 per cent,
over June, 1916.
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