Music Trade Review

THE
SEPTEMBER 22, 1923
MUSIC TRADE
5
REVIEW
Making Direct Advertising Profitable
The Third of a Series of Seven Articles by Robert E. Ramsey, Covering Every Side of the Music Merchant's
Direct Publicity- First Step() in. Writing Copy for Direct Advertising-Table of Forms That May Be
Used- The Essential Personal Appeal- Enclosures With the Letters
Sufferi ng from a slight nau sea, we wi ll say,
you wa lk into th e near-by drug store, and, unless
th e co ndition is a chronic one with you, yo u
will probably gaz e at it br ill iant array of bottles,
packages, car tons, boxe s, tubes and other con­
taine ..s . Despite the inroads of mcdern mer­
c!nndis:ng you will probably have passed a
's c;-ics o f ai·tistic glass jars of var io u s sha pes
fillcd with colo. ed wa ters of varied hu es-a t
I: a s t, in thcse Volsteadian days I suppo se t hey
are filled with wa ter!
Then you wa lk back to th e prescrip ti on cou n­
ler and in your layman's lan gua ge try to diag­
no se what ai ls yo u. If th e prescription clerk
senses that your trouble is not a very serio us
one he may recommen d some homely medicine,
otherw ise he will say: "Now So-and -so mig ht
be goo d for you, but if yo u a re ill you b etter
~,ee a doctor a nd get a prescription."
The dru ggis t is a di spe nser of dr u gs-h e is
I;Ot a man trained to analyze a patient's ·illness
and presc r ibe a cure. These thr ee paragraphs
's ho uld make clear th e necessity of analys is for
yo ur direct advertising problems before a spe­
cia li st can write t he prescription.
The Two Forms of Dire'c t Advertising
The first step in writin g th e prescription, the
problem having already been ana lyzed, is to
know the materia medica-the "drugs" w hi ch
'a :'e avai lable for use. T he purpose of this art icle
is to ass ist in making clear the writ ing of the
prescription for dire ct adver ti s in g-to set forth
bri efl y an d luc idly the materia medica whi~ h
ma y be u se d by direct-ad ver tising dea lers in
the musica l instrument field.
There are two general forms of all direct
advertising from th e standpoint of their physica l
differences and variatio n s. One gcnera l class
is co nvcntional, and, practically speaking, s tand­
a . cLzed, wh ile the othe r genera l class is auto­
contained, o r unconventional.
The fellowing t'a ble shows the subdivi sions
of th ese two main classes:
Auto-co nta ined
Unconventional
Letter.;*
{
Pe rsonal'
Fonn *
P'
nnte d* .
Cards'
Mai lin g ) Stips'
Nove l*
Blotters'
Enclosttres*
Co upon s
Package Inserts
Broadsides
Poste r Stamps
Folde r s
Photographic reproductions
Novel t ies of a lt kinds print·
Regular
Catalogs { Loose· leaf
. Mini atl1re
nook le ts·
Bu lletins"
Portfolios
A lm anacs
House orga ns
(S tor e papers)*
l "Pieces·
ed and including
sampl~s*
Of all of these form s tho se starr ed (*) are
the forms most of ten used by retail m usic deal­
ers, first, because of the more ge neral applica­
tion of such form s and, seco nd, because of their
comparative ly lesser costs. Whil e some of t h e
large r retailing establishments can get out ca ta­
logs, for examp le, in th e main thi s form is not
lls ed by retailers. The one possible exception is
th e use of a form of syndicated cata log, sold at
mode rat e prices in sma ll lot.s.
The Perwnal Appeal
Of a ll th ese physical fo r ms th e most effec'tive
one is peculiarl y fitted to help the d ea le r in
hi s direct advertising prob lem and th e smaller
t he es tablishment the more effec t ive he can
make th e appea l-w e refe r to letters, an'd more
especially the pcrsona l letters. Any form of
direct advert ising reache s an in crea s ing degree
of effcctiveness as it more nearly approaches
the persona l appeal. The weakness of many
na tional direct advertising campa igns is their
utter lack of this personal appea l.
Of all possible users of dir ec t advertising,
therefore, the dealer is in t h e peculiarly strate­
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~
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§
Robert E. Ramsey, author of this series of
articles, is widely known as one of the most
m£lhoritative write'rs on this subject. [-1 e
has ' ;ctured on this in the universities of
New York, Chicago, Missouri and Toledo,
he is the a~tlhor of two of the best bo oks
dealing with lhe sttbject, he is editor of
"Postage," the direct advertis1ng magazine,
and he is past president of the Direct Mail
Adve·rtising Association.-EoITOR.
gic pos ition of mak in g hi s appeals the more
personal and hen ce the more effect ive in de­
creasing proportion to th e size of his es tablish­
ment. John Wanamaker, for ins tance, probab ly
know s very few of his customers even by name,
while Fred Mann, of Devil's Lake, N. D.,
dubbed the "John Wa namaker of th e North­
west," probably knows every customer at least
by name, possibly by sight, and mayhap a large
numb er of t he ir chi ldren. ~at ur any, F red Mann
can write, or has written, more personal ap­
peal s th an Wanamaker.
Before You Write Your Letter
Now for a few instances of wr iting our "pre­
scr ipti on for direct adve rtisin g":
Lett ers. As just stated, this is the primary
form of direct ad ve rti sin g. The mo re nearly
you approach a personal letter the more effec­
tive yo ur appeal, without except ion . Whi le
ther e are fo ur sub-classifications of let ters, the
one we need to consider mo s t important is the
perso na l letter . Next comes the form letter­
multi g raph ed or mimeographed.
What sho uld lette rs be used for? To se ll
goods. How? By spec ific offers. Forty-seve n
dozen of suc h an incon sequential item as tooth­
bru s hes we :'c sold to 337 near-by prospects, for
instanc e. How? By merely ta lking in the form
letter about "six months' supp ly," rather than
trying to se ll an individual article.
Naturally, every application m ust b e read­
justed to thc needs of th e dea ler us in g it. Let
us, the:eforc, tak ~ what is pe rhap s th e simp lest
possible form of appeal on w hat is, without
doubt, the ha rd cs t thing to se ll , life insurance.
How could you make a form lette r personal to
a list of nam es with whose life you were fa­
mi li a r ? The first paragrap h te lls th e story:
"A man of - - - - - years in good health is
supposed to have a fair chance to live - - - ­
years, or ul1til he ~s - - - - - years of age."
F illin g in the age of th e person addressed
does the trick!
Enter the Store Paper
Letters can also be used to accompa ny en­
closures or bulletins fu rni shed to dealers b y
manufacturers or other national adve r tisers. In­
stead of letting a package of elegant enc losures
collect dirt in the rear of a store w h y not send
o ut a persona l or personalized form letter, re~
fe rri ng to the enclosure, and sell the goods in­
volved
'
Printed letters lack personal appeals, as a
rule, and are not recommended for genera l use.
Novel letters often are so clever as to detract
from Ihe sa les mes sage and sho uld be u sed with
caution.
Booklets must, as a general rule, be manu­
facturers' booklets, for few d ealers, excep t the
very la rgest ones, have a li st sufficiently large
to j us tify the cost of a booklet. The same
app li es to bulletins .
Hou se organs, or "store papers, " h owever, a re
a ve ry effective way of direct-advertisin g a
sto re. The most effec t ive st0re pape r is, in
t:ffec t, a n ews letter abo ut the customers of the
slore and the things .t o be ha d from t hat estab­
lishm ent.
Such a publication may even be
mimeographed and, if it is full of news, will re­
ceive a tt ention . The news need not be exclu­
sive ly personal items, but news items about re­
cen t s tocks received, o ri gin of certain products,
etc. The one req uisite of the s uccessful re­
tailer's paper is the reg ul ar p ubli cation date­
an d stick to it. With th e store paper special
enclosures of your own , or from manufacturers,
may often be mailed without any ex tra charge
in postage cost, and with an increase in inter­
est. Our province here is to merely point out
the possibilities, th'e writing of an effective store
paper is wort hy of a careful study in itself.
The Poor, Overworked Blotter
Mai ling cards, s lips and pieces are for special
announcement, such as opening of a n ew depart ­
ment, special sales and the like, w h ere the swing
to the impersonal appea l may act ually increase
the effectiveness of the message . Let us eluci­
da te: If you wr ite a persona l let ter to a large
list saying yo u have opened an i1J1Porta nt n ew
department the average recipient subconsciously
reasons: "It co uld not be very important whe n
anno un ced in this style." The same words
prin ted on a good-sized mailing card makes the
prospect think: "Thi s must be reall y impor­
tant."
Blotters are overworked, as a r ule, and, unle ss
you have a real new idea, be tter think twi ce
before u si n g th em. They are to be use d purely
for good-will purposes, as a ru le.
Enclosures come from your source of supply
and should be used to supp lant your own direct
a d ve rtising.
Finally, though writing t h e prescription for
direct advertising for the reta il music d ea ler,
like visitin g th e drug store when yo u h ave a
pa in , may require that you visit a sp ecialist (the
physician in our simi le) and ge t a written pre ­
scrip tion , we hop e many of our readers will real·
ize that the most effective form of direct adver­
ti sing, the letter, is .lyin g a t hand read y for li se.
WHITESIDE OPENS IN REDLANDS
RED~ANIDS, CAL., Scptember l4.---A branch store
of the vVhites idc Music Co., of San Bernardino,
was opened her e recent ly a t Orange str eet and
Cent l'al avenue. E. H. Whiteside, propri eto r of
the company, has secure d the agency for the
Knabe piano and the Victor line. A stock ro om
has been ar ranged for 35,000 reco rds and s ix
demonstration booths ha ve bee n built in . Sheet
music wi ll also be carried. The Redlands store
'will be in cha rge of E. H. Roy, who has been
associa ted .wit h Mr. vVhiteside in San Bernar­
dino for the past five yea rs.
DOW IN TEMPORARY STORE
ENGLEWOOO, ILL., September 17.-Until the com­
pletion of a lterations o n his new store a t the
former locat ion George B. Dow, th e well-known
piano merchant, has taken office space in the
Cozy Music Shop, 359 West Sixty-third street.
M r. Dow has been in the pia no business for
seventeen years.
JOHN L. STOWERS IN NEW YORK
John L. Stowers, pres ident of the Howard­
Stowers Co., Inc., New York, spent a few day s
vis itin g the factory during th e past week, before
departing fo~ Cuba. Mr. Stowers and his wife
took th e famous bath treatment a t Mt. Clemens,
Mich., during A u gust and are re turning to
Havana much invigorated.