Music Trade Review

NOVEMRER 10, 1923
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
11
How Pessimists' Ideas Were Wrong
Walter C. Hepperla, President of the Premier Grana Piano Corp., Tells How Exact Analysis of the Market
Disproved the Predictions Made Generally at the Inception of This Company-Exact Knowledge
vs. Rumors and Outside Influence in the Development of This Firm
The following very interesting interview with \-Vaher C.
Hepper!a, pr. New York, settin g forth lhe rapid progrt.:~s made by that
company and what he assigns as the reasons thcrefor
appeared in the October issue of th e magazine, Sales Man­
agement, being written by a member of the staff of that
publication. It is heli eved to be of s'u fticient interes t to
the trarle at large to warrant its reproduction here.- ­
Editor's Note.
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"The longer I remain in busine ss the more
I'm inclined to believe that quite a number of
firms manufacture their own failures and periods
of depression-oome through unwarranted ex­
pansi0n; some throu gh faulty production meth·
ods; SJme though th eir inability to analyze and
I ecognize public wants and others throu gh a
lack of initiative and their susceptibility to
hearsay.
"Fa ilures brought about through faulty pro­
duction methods a re rath er common and too
well known to most executives to call for con·
crete illu st rations here. Failures resulting from
manufacturers' lack of initiative and their sus­
cep tibility to hears ay probably are just as
numerou s, but they seldom ge t a n airing in
print becau se usually they are accepted as the
inevitable.
Some Costly "Hunches"
"Here's a case which illustrates the point:
Mr. Blank, a manufacturer, hears that business
in a certain section of the country is dead­
people are not buying. What does Me. Blank,
representing the average manufacturer, do? He
qui zzes several others and if they corroborate
the original report he immediately wires his
salesman to quit that terri tory.
"Blank won't trouble himself to investigate
and learn why the people are not buying, or
how he might be able to induce them to buy
again. He forgets the matter and hopes for
better breaks elsewhere. And having lost that
particular market he is likely to curtail produc­
tion, which proves detrimental to every firm
which furnishes him with supplies, and thus to
the entire industry.
"We ran into a problem of this sort some
time ago.
\/1/ e were anxious to interest a
Middle We stern distributor in our piano. He
said that he had already co ntracted for more
pianos than he could sell during the ne x t twel ve
months and that, judging from reports of trav­
eling salesmen, he didn't expect to dispose of
more than 50 per cent of the stock.
Doubling the Dealer's Sales
"'vVe investigated conditions in his section.
The completed investigation convinced us that
he could sell our piano if it were properly put
before the publi c. After giv in g him reasons
for our optimism we offered to prepare and
conduct a sales advertising campaign for him.
He agreed to stand the cost of advertising pro­
vided the campaign sold a certain number of
pianos. Vlie amazed him by doubling the quota
we had promised to sell. During the ensuing
twelve months the distributor, by adoptin g our
sales ideas, disposed of twice as many of our
instrum ents as he did of all other makes com­
bined. The next year he increased the sales
of our pianos 150 per cent.
No Outside Influences
"We never let pessimisti c rumors or the re­
ports of outsiders influence our activities; for,
if we did, we never would hav.e entered bu s iness.
In fact, the Premier Grand Piano Corp. was
organized in Augu st, 1919, in the face of pre­
dicted failure. When othe r piano manufactur­
ers heard we were about to go into business
they said we were craz y, an d that we would
go broke in SiX months. H eads of old estab­
lished firnls said th ey had never seen business
at such a low ebb and that they had been com­
pelled to cu t down their staffs. One man told
me he hadn't sold a piano in thr ee months.
"Of course, we h:ali zed that if we were to
altempt to manufacture and sell pian os as most
of the others had done for years we'd su rely
meet t.he fate predicted by the pessimistic
prophet s. But we didn't. 'vVe had other ideas.
One of them was that any tim e you can offer
W. C. Hepperla
the public somethi ng it wants, can use with
comfort and can afford to pay for, the public
will buy it. Times may seem to be hard, but
somehow the public invariably finds the money
for the things it really wants.
An Overlooked Market
"I had spent years in the piano business and
had been conn ected with the pioneer firm to
turn out haby g rand pianos. My experience in
the sale s end of the business convinced me that
more than half of the persons who purchase
upri g hts would rather have a grand, By ques­
tioning them from time to time I learned that
they preferred a grand because it appeals to
their vanity. it possesses class and distinction,
it sets off a room to better advantage and lends
an air of prosperity to one's home. Yet, in spite
of all this, they bought uprights because a gra nd
i~ too large for the average apartm cnt and
costs more than the average man can afford
to pay.
" Knowin.~ this, we h ad some thin g definite to
work upon when we decided to enter the manu­
facturing field. "'.ie reasoned that if we could
reduce the size of a grand to fit the average
apartment, without injuring its quality or looks,
and could place it within reach of the average
man's spending power, we could induce him to
discard his upright and take one of our instru­
m ents. In other words, we had discovered a
llew field, the surface of which had scarcely
been scratched by the pioneer firm And this
is the big reason why we were so sanguine
about the future when practically every piano '
maker was wailing about depression.
"Our plan was to turn out a baby g rand , the
equal in every respect of any of the larger and
well-established br and ~, which would sell to the
public for from two to three hundred dollars
less than the cost of the big instruments. This
meant th at we would have no alternative but
10 engage the best of mechanics. It also meant
we couldn't save anything in ·wages. The cost
of production would have to be clipped from
other angles
"In August, 1919, we opened our plant and
for the next five months we experimented with
various methods of production. After all
methods had been tes ted and analyzed we
solved our problem as follows:
"First, we would buy the raw lumber and
manufacture everything except the plate, in­
stead of following the uSlfal custom of pur­
chasing th e various parts and assembling them
at our factory. Next we would specialize in a
standardized instrument , making each piano the
same, except for minor trimmings. Our third
idea called for making cach mechani c a special­
ist at some one phase of construction. And a
iourth method prohibited an instrument, while
in th e course of construction, from ever passing
the same spot twi ce.
Ford Principles Again
"T he benefit to be derived from our first
method is obvious. By confining ourselves to
one type of instrument we eliminated the neces­
sity of using additional molds and extra me­
chanics.
"Our third method relieved each mechanic
of a certain amount of strain and worry. His
attention couldn't be dist racted, or his efficiency
impaired, by having to jump from one process
to another. By doing just one thing, and doing
it continually, he would become perfect at it.
The custom in piano factories has been for one
man to take care of the installation of the
action. We divided this work into four separate
parts to be handled by four different mechanics.
"By making a specialist of each worker we
made the fourth method possible. You see,
when a man has to attend to several phases of
construction he frequently has to pass a job
on to another man after he has finished one
phase, and then wait until the second man has
put in some time on the job before he, the first
man, can continue with his part of the work.
This passin g back and forth, we figured out,
was an unnecessary waste of time and money.
Once a mechanic in our factory passes a job
on h e .is through with it for all time. This sys­
tem enables us to det"ermine, without entering
the factor y, just how nearly complete any in­
strument is by knowing what mechanic is work­
ing on it.
Preliminary Work
"During the time we were working on our
first piano we sent out at regular intervals let­
ters and circulars to dealers telling them what
was coming. We kept them anxious and their
curiosity keyed up to a high pitch. Most of
Ihem wondered how we were going to live
up to our promises. But we finally convinced
them we knew what we were talking about, and
before the first piano was ready for delivery,
which, by the way, was put on public exh ibi­
tion, we had received orders amounting to
$360,000. The first year we sold 1,500 baby
grand pianos.
"We forged ahead from the very outset and
llOW we are selling more than 5,000 pianos
yearly, or about one every twenty-five minutes.
Each instrument car ries our guarantee."
NEW BENTON HARBOR GRINNELL STORE
BENTON HARBOR, MICH ., November 5.-A per­
manent location for the branch piano store of
Grinnell Bros., of Detroit, has just been secu red
at 179 Pipestone stree t. This concern has been
compelled to move several times since opening
in Benton Harbor, on account of short-time
leases. The interior of the store at the new
location has just been decorated and improved
throughout.