Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
APRIL 26,
1924
THE POINT OF REVIEW
HT* HE announcement that the Sterling Piano Corp. intends in
*• the future to maintain four warehouses on the Pacific Coast,
namely, in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, is
one that the dealers in the Far Western section of the country will
hear with interest. The company states that it will keep a large
stock of pianos and player-pianos ready at all times at those points
so that its dealers can be sure of immediate deliveries, thus obviating
one of the problems which have always confronted the Pacific Coast
dealer who draws his pianos from Eastern factories. Evidently,
from all that comes from the Sterling Piano Corp. these days, large
plans for expansion are under way, especially in the line of wider
distribution. The Sterling Piano Corp. is one of the old houses in
the industry, having been founded as fan back as 1866. It has
always been an active factor, of course, but bids fair in the imme-
diate future to be more active than ever before.
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about the Pacific Coast, the convention of the Coast
T ALKING
music industry and trade, which is to be held in San Francisco
next July, is beginning to take active form. According to all
reports that come to The Review a large attendance is expected,
every section of the trade west of the Rocky Mountains being rep-
resented. Those who attend are sure to have an interesting as
well as a pleasant time, for San Francisco, in welcoming the Coast
piano men, will not fall down on the traditions of hospitality for
which the city has always been noted. Now that the various com-
mittees have been appointed, plans are going ahead extremely fast,
and with George R. Hughes, head of the Music Trades Associa-
tion of Northern California, in charge of the entire convention
work, there is no more question at all of its success.
is interesting to watch the gradual development of the artistic
I T display
window among the retail music merchants. It used to be
said that it was almost impossible to display a piano adequately in
the ordinary show window, but this general statement, like most
general statements, is rapidly being disproved. This is especially true
with the dealer who has a small show window. Take the case of
Hardman, Peck & Co. in New York. This firm has a comparatively
small window, yet the series of displays which it has made during
the past several years rivals those of houses which have much
larger facilities at their disposal, and in many instances has suc-
ceeded in outdoing them. Of course, Hardman, Peck & Co. have
devoted a good deal of time and thought to their displays, and have
had the best of expert assistance in designing and carrying them
out, but then nothing is ever done well unless it is done in this
fashion. The windows of Hardman, Peck & Co. are an object
lesson to many dealers, as can be seen from the many reproductions
of them which have appeared in the columns of The Review.
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T
HE page advertisement which appears this week in the Satur-
day Evening Post, featuring the full lines of both the Hallet &
Davis Piano Co. and National Piano Mfg. Co. in Virtuola player-
pianos, is a striking example of national piano advertising. The
two companies have in these two lines a player-piano that will prac-
tically fit the purse of any prospect, and all of them nationally
priced, of course. Since the Hallet & Davis Piano Co. and its
affiliated concerns adopted the system of national pricing for their
products and since they first engaged in the big national publicity
campaign which they have been, consistently following, the reaction
among their dealers has been most favorable and the demand for
their products has steadily increased. The full line of Virtuolas
to-day includes from the Hallet & Davis Piano Co., the Hallet &
Davis, Conway and the Lexington; and from the National Piano
Mfg. Co., the Briggs, Merrill and the Norris & Hyde.
NE of the most interesting piano advertisements which have
appeared in the daily press in quite some time was one used
this week by the Gulbransen Co., of Chicago, featuring its player
line. The angle of approach to the prospect was through the
economy he could effect by buying a new player-piano at the present
time and trading in his old instrument, thus making a saving of the
expense entailed in moving his instrument from one apartment to
another. The period around the first of May, although not so much
to-day as was the case ten years ago, is still a general moving time
in New York and vicinity, many leases terminating then. The
advertisement was designed to appeal to those people who were
moving, and the argument was effective enough, no doubt, to have
brought good results. All distributors of the Gulbransen line in
the metropolitan district were listed in the advertisement, and to
read their names gives some idea of the widespread distribution
of the product which this company has built up through its national
advertising campaign and national one-pricing.
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' I O the lists of dates which piano men ought to remember should
-*• be added the most important of all—the dates on their out-
standing lease paper. There is too much forgetfulness in the trade
even to-day regarding these important items with the result that the
percentage of past due is far above what it really should be. When
a dealer with approximately $250,000 worth of outstanding paper
finds it difficult to obtain one-fifth of this that a discount company
will accept as collateral for a cash loan, something is radically
wrong and something is in evident need of an immediate and thor-
oughgoing reformation.
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HE custom of taking retail piano salesmen to the factories of
the lines they handle and letting them see how these instruments
are made is a good one and one, therefore, that should be encour-
aged both by manufacturers and dealers. An instance in point was
the recent visit of the entire retail selling force of the John Wana-
maker piano salon to the plant of the Premier Grand Piano Corp.
in New York. These men, when they finished the tour of inspec-
tion, had a much better idea of the Premier small grand than they
would ever have received in any other way, and doubtless carried
to their daily work of selling it an enthusiasm and a belief in the
product that was far greater than had been the case in the past.
Of course, it is unfortunate that many retail piano merchants are
located too distantly from the plants that supply their stocks to
have their salesmen make such visits. There is, however, one way
in which this has been overcome. A number of retail dealers who
hold periodic sales contests among their selling organizations have
set the prize, year after year, of a visit to such piano manufacturing
centers as Chicago and New York, where the fortunate salesman
has the opportunity of visiting the plants which make the instru-
ments he sells. In every case where this has taken place the sales-
man has returned a better salesman for the visit and one with
infinitely more enthusiasm for the goods he sells.
*
& V£
HIS brings to mind the work which some manufacturers do con-
sistently among the salesmen of their retail representatives. Some
of them, such as the Estey Piano Co. and the A. B. Chase Piano Co.,
conduct sales contests which have proven highly successful. Others
send out representatives to attend the sales meetings of these organ-
izations; others impress upon their travelers the vital necessity of
linking up their work to the retail salesman directly. The Reviewer
has in mind an old-time traveling man who is noted for the work
he does with the salesmen of the dealers to whom he sells. This
man had a long retail experience before he took the road as a
wholesale representative with the result that he is in a position to
sympathize with the problems of the retail man and has some con-
ception of them. His regular visits are always looked forward to
with avidity by the retail men, for he knows their problems and
can aid them in their solution. There ought to be more travelers
on the road at the present time who have the same facility to do
this, for it is one of the big forces in making a better body of retail
men in the industry. And all of us know that one of the big needs
of the industry is more and better retail salesmen.
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THE REVIEWER.