Music Trade Review

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MARCH 20, 1926
THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Concentrating the Sales Work on the
Proper Type of Prospects
How J. N. Adam & Co., Buffalo, N. Y., Exploited the Hallet & Davis Angelus in Conjunction With the
Personal Appearance of Hernia Menth, the Weil-Known Pianist, Before a Carefully
Selected Group of Audiences in Their Territory, and the Results Which They Received
PPEALING to selected lists of prospects
chosen with care from the best people in
any dealer's territory and making that
appeal through the direct medium of actual
demonstration — demonstration that confronts
the instrument offered with the most exacting
tests it is possible to subject it to—is the most
direct and efficient way of selling such a
product as the reproducing grand piano. But
to be able to adopt this means the dealer who
does it must have implicit confidence in the
instrument he is offering and it must bear out
every claim made for it, since those claims are
to be shown in actual practice to be true and
demonstrated as such.
The J. N. Adam Concerts
A striking example of the way in which this
method was successfully used was recently
shown in the case of J. N. Adam & Co., Buffalo,
N. Y., in the presentation of the Hallet & Davis
Angelus under their auspices in a series of con-
certs in which Herma Menth, the well-known
Viennese pianist, appeared as joint soloist with
the instrument itself. In her appearances dur-
ing her stay in Buffalo Miss Menth and the
Hallet & Davis Angelus presented an impres-
sive program, including such compositions as
Gruenfeld's "Romance," Cyril Scott's "Dance
Negre," Moscovski's "Waves," the well-known
Arensky waltz, St. Saens' "Dance Macabre,"
Dohnanyi's rhapsody in D major, Friedman's
Viennese dance, Lischetizky's etude, "Heroic,"
and Schuett's "A la bien aimee." These com-
positions, played singly by Miss Menth and by
the Hallet & Davis Angelus and in two-piano
numbers, provided an exacting test of the in-
strument, from which it emerged triumphantly,
according to the unanimous opinion of both the
audiences and of the critics of the daily press.
Concentrating the Prospects
What made the J. N. Adam week of concerts
particularly notable was the high calibre of the
audiences which it invited to hear the instru-
ment. They comprised the best people in the
Buffalo territory, people whose financial ability
enable them to purchase such an instrument as
the Hallet & Davis Angelus grand and whose
musical culture and knowledge made them
severe and critical judges of its musical
capabilities. Miss Menth and the instrument
appeared before such organizations as the Buf-
falo Athletic Club, the Buffalo Rotary Club, the
Tonawanda Rotary Club, the American Arts
Club of Buffalo, the American Artists' Society
of Buffalo, besides giving concerts in the
Hotel Statler, the Masonic Hall at Lancaster,
N. Y.; the Masonic Hall in Lockport, N. Y.,
where she played to an audience of 1,000, and
a number of private invitation recitals in the
warerooms of J. N. Adam & Co.
Here is concentrated selling and carefully
planned sales work to the iVth degree. It is
concentrating on the people who are in a posi-
tion to buy the instrument which is being
offered. In the long run it is selling involving
a low overhead, since there is little wastage, and
that is a big factor in these days of high dis-
tribution costs in the sale of pianos. That
J. N. Adam & Co. have found it all of this is
shown in the following letter which H. G. Rus-
sell, manager of the music department, wrote
to Walter C. Hepperla, president of the Hallet
& Davis Piano Co., New York:
Resulted in Stales
"It gives me great pleasure to write you con-
A
cerning the tremendous success of our several
Herma Menth concerts. Please accept my
heartiest thanks and those of my company for
making it possible for us again to hear this
Herma Menth
artist. This was her second appearance under
the auspices of this company, and we sincerely
hope it will be possible for us to have her
again. The most important factor of the whole
program was this: We have secured good, live
prospects for the Angelus reproducer and a few
for the Hallet & Davis grand. Our sales efforts
shall be confined in the next few weeks to this
Kansas City Music Houses
Are Generally Active
Kimball Co. Cleans Up Used Stock and
Enlarges Store—Wurlitzer Instruments in
Theatres—Other Happenings of Week
KANSAS CITY, MO., March 15.—Quiet, is the one
word that most nearly describes the condition
in music trade circles during the first half of
March this year. Some say it is more quiet
than usual at this time of year, and some that
it is not quite so much so, but all agree to the
general statement.
But there has been some business, of course.
There is a nice demand for used uprights, and
the W. W. Kimball Co. has been making special
efforts to gather in pianos of this style from
the territory, and in doing so has distributed
a number of new instruments. The company
has sold a number of grands to hotels in the
city, and in almost every case was able to install
the better class instrument.
The Kimball Co. will take over the first floor
of the building in which it is now located the
first of June. Mr. Mahaffy says that it will
place the offices there, some phonograph booths
and a record room and give quite a lot of space
to rolls. He believes that there is going to be
a great demand for rolls in the years to come,
and he expects to provide for the demand.
A. C. Stubbs, of Joplin, Mo., and James Mc-
laughlin, of Marceline, Mo., are new dealers
handling Kimball pianos. O. W. Houchins is a
new outside man, representing the Kimball Co.
line exclusively, in the hope of closing sales
which Miss Menth has worked so effectively to
help us to make."
Here, in the words of the music merchant
himself, is the true criterion of any selling cam-
paign—the sales and prospects for future sales
which it creates. That the Buffalo appearances
of Miss Menth and the Hallet & Davis Angelus
were successful in this direction is no better
shown than by the letter which was received
by the house.
Co-operation With the Dealer
The Hallet & Davis Piano Co., of which
Walter C. Hepperla recently became the presi-
dent, is making elaborate plans to co-operate
with the dealers who represent this well-known
reproducing action, and the pianos in which it
is installed, throughout the country. The basis
of this campaign is, first of all, standards of
quality which are rigidly adhered to in the big
factory on West Twenty-third street, New
York, where this piano is now produced. With-
out this policy, of course, any campaign of co-
operation with the dealer, no matter how
elaborate it may be, will not bear fruit. But
with that as a basis plans have been worked out
to give him every possible sales aid, intelligently
conceived and carried out and embodying the
experience of long years of piano selling in their
conception and execution. The distribution for
the instrument is rapidly being completed, such
representative merchants as Charles S. Norris,
of Boston; the Flanner-Hafsoos Co., of Mil-
waukee; the Wyman Piano Co., of Chicago;
Muehlhauser Bros., of Cleveland; the Kunkel
Piano Co., of Baltimore, and the Barnes Music
Co., of Los Angeles, carrying and actively ex-
ploiting the line.
The Wurlitzer Piano Co. has recently installed
Wurlitzer organs in the Electric Theatre, at
Springfield, Mo., and the Apollo Theatre in
Kansas City, Mo. Other deals are pending, Mr.
Brodeur says. The company has installed five
of its Students' model pianos in the new Chris-
tian Church, in the famous Country Club dis-
trict of Kansas City. The pianos are to be
used in departmental work of the church, each
department having its own instrument.
Gordon Phillips, Ampico artist, of New York,
has been in the city this week, visting the Wun-
derlich Piano Co. and other representatives of
the company* in this territory.
The Columbia Phonograph Co. is displaying a
new portable machine to the dealers, and has
been promised a shipment of machines during
the latter part of March. W. B. Ockenden, rep-
resentative, with headquarters in Kansas City,
is on a trip through the Southwest in the inter-
ests of the company. He recently visited
Omaha and reports a good business in that part
of the territory.
The Harbour-Longmire Furniture Co., of
Oklahoma City, is a new Brunswick dealer. The
company has just moved into a new building
and has a very attractive phonograph depart-
ment on the first floor.
Manager Condon, of the phonograph depart-
ment of the Brunswick Co., has recently re-
turned from a trip into that part of the territory
where Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas join, and
reports that in many respects business condi-
tions have improved. He spoke especially of
the towns which have lead and zinc mines in
them.