Music Trade Review
Issue: 1926 Vol. 83 N. 16 - Page 3
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THE
VOL, LXXXHI. No. 16
REVIEW
Pablished Every Saturday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 383 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y., Oct. 16, 1926
81n|C
{!.oo 0 fc' & » ? " "
Results of Piano Playing Contests
What Dealers Make Them
Paul H. Cagle, General Manager of the Michigan Division of the Story & Clark Piano Co., Detroit, Tells
of the Way in Which the Detroit Piano Playing Contest Is Being Capitalized by the Dealers of
That City—Public Interest Is Turned Into Retail Sales Directly
N view of the nation-wide interest that has
developed in the piano-playing contest as a
means for arousing public interest in the
piano itself, its music, and the training of the chil-
dren to play, and this due to the tremendous
success of the contest, held recently in Detroit,
and the plans that are on foot for the holding
of similar contests in other cities of the coun-
try, both under local auspices and very prob-
ably under national association direction, the
very pertinent question arises as to just what
benefit can be realized by the individual dealer
in a direct business way from such as these
events.
It is to be admitted frankly that the Detroit
affair offers the only example by which to judge
these results on a city-wide basis, although in-
dividual music houses have carried out the same
idea, naturally in a more limited way, but with
a measure of success as a rule that has en-
couraged them to further efforts along this line.
A Wide Difference
It must be realized first that there is a wide
difference between dealer enthusiasm and actual
business results in connection with a contest.
In Detroit the thought of several thousand ele-
mentary and high school students taking part in
the competition, carrying with them the in-
terest of many more thousands of relatives and
friends, coupled with the support offered by the
press, the city officials and the school authori-
ties, was all calculated to develop a vast amount
of emotional enthusiasm among the dealers who
participated in the movement.
. If this enthusiasm on the part of the individual
dealer was allowed to expend itself in self-con-
gratulation and in developing the feeling of
self-satisfaction, then the results of the contest
were practically lost to him. On the other hand,
there were those retailers, and they were in the
majority, who rusjied into the door of oppor-
tunity when it opened, and frankly made hay
while the sun shone. A number of these in
Detroit are able to trace many substantial sales
directly to the influence of the contest and to
such an extent that the profits from these sales
were considerably in excess of the amount of
money contributed by the individual music
houses in support of this movement.
There are those in Detroit who are loud in
their praise of what the contest has meant to
I
them in sales and in the lining up of prospects
of high caliber. There are others who, while
admitting direct results, hold to the logical be-
lief that the real benefits of the contest will only
r
i 1 HE results of the piano playing con-
•*- test, of which the one held in Detroit
was such a successful and outstanding ex-
ample, depend largely upon the way the
dealers go about capitalizing the public in-
terest aroused by the event. The interview
printed on this page gives an indication of
the way this is being done by the dealers
of Detroit, the pioneers in this method of
exploiting the piano to the public. The fol-
low-up work of the dealers is as important
as the arranging and carrying out of the
contest itself.—Editor.
be realized during the months to come, and that
it is too early to make any calculation as to
just what this great movement will mean to
the retail piano trade of that city.
The thinkers of the trade look upon the con-
test not as a direct sales-building movement, but
simply as a means to an end, furnishing am-
munition, as it were, for the sales campaigns of
the future, winning easier entree into the homes
of the city, and breaking down to a great degree
the sales resistance that is becoming more pro-
nounced as the distributors of various com-
peting products fight for the home owners' dol-
lars. In short, the contest provides the dealer
with an exceptionally fine basis of interest upon
which to develop his sales attack, but cannot
properly and honestly be considered as a means
for developing sales automatically and without
any great additional effort.
It would be well for the retailers in the
other cities of the country in which contests
are planned to study the Detroit results from
a sales angle in order that they may profit
most directly and generously from the contests
held in their own cities, and get the greatest
amount of direct benefit out of the movement
and the investment that they have made for
its support.
A particularly interesting summary of what
the contest results were in Detroit, as realized
by one piano house, and a particularly sensible
view of future sales possibilities as a result
of the proper capitalization of the city-wide
interest in the piano as aroused by the contest,
is offered by Paul H. Cagle, general manager
of the Michigan division of the Story & Clark
Piano Co., who sums up the experiences and
plans of his house as follows in an interview
with The Review:
"As for direct sales noticeable and traceable
to the piano-playing contest, we have received
quite a nice share," said Mr. Cagle, "and yet I
believe it is a little too early to say with
authority just what business we will derive from
this source. We are of the firm belief that
the result of this contest will be more notice-
able in the Fall and Winter months than even
at the present time. Of course our Detroit
store is in a good position to cash in on this
publicity for the piano, as we derive our busi-
ness from the efforts of twenty-five or thirty
outside salesmen who canvass from house to
house.
Gives Sales Talk
"I feel that the piano-playing contest gives
these salesmen something to talk about that
is of natural interest to each and every house-
wife. It gives them something to sustain the
interest during the conversation which takes
place at the front door. We believe that this
contest gives the salesman the very best op-
portunity of talking the piano in a more com-
pelling manner. At the present day, when
there are so many solicitors of all descriptions
calling at the front doors, it is surprising that
the average busy housewife will give any of
them an interview that would enable the sales-
man intelligently to present the article he has
for sale.
"When the front doorbell rings in the average
home to-day the housewife goes to the door
with one thought in mind, and that is to get
rid of the salesman as quickly as possible. Now
if we are going to sell pianos or anything else
we have to say something in this short period
of time, say perhaps half to one minute, that
will be of sufficient interest to gain a satis-
factory interview. People do not buy pianos
(Continued on page 7)
THE
VOL, LXXXHI. No. 16
REVIEW
Pablished Every Saturday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 383 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y., Oct. 16, 1926
81n|C
{!.oo 0 fc' & » ? " "
Results of Piano Playing Contests
What Dealers Make Them
Paul H. Cagle, General Manager of the Michigan Division of the Story & Clark Piano Co., Detroit, Tells
of the Way in Which the Detroit Piano Playing Contest Is Being Capitalized by the Dealers of
That City—Public Interest Is Turned Into Retail Sales Directly
N view of the nation-wide interest that has
developed in the piano-playing contest as a
means for arousing public interest in the
piano itself, its music, and the training of the chil-
dren to play, and this due to the tremendous
success of the contest, held recently in Detroit,
and the plans that are on foot for the holding
of similar contests in other cities of the coun-
try, both under local auspices and very prob-
ably under national association direction, the
very pertinent question arises as to just what
benefit can be realized by the individual dealer
in a direct business way from such as these
events.
It is to be admitted frankly that the Detroit
affair offers the only example by which to judge
these results on a city-wide basis, although in-
dividual music houses have carried out the same
idea, naturally in a more limited way, but with
a measure of success as a rule that has en-
couraged them to further efforts along this line.
A Wide Difference
It must be realized first that there is a wide
difference between dealer enthusiasm and actual
business results in connection with a contest.
In Detroit the thought of several thousand ele-
mentary and high school students taking part in
the competition, carrying with them the in-
terest of many more thousands of relatives and
friends, coupled with the support offered by the
press, the city officials and the school authori-
ties, was all calculated to develop a vast amount
of emotional enthusiasm among the dealers who
participated in the movement.
. If this enthusiasm on the part of the individual
dealer was allowed to expend itself in self-con-
gratulation and in developing the feeling of
self-satisfaction, then the results of the contest
were practically lost to him. On the other hand,
there were those retailers, and they were in the
majority, who rusjied into the door of oppor-
tunity when it opened, and frankly made hay
while the sun shone. A number of these in
Detroit are able to trace many substantial sales
directly to the influence of the contest and to
such an extent that the profits from these sales
were considerably in excess of the amount of
money contributed by the individual music
houses in support of this movement.
There are those in Detroit who are loud in
their praise of what the contest has meant to
I
them in sales and in the lining up of prospects
of high caliber. There are others who, while
admitting direct results, hold to the logical be-
lief that the real benefits of the contest will only
r
i 1 HE results of the piano playing con-
•*- test, of which the one held in Detroit
was such a successful and outstanding ex-
ample, depend largely upon the way the
dealers go about capitalizing the public in-
terest aroused by the event. The interview
printed on this page gives an indication of
the way this is being done by the dealers
of Detroit, the pioneers in this method of
exploiting the piano to the public. The fol-
low-up work of the dealers is as important
as the arranging and carrying out of the
contest itself.—Editor.
be realized during the months to come, and that
it is too early to make any calculation as to
just what this great movement will mean to
the retail piano trade of that city.
The thinkers of the trade look upon the con-
test not as a direct sales-building movement, but
simply as a means to an end, furnishing am-
munition, as it were, for the sales campaigns of
the future, winning easier entree into the homes
of the city, and breaking down to a great degree
the sales resistance that is becoming more pro-
nounced as the distributors of various com-
peting products fight for the home owners' dol-
lars. In short, the contest provides the dealer
with an exceptionally fine basis of interest upon
which to develop his sales attack, but cannot
properly and honestly be considered as a means
for developing sales automatically and without
any great additional effort.
It would be well for the retailers in the
other cities of the country in which contests
are planned to study the Detroit results from
a sales angle in order that they may profit
most directly and generously from the contests
held in their own cities, and get the greatest
amount of direct benefit out of the movement
and the investment that they have made for
its support.
A particularly interesting summary of what
the contest results were in Detroit, as realized
by one piano house, and a particularly sensible
view of future sales possibilities as a result
of the proper capitalization of the city-wide
interest in the piano as aroused by the contest,
is offered by Paul H. Cagle, general manager
of the Michigan division of the Story & Clark
Piano Co., who sums up the experiences and
plans of his house as follows in an interview
with The Review:
"As for direct sales noticeable and traceable
to the piano-playing contest, we have received
quite a nice share," said Mr. Cagle, "and yet I
believe it is a little too early to say with
authority just what business we will derive from
this source. We are of the firm belief that
the result of this contest will be more notice-
able in the Fall and Winter months than even
at the present time. Of course our Detroit
store is in a good position to cash in on this
publicity for the piano, as we derive our busi-
ness from the efforts of twenty-five or thirty
outside salesmen who canvass from house to
house.
Gives Sales Talk
"I feel that the piano-playing contest gives
these salesmen something to talk about that
is of natural interest to each and every house-
wife. It gives them something to sustain the
interest during the conversation which takes
place at the front door. We believe that this
contest gives the salesman the very best op-
portunity of talking the piano in a more com-
pelling manner. At the present day, when
there are so many solicitors of all descriptions
calling at the front doors, it is surprising that
the average busy housewife will give any of
them an interview that would enable the sales-
man intelligently to present the article he has
for sale.
"When the front doorbell rings in the average
home to-day the housewife goes to the door
with one thought in mind, and that is to get
rid of the salesman as quickly as possible. Now
if we are going to sell pianos or anything else
we have to say something in this short period
of time, say perhaps half to one minute, that
will be of sufficient interest to gain a satis-
factory interview. People do not buy pianos
(Continued on page 7)
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