Music Trade Review

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The Music Trade Review
OCTOBER 15, 1927
Indiana Merchants Hold Annual Convention
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dent of the National Piano Manufacturers'
Association, and vice-president of The Cable
Company, Chicago. In his talk Mr. Guylee em-
phasized his belief in the stability of the piano
business and declared that the piano depart-
ment was the solid foundation of the retail
music business, the piano being the basic musi-
cal instrument.
Mr. Guylee called attention to the fact that
years ago when people were less able to buy
costly things than to-day, nearly everyone be-
lieved that as soon as a home could afford a
piano one should be bought, yet, to-day with
ten times as many people able to buy, that feel-
ing has not continued. Its restoration is the
main problem of the trade. Of the ten million
pianos in use to-day, at least two million are
obsolete and should be replaced, thus offering a
market in itself. He stated that the country
itself was prosperous, that the public had
money to spend and that the present promotion
campaign was bringing results in the direction
of reviving buying interest in the piano.
The Instalment Situation
Hy. Giessenbier, cashier of the Scruggs, Van-
dervoort & Barney Bank, and president of the
Reserve Discount Co., of St. Louis, next spoke
on instalment selling to-day, and drew a com-
parison between production credit and its for-
mer misapplication, and the present day abuses
of instalment selling, emphasizing that just as
production credit has become dignified, so have
there been great improvements in instalment
selling.
The speaker then stated that the finance com-
panies, working hand-in-hand with the mer-
chants, are eliminating the abuses that have ex-
isted in instalment selling and cause it to be
recognized as a very necessary part of mer-
chandising, in opening up a wider field for in-
creased sales. At the present time, he declared
75 per cent of the business of the country is
done on an instalment basis, and if care is used
in handling such business, there should be no
danger involved. Following Mr. Giessenbier, G.
Ray Hock, of the Bankers Commercial Securi-
ties Co., delivered an address on the carrying
charge as applied to musical instrument sales.
He covered the matter rather exhaustively and
quoted from a booklet on the subject prepared
by W. Lee White.
Trade Problems Discussed
The various talks were followed by a general
discussion of the problems of the music busi-
ness led by various association members. The
subjects included: "Making the Salesman Pay
His Way," by Frank O. Wilking; "Future of
Player-Pianos," by Frank Davis; "Collections,"
by T. H. M. MacPheeters, and other matters of
like interest.
Monday evening was given over to a smoker
and frolic held at the Indianapolis Athletic Club
which lasted to the early hours of the morning.
Tuesday Session
The first speaker was Gordon Laughead,
sales manager of the Wurlitzer Grand Piano
Corp., who discussed in the time allotted him
three important matters, namely, profitable ad-
vertising, do special sales pay, and how and
what to sell in 1928. In his discussion of
advertising Mr. Laughead said, in part: "Ad-
vertising to be effective must be consistent,
and you must be in the paper each week. The
weekly copy need not be large in size, but it
should be attractive, and a thirty-inch adver-
tisement properly gotten up will pay. In each
city the situation is different and attention
should be given to newspaper circulation and
rates. If the dealer gets the bulk of his busi-
ness locally he should not pay for outside
circulation. Select the days for the insertion
of the regular advertisements with care. If you
want your advertisement read closely, Monday
and Tuesday are the best, because the papers
are usually light. If you want to pull some-
thing on a shopping day, Thursday and Friday,
for Friday and Saturday, are best for the purpose.
"The preparation of copy is important. It
is best to use the simplest English language.
Don't Ritz the public, but put the personality
of your store in the advertisement and make
it a picture of yourself. Spend some money
for attractive cuts, and don't use pictures of
pianos that are out of style simply for economy.
Leave plenty of white space. This is 1927,
and we live faster and have less time for the
paper, so leave space in order that the fellow
who looks at the paper on the run can get
your message. Try for a position on the right-
hand page, at the top if possible. A friendly
attitude towards the advertising solicitor will
help. Don't get rough with him. It doesn't
pay.
"The successful advertisers are the firms who
are in the papers with a real message at least
once or twice a week. It is constant pounding
the year around that counts. Recently I had
the pleasure of laying out the advertising pro-
gram for a new store in a town of 100,000. The
year around we run a prestige advertisement
on the •store and its lines of instruments in
the society section each Sunday, and in Sum-
mer reduced the copy from sixty inches to
thirty inches. The answer is that the store
makes a profit."
The Special Sale Has Its Place
After emphasizing the necessity of honesty
in business and the wisdom of service, Mr.
Laughead went into the discussion of special
sales, and said, in part: "The legitimate special
sale has its place. Most first-class department
stores run two or more sales a year.
An
honest music dealer can stimulate his business
once or twice a year, cleaning out slow-selling
merchandise, shopworn instruments, second-
hands and trade-ins, or good merchandise pur-
chased at below the market value. No one
ever accused the Victor Co. of being a 'gyp'
concern and still they honestly advised their
dealers to clean house a few years ago in an-
ticipation of the new Orthophonic.
"In the past three years I have encouraged
our dealers to run over 250 special sales, help-
ing them with copy to clean their floors. These
have all been honestly run and have done much
good. Some of my friends, noting the splendid
results of a sale once or twice a year, have
tried to take the short cut by running sale
copy all of the time. In every instance it has
played out—it won't stand up day after day.
Don't run a special sale store 365 days a year.
The combination, however, of weekly high-
grade prestige advertisements with an occa-
sional sale should pull business for you."
What to Do About 1928
Regarding how and what to sell in 1928,
Mr. Laughead said: "Confidence in our busi-
ness is essential. If you believe the washing
machine business or the automobile business
is better than our business, don't waste time
here but liquidate and go into the thing you
believe in. This is the day of competition, not
with the other piano merchant, but with the
washing machine dealer, the oil burner dealer
and the hundred other aggressive instalment
dealers. The piano business is one of the
oldest instalment businesses, and the question
is whether the dealer is going to cry because
the other fellow has invaded his field, or
whether he is going to fight.
"If the dealer is going to fight he must first
check up on his lines, so that he will have
the right merchandise and not too many lines
for 1927 and 1928. The sales force must be
trained according to new methods, and it must
be remembered that this is the day of outside
selling, and the outside man should see at least
fifteen people a day. On that basis the law
of averages will work out in the matter of
sales.
"Train your floor man. My pet aversion is
a lazy floor salesman, one who parks his feet
on a desk, has a spittoon close—ducks a
cigarette when you come in, and who wouldn't
move fast if you exploded a bomb. Get rid
of that guy and put your new floorman to work
—see that he knows the stock—that he can
talk intelligently—that he helps the outside
man—that he is kindly and courteous and that
he telephones at least ten prospects a day.
Put him to work."
Group Piano Instruction
Next came George Cain, of the Miessner In-
stitute, Milwaukee, who gave a lengthy talk on
the Melody Way System of Group Piano In-
struction, and told how the idea has spread
throughout the country and met with particular
success in those cities where the dealers had
co-operated with the newspapers in putting it
over. At the present time, he said, thirty-two
newspapers throughout this country and
Canada were engaged in giving publicity to the
Melody Way Plan which has reverted to the
benefit of the trade as a whole. G. Klamer, of
Evansville, followed Mr. Cain with an explana-
tion of how the Melody Way Club had oper-
ated in his city and of the benefit derived.
Music in Public Schools
Ernest G. Hcsscr, Supervisor of Music, of the
Indianapolis Public Schools, spoke next and de-
clared that if the public was to become truly
musical it must be as a result of the work of
the public schools during the impressionable
days of the boys and girls. "Our working
hours are becoming shorter," he said, "and the
people are finding themselves with leisure and
money to spend. How this leisure and money
will be spent depends in no small measure on
the habits formed during school days." Mr.
Hesser outlined the status of music in the pub-
lic school system, and pointed out some of the
things that are being done to stimulate musical
interest, through the teaching of sight singing
and instruction in the playing of various musi-
cal instruments. He paid tribute to the repro-
ducing piano and the phonograph as media
for encouraging a better understanding of good
music.
The next speaker was Joseph C. Maddy,
who, in discussing the subject, "A Musical
Nation in the Making," outlined the tremendous
progress that had been made during the past
few years in the development of school bands
throughout the country. It was only a few
years ago, he said, that the average town de-
pended for its music upon a band of indifferent
musicians led by the local barber. Then school
authorities here and there were interested in
the proposition of organizing bands in the
schools. The idea was immediately successful
and spread rapidly until there are now literally
hundreds of school bands who hold regional
and national contests each year. At the 1927
National School Band Contest, held in Council
Bluffs, la., there were twenty-three bands total-
ing 1,500 players, and in the National Orchestra
assembled in Dallas to play before the Na-
tional Educational Association last March there
were 266 picked players, representing schools in
thirty-nine States. This band movement is one
of the greatest in the country designed to pro-
mote musical interest.
The Inspirational Luncheon
At the "Inspirational Luncheon" which fol-
lowed the morning session, Merle Sidencr held
the interest of the delegates with an address on
"Cash Drawer Value of Good-Will," stressing
the importance of competence and good-will as
a profit producer, and defining good-will as the
impression created in the mind of the customer
which makes him inclined to return again to the
business house where he was well treated.
Music during the luncheon was furnished by
the Claypool Trio.
National Promotion Work
The final session on Tuesday afternoon opened
with a talk by C. A. Dennis, executive secretary
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