Music Trade Review
Issue: 1927 Vol. 85 N. 18 - Page 3
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THL
REVIEW
J1UJIC TIRADE
VOL. 85. No. 18
Published Weekly.
Federated Business Publications, Inc., 420 Lexington A?e., New York, N. Y., Oct. 2 9 , 1 9 2 7
8ln(r e c 0
J 2 .o o £er
yLr enU
What Is in Store
For the Piano Industry
Mark P. Campbell, President of the Brambach Piano Co., Dis-
cusses Future Trend of the Piano Industry as Economic
Forces Are Molding Its Reorganization—First of Two Articles
Mark P. Campbell
X-FRESIDENT WILSON one time, when
speaking of the turmoil in the reorganiza-
tion of the body politic and industrial
world of Europe, stated that nothing could be
done to help the condition so much as it could
help itself if allowed to work out its own des-
tiny. That is just about what is going on in
the piano industry for some time. I have been
observing a gradual change in the structure of
our industrial organization which is proceeding
as satisfactorily and as surely as though it
were being definitely planned by the individual
head of a private concern who would under-
take to reorganize his own business if he felt
that conditions should warrant it.
If you will take and review our own industry,
or plot on a graphic scale its production, say,
from 1890 to 1917, you will establish a very
definite line for production that will be in the
ascendency. If you could establish a line for
demand and consumption you would also find
it paralleling production. If you were to plot
the number of manufacturers you would find
this, too, followed the other lines, but with a
slight falling off towards the end, its high
point having been reached along about 1913.
If you were also to plot the number of dollars
invested in the industry that, too, would show
a parallel increase.
Profits were satisfactory and their line would
also have gone up with the others, both from
a manufacturer's and from a retailer's stand-
point. But at the termination of the war or
shortly thereafter came a decline.
E
Some people still talk about returning to
normal, about the old days coming back. This
will never be because I am quite confident
that certain basic fundamental laws control our
destinies over which we as individuals and as
an industry have no control.
Let me say here, lest I be taken for a pessi-
mist, that in any line of business the activity
of an individual, the ability and aggressiveness
of that person will reap its reward in benefits,
and he will come to the top and acquire cer-
tain material gains no matter what the general
trend of his industry may be. But necessarily
if that same person were in a bull industry the
rise would be greater. Individual salesmen in
this industry and dealers thus must not take
this to mean them personally; it will simply
give them some of my views by which they
might take measure of their own individual
status and their desires for going on in the
chosen field of their endeavor.
Some years ago the manufacturers in the
piano business began to consolidate. This was
due to the introduction of wood-working ma-
chinery to a very large degree in our industry,
a condition which is responsible for the so-
called "commercial" piano. In some respects
there had been a false halo maintained around
products with honorable and ancient names
that did not warrant the rating given to them,
because these instruments were made by old-
fashioned methods, in small quantity and at a
high price which did not justify their existence.
And so that industry was consolidated. If you
will take the so-called commercial piano to-day
in scale, material, substantial construction, and
compare it with yesteryear's "artistic" make,
you will find that, instrument for instrument,
better value, musically and from a construction
standpoint, is represented in the modern piano.
Viewing the field at large, the product of the
piano trade to-day is a very satisfactory piece
of merchandise to offer to the public.
Now let us examine the markets of to-day
with those of thirty yeari ago. At that time
relatively few people had pianos—the piano
stood as a symbol of progress when one was
found in a household. There was a wave of
education sweeping the country, and it was the
desire of every parent to give his children the
greatest degree of education that he could, and
among the indications of the finer qualities of
life that were within his reach nothing quite
took the place of teaching the children music.
The old slogan of John Wanamaker, "Make
a lady out of Mary," symbolized the reason for
the piano demand. In those days all a good
piano salesman needed for a prospect was a
man with five or six children and steady work.
No matter what his weekly salary might be
the salesman could certainly interest him in the
advancement of his children. That workman
also knew about that time that wages were
very definitely on the increase and that, if he
were to obligate himself to pay $2 or $3 or $4
a week for a piano, within a relatively short
time his own income would be increased about
that amount, so that the piano would not stand
him any additional expense and he could ac-
quire one without sacrifice. All of this field has
been opened and very largely sold. There are
to-day no virgin fields we can tap. Statistics
on my desk show me that nearly everybody
who should have a piano has an instrument of
some sort or another, so that reduces our mar-
ket to-day to the newcomers to a community
and the young married people growing up to
a point where they want a piano in their homes.
A piano is certainly a necessity from the stand-
point of completing a home. It is the hearth-
stone of the soul.
If we would just recognize our own market
and its limitations and concentrate on keeping
that market as active as possible we would be
using our powder to its greatest advantage.
This can be accomplished through the adver-
tising of the individual dealer, through support-
ing the various methods before the trade to-day
of increased activity in music, such as school
credits, Melody Way Brevil System, piano con-
tests and co-operation of women's clubs,
through musical appreciation and through help-
ing to get the cost of piano lessons down by
(Coiitiiiui'd on page 4)
THL
REVIEW
J1UJIC TIRADE
VOL. 85. No. 18
Published Weekly.
Federated Business Publications, Inc., 420 Lexington A?e., New York, N. Y., Oct. 2 9 , 1 9 2 7
8ln(r e c 0
J 2 .o o £er
yLr enU
What Is in Store
For the Piano Industry
Mark P. Campbell, President of the Brambach Piano Co., Dis-
cusses Future Trend of the Piano Industry as Economic
Forces Are Molding Its Reorganization—First of Two Articles
Mark P. Campbell
X-FRESIDENT WILSON one time, when
speaking of the turmoil in the reorganiza-
tion of the body politic and industrial
world of Europe, stated that nothing could be
done to help the condition so much as it could
help itself if allowed to work out its own des-
tiny. That is just about what is going on in
the piano industry for some time. I have been
observing a gradual change in the structure of
our industrial organization which is proceeding
as satisfactorily and as surely as though it
were being definitely planned by the individual
head of a private concern who would under-
take to reorganize his own business if he felt
that conditions should warrant it.
If you will take and review our own industry,
or plot on a graphic scale its production, say,
from 1890 to 1917, you will establish a very
definite line for production that will be in the
ascendency. If you could establish a line for
demand and consumption you would also find
it paralleling production. If you were to plot
the number of manufacturers you would find
this, too, followed the other lines, but with a
slight falling off towards the end, its high
point having been reached along about 1913.
If you were also to plot the number of dollars
invested in the industry that, too, would show
a parallel increase.
Profits were satisfactory and their line would
also have gone up with the others, both from
a manufacturer's and from a retailer's stand-
point. But at the termination of the war or
shortly thereafter came a decline.
E
Some people still talk about returning to
normal, about the old days coming back. This
will never be because I am quite confident
that certain basic fundamental laws control our
destinies over which we as individuals and as
an industry have no control.
Let me say here, lest I be taken for a pessi-
mist, that in any line of business the activity
of an individual, the ability and aggressiveness
of that person will reap its reward in benefits,
and he will come to the top and acquire cer-
tain material gains no matter what the general
trend of his industry may be. But necessarily
if that same person were in a bull industry the
rise would be greater. Individual salesmen in
this industry and dealers thus must not take
this to mean them personally; it will simply
give them some of my views by which they
might take measure of their own individual
status and their desires for going on in the
chosen field of their endeavor.
Some years ago the manufacturers in the
piano business began to consolidate. This was
due to the introduction of wood-working ma-
chinery to a very large degree in our industry,
a condition which is responsible for the so-
called "commercial" piano. In some respects
there had been a false halo maintained around
products with honorable and ancient names
that did not warrant the rating given to them,
because these instruments were made by old-
fashioned methods, in small quantity and at a
high price which did not justify their existence.
And so that industry was consolidated. If you
will take the so-called commercial piano to-day
in scale, material, substantial construction, and
compare it with yesteryear's "artistic" make,
you will find that, instrument for instrument,
better value, musically and from a construction
standpoint, is represented in the modern piano.
Viewing the field at large, the product of the
piano trade to-day is a very satisfactory piece
of merchandise to offer to the public.
Now let us examine the markets of to-day
with those of thirty yeari ago. At that time
relatively few people had pianos—the piano
stood as a symbol of progress when one was
found in a household. There was a wave of
education sweeping the country, and it was the
desire of every parent to give his children the
greatest degree of education that he could, and
among the indications of the finer qualities of
life that were within his reach nothing quite
took the place of teaching the children music.
The old slogan of John Wanamaker, "Make
a lady out of Mary," symbolized the reason for
the piano demand. In those days all a good
piano salesman needed for a prospect was a
man with five or six children and steady work.
No matter what his weekly salary might be
the salesman could certainly interest him in the
advancement of his children. That workman
also knew about that time that wages were
very definitely on the increase and that, if he
were to obligate himself to pay $2 or $3 or $4
a week for a piano, within a relatively short
time his own income would be increased about
that amount, so that the piano would not stand
him any additional expense and he could ac-
quire one without sacrifice. All of this field has
been opened and very largely sold. There are
to-day no virgin fields we can tap. Statistics
on my desk show me that nearly everybody
who should have a piano has an instrument of
some sort or another, so that reduces our mar-
ket to-day to the newcomers to a community
and the young married people growing up to
a point where they want a piano in their homes.
A piano is certainly a necessity from the stand-
point of completing a home. It is the hearth-
stone of the soul.
If we would just recognize our own market
and its limitations and concentrate on keeping
that market as active as possible we would be
using our powder to its greatest advantage.
This can be accomplished through the adver-
tising of the individual dealer, through support-
ing the various methods before the trade to-day
of increased activity in music, such as school
credits, Melody Way Brevil System, piano con-
tests and co-operation of women's clubs,
through musical appreciation and through help-
ing to get the cost of piano lessons down by
(Coiitiiiui'd on page 4)
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