Music Trade Review
Issue: 1927 Vol. 85 N. 24 - Page 5
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
The Piano Is Certainly News in These Days
Promotion Committee's
Work During the Past Year
Piano Sales Promotion Committee of the National Piano Manufacturers'
Association Has Nearly 1,000 Retail Piano Merchants Co-operating With
It in National Selling Campaign—A Summary of Its General Activities
F
ROM the standpoint of trade propaganda
and publicity for the piano most direct
interest will be found in the activities of
the Sales Promotion Committee organized by
the National Piano Manufacturers' Association
shortly after the 1926 convention, and which
its work has been instrumental in proving that
it is possible to have the piano commented
upon in the press of the country through the
medium of a logical campaign.
In the first place this Sales Promotion Com-
mittee, with an authorized appropriation of
$200,000 annually and an actual cash fund con-
siderably below that amount, has accomplished
almost the impossible in getting value for every
dollar spent. Among the first, moves was the
launching of a national advertising campaign,
utilizing the Quality Group of magazines, not
because those publications reach the mass of
the people, but because they did reach those
ostensibly in the best position to purchase
pianos if their interest was once aroused. Not
only were page advertisements used in these
magazines with a circulation of approximately
3,000,000 monthly, but they were prevailed upon
to publish a number of articles by writers of
reputation, making direct reference to the im-
portance of the piano in the educational and
home life of the day.
There was nothing indirect about these arti-
cles. One, for instance, was headed "Our
Growth in Music; The Pianoforte, a Vital Fac-
tor"; another, "The Music of the Piano Runs
Through Two Centuries"; still another, "Facts
on the Making and Use of Pianos in America,"
and so on. Then there were articles upon the
proper placing of the piano in the home and
Max J. de Rochemont
began really to function with Edward C. Boy- the class of pianos that fitted in best with vari-
kin as executive secretary in the Fall of last ous home furnishings. This magazine campaign
year. This committee has not been responsible has been kept up consistently and the list of
tor all the material that has appeared in news- publications has been increased to take in the
papers and magazines relative to pianos, but Ladies' Home Journal, the American Magazine
it can be credited with the great bulk of it, and and other magazines of wide circulation.
It is frankly admitted that in view of the
widespread national advertising carried on by
other industries, this paid publicity in the in-
terests of the piano has been little more than
Edward C. Boykin
a drop in the bucket. Alone it would probably
have had little or no effect, but generously
supported by dealers in all sections of the
(Continued on page 7)
NEWARK N. J.
ESTABLISHED 1862
ONE OF AMERICA'S
FINE PIANOS
UPRIGHTS
GRANDS
THE LAUTER-HUMANA
The Piano Is Certainly News in These Days
Promotion Committee's
Work During the Past Year
Piano Sales Promotion Committee of the National Piano Manufacturers'
Association Has Nearly 1,000 Retail Piano Merchants Co-operating With
It in National Selling Campaign—A Summary of Its General Activities
F
ROM the standpoint of trade propaganda
and publicity for the piano most direct
interest will be found in the activities of
the Sales Promotion Committee organized by
the National Piano Manufacturers' Association
shortly after the 1926 convention, and which
its work has been instrumental in proving that
it is possible to have the piano commented
upon in the press of the country through the
medium of a logical campaign.
In the first place this Sales Promotion Com-
mittee, with an authorized appropriation of
$200,000 annually and an actual cash fund con-
siderably below that amount, has accomplished
almost the impossible in getting value for every
dollar spent. Among the first, moves was the
launching of a national advertising campaign,
utilizing the Quality Group of magazines, not
because those publications reach the mass of
the people, but because they did reach those
ostensibly in the best position to purchase
pianos if their interest was once aroused. Not
only were page advertisements used in these
magazines with a circulation of approximately
3,000,000 monthly, but they were prevailed upon
to publish a number of articles by writers of
reputation, making direct reference to the im-
portance of the piano in the educational and
home life of the day.
There was nothing indirect about these arti-
cles. One, for instance, was headed "Our
Growth in Music; The Pianoforte, a Vital Fac-
tor"; another, "The Music of the Piano Runs
Through Two Centuries"; still another, "Facts
on the Making and Use of Pianos in America,"
and so on. Then there were articles upon the
proper placing of the piano in the home and
Max J. de Rochemont
began really to function with Edward C. Boy- the class of pianos that fitted in best with vari-
kin as executive secretary in the Fall of last ous home furnishings. This magazine campaign
year. This committee has not been responsible has been kept up consistently and the list of
tor all the material that has appeared in news- publications has been increased to take in the
papers and magazines relative to pianos, but Ladies' Home Journal, the American Magazine
it can be credited with the great bulk of it, and and other magazines of wide circulation.
It is frankly admitted that in view of the
widespread national advertising carried on by
other industries, this paid publicity in the in-
terests of the piano has been little more than
Edward C. Boykin
a drop in the bucket. Alone it would probably
have had little or no effect, but generously
supported by dealers in all sections of the
(Continued on page 7)
NEWARK N. J.
ESTABLISHED 1862
ONE OF AMERICA'S
FINE PIANOS
UPRIGHTS
GRANDS
THE LAUTER-HUMANA
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