Music Trade Review

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Theme
By P. D. FAHNESTOGK
A Typical Danielson Window Display
OES it pay to make substantial invest-
ments in advertising and devote valu-
able display window space to tie-up
with theme songs being featured in
current film productions?
This is a question that many general music
store proprietors have asked themselves. Few
probably have felt inclined to make a test of
sufficient completeness to determine the answer
fully in their own minds. Those who come in
the group of the great majority should find food
for thought in the experience of the Danielson
Music House, of Jamestown, N. Y., which an-
swers the question in the first paragraph of this
story with an emphatic yes.
It is not as the result of a few hit-or-miss
tests, or an occasional tie-up that the James-
town music store has come to the conclusion
that it is well worth while to use current theme
songs of popular motion pictures for two pur-
poses, first, to build sales, and second, to win
new customers for higher-priced merchandise
offered for sale in the general music store.
Taking the first objective, the Danielson store
has some interesting statistics to offer. This is
an old-established house in a typical American
industrial city. Its successful merchandising
experience covers a quarter of a century. It
has a store in what is, for its particular com-
munity, a high-rent district. Its show window
space is therefore very valuable in proportion
to its annual budget.
When theme songs first came into general
use, about eighteen months ago, J. A. Johnson,
store manager of the Danielson Music House,
was given a free rein by the proprietor, C.
Fred Danielson, to make a complete and thor-
ough test of the merits of tie-ups with the
theatres in which current hits were being heard
as the plays in which they are featured were
presented.
That was eighteen months ago. Since then
the Danielson window has been in almost con-
stant use displaying sheet music, records and
player-rolls featuring theme songs. And what
has been the result? A gain of more than 50
per cent in sales of all three of these classes of
musical merchandise over the eighteen months'
period, with a tendency toward still greater
growth from month to month.
When all things arc considered, including the
decline which many stores have experienced in
D
sheet music, records and rolls as the result of
radio competition, and when it is stated that the
Danielson company has long been a leading-
seller of each of these commodities in its dis-
trict, the conclusion must be drawn that theme
song tie-ups are very much worth while. This
would be true if there were no other benefit to
the store than the actual sales of the rolls, rec-
ords and sheet music, in the opinion of Mr.
Johnson, but even more important from a mer-
chandising standpoint is the repeat business that
is coming to these departments and the pros-
pect lists for new pianos, talking machines and
The coming of theme
songs has brought a
new opportunity
for
quick sales and quick
profits to dealers
in
sheet music and records
— but the opportunity
must
be
grasped
promptly. How
the
Danielson
Music
House does it.
radio that are being developed constantly as the
result of new buyers brought to the store by
the policy of promotion which it has adopted
in its theme song activities.
There is no mystery about the successful rec-
ord which the Danielson company has made,
according to Mr. Johnson. Let him tell the
story in his own words:
"We are in constant touch with the theatre
managers," Mr. Johnson declared, "and find
them most co-operative. They inform us of
their bookings in ample time for us to have the
records, rolls and sheet music on hand a day
or two before the run of the particular picture
in which a certain song is to he featured is to
be begun in our city.
"We have found it to be well worth while to
place the merchandise in our windows a day or
two before the show opens, together with
13
scenes from the picture itself and prepared ad-
vertising matter which is always available from
the publishers, roll- or record-makers. We de-
vote an entire window to a well-arranged dis-
play of the particular song, for we have found
that too much merchandise in a single window
or a division of space tends to reduce its ability
to command attention.
"Jamestown is what is known as a 'tryout'
town, much as the Connecticut cities are places
in which plays in the early stage of production
are presented before they open on Broadway.
Consequently we have greater difficulty some-
times in getting delivery of theme song mer-
chandise in time for the opening of an engage-
ment than the ordinary merchant would en-
counter.
"We find the early display has the effect of
letting passers-by who are going to the theatre
get the thought fixed in their minds that if they
like the song when they hear it in the film they
will buy a record, a roll or the music on their
way home. Thus we get many first-day sales
that probably would not come to us and might
be lost for all time if we did not present this
suggestion to our prospective customers. It is
worthy of note, however, that the peak of sales
of theme song merchandise is not reached until
about a week after the presentation begins, and
in the case of Jamestown showings, as a rule,
do not exceed three days.
"It is rather difficult to explain this, just as
it is hard to understand why good sale periods
sometimes last for as long as a month and then
stop almost entirely. In a small community like
ours we have no neighborhood houses such as
exist in the larger cities to keep constantly re-
minding the public of a particular song. One
showing here is almost invariably the only one,
hence we find that once a sale slows up it is
almost certain to be practically finished.
"We have handled our records and rolls in
the usual way and have taken our sheet music,
on account of the much smaller margin of
piofit, on consignment. In some cases the pub-
lishers have sent us what we felt was a very
large number of copies of a new song, but in
only a very few instances have we had any to
return at the end of the thirty-day consignment
period.
"We feel very gratified at being able to de-
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