Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
ORGANIZING
roups
US1C
TO STIMULATE SALES
W
HEN every American community rec-
ognizes music- as one of the funda-
mental necessities of human life—and
when every American community
realizes that it must educate its citizens to self-
expression in music—and when every American
community undertakes, on its own initiative, to
provide every individual with ample opportunity
to use and enjoy the musical talent that it has
developed in him—then, and not until then—
we manufacturers, publishers, wholesalers and
retailers of music and musical instruments can
all sit back and enjoy life. It will be glorious!
lust picture the public thronging into music
stores! Listen to the pleasant tune the cash
registers play, as an enlightened community, of
its own accord, hunts up the music merchant
to demand instruments, music and a little serv-
ice, please.
But, alas! there is something wrong with this
picture. It is not a photograph of present con-
ditions in the music industry. And the average
person, tar trom any thought of expressing
himself in music, is busily engaged in defending
himself and his dollar from the determined as-
saults of salesmen of automobiles, asbestos,
roofing", books, trips to the Mediterranean and
electric refrigerators.
A myriad of new commodities and services,
bricked by selling campaigns of keen aggres-
siveness, are after the consumer's dollar. And
the successful music merchant nowadays isn't
staying in his store waiting for the public to
come to him. He is going' out after business—
and getting it!
The big job is to reach the average person
with the thought that it would be pleasant and
entirely practical for him to learn a musical
instrument—and to convince him that he would
have a chance to use it, if he did learn to play.
There's no difficulty with youngsters. They
take to music eagerly, lint even if every young
person in the country played a musical instru-
By MERTON THRNEY
ment, still the selling job would be only half
done. There would still remain their elders
to be converted.
Grown-ups are more diffident than children;
slower to try a new idea; and as people grow
older their natural desire to take part in a
new activity is often overshadowed by a self-
conscious reluctance to appear at a disadvan-
tage while they are learning. The successful
formula then is to sell them in groups. And
Every local
Lodge,
Club and Society of-
fers possibilities
for
the organization of a
band, an orchestra or
a drum corps — How
one successful dealer
does it.
J
there arc wide-awake dealers all over the United
States today who arc reaping big profits from
this rather neglected market.
Every lodge, fraternal society or other social
organization in your town that now hasn't a
band, orchestra or drum corps is a potential
market for you. Tt doesn't take genius to de-
velop this market— just initiative enough to
start it, and then common sense to sec it
through. There's no fixed rule of procedure, but
one man whom I know to be particularly sue
cessful in starting new bands and orchestras
31
operates generally along these lines:
His first step is to select some one active
member of the organization and sell him on the
idea. Then, with this member as sponsor, he
mails to the entire membership list an invita-
tion to attend an informal, unofficial meeting to
discuss the formation of the proposed band or
drum corps. A self-addressed postal accom-
panies the letter to make it easy for the mem-
bers to commit themselves to attend.
At the first meeting, the dealer is introduced
as the principal speaker. He outlines his plan
under which he undertakes full responsibility
to turn out a complete band or drum corps,
fully equipped and trained to play acceptably as
a unit, within a definite time. His selling talk
stresses the practicability of group instruction,
and the stimulating advantage of companionship
and friendly competition; he particularly em-
phasizes, all through his talk, that it's easy to
learn to play an instrument and that it's fun
to play in an organization.
The financial proposition he offers them is
simple and clean-cut. He deals directly with
the individual—each member buys his own in-
strument for cash or on time-payment, and
each member pays a weekly fee for instruction.
Those who already own instruments are wel-
come to use them. The purchase of the large,
more expensive instruments such as the basses
or sousaphones, etc., is often subsidized by the
society.
He tells me that his policy of selling the indi-
vidual rather than attempting to sell the outfit
of instruments as a whole to the lodge itself is
distinctly advantageous. Dealing with the in-
dividual in a series of smaller, isolated deals, he
avoids the competitive bidding that is almost
inevitable when a big order is in the air. When
you add up the price of a complete band or
drum corps outfit, it runs into interesting
l'-oney; everybody in the next six counties gets
(I'lease
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