Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, JANUARY, 1U1
be right, being 14,000 for each of the
first 11 months of the 2 years. Grands
are holding their own, yet in percent-
age of all production, are falling
behind, so what could be the accurate
conclusions, to be used in the most
constructive manner for predictions of
1941? Much information abounds in
our industry that is correct for a tinc-
ture; inert for a syrup.
I
NASMUCH as it takes about 2
years for the process of develop-
ment of the first thought of buy-
ing a piano to its actual purchase,
isn't the advertising of pianos at any
time valuable? General plan now, es-
pecially on factory advertising to con-
sumers, is to bulge it at certain times,
especially during the fall. Would it be
better to advertise in the so termed
"dull" periods, letting the boom times
take care of themselves? At one time,
the bulk of food advertising appeared
on Saturday mornings; then they got
the hunch that Friday is the best day;
now some of the boys have pushed this
to Thursday.
D
ATA we would like to know is
on what day of the week, half
of the week's sales are made
— it might be Thursday or
Friday. What is the big day of the
week that generally turns in the most
sales? Belief is that half of the year's
sales are made during the last 4
months, but the new conditions for
1941 with the millions of pay to be
received by "labor" means that they
will be paid as much in May as in No-
vember, which is bound to change the
sales percentage figures of the different
months. So with the "new" outside
conditions of earning money, the ad-
vertising schedules can be studied for
a revision of copy placement to fit.
w
A
LSO there must be three major
reasons why people buy
{ pianos, but what are they?
' It is said that music teach-
ers are not the force in piano selling
that they were, and when they do in-
fluence a sale, it is diversion from one
brand to another and not a personally
developed sale which would not have
been made without the teacher submit-
ting the idea and then following it thru.
With so many sales by teachers merely
a shift, it explains why dealers do not
regard the teacher as a constructive
selling force. The tuner could be a good
replacement builder-upper, were he to
get a few shots of vitamin " S I " —
selling instinct.
W
HAT percent of piano sales
are made via the educa-
tional angle, i.e., music
lessons for children or a
child? What percent on the decorative
factor? What percent to those needing
pianos in their business; what percent,
either new or replacements, to the
group of amateur players? Were we
all to have these facts summarized, so
that principles of operation could be
correlated and then used on basic cam-
paigns, it would enable dealers to see
that they are working properly, or run-
ning around circles. Store layouts in
many lines now conform to these
"average" statistics of habits, and
there is no reason why piano men can't
get the facts of buying and work in line
with them.
F
OR instance, the super markets
know exactly what happens
when a person enters the store;
whether they turn to the right
or left; and they know where to dis-
play certain kinds of goods at certain
spots of the store. They know that red
labels on cans piled exactly four feet
high at the right hand side of the back
of the store gives them the most busi-
ness on that item; they know if the pile
is only 3 feet high that their sales drop;
and this analysis of store layout goes
on almost forever. It is scientific work,
hardly started in the music business.