Presto

PRESTO
April 10, 1920.
or deferred payments, and no more doubtful little installment notes
bearing "X, his mark," or other insecure indications of sales made
under pressure by over zealous solicitors.
Things have changed, and for the good of the piano business.
The piano has returned to its place of dignity and value. And the
player-piano is largely responsible for it. Had the player-piano not
arrived at the critical moment, no one can say where the piano trade
and industry would have been today. The player-piano has justified
the increased cost, in the mind of the public. The plain, or "straight"
piano would have come up in price, necessarily. But it could not
have sustained itself in a sufficient increase to justify the manufac-
turers in producing it and the dealers in selling it. The player-piano
arrived at its proper place in just the right time to save the industry
and trade.
Things will not continue as now for a very long time. The day
is not far ahead when something like the old-time effort must be
made to extend trade, or even to maintain its existing volume. The
energies and enterprise of the individual manufacturers will again
be arrayed one against the other, and the ones who think that the
quality of their products will alone be all-sufficient will again recede
to the rear. There will never return anything like the conditions
of old in the industry and trade. Things have changed permanently.
The piano has become an article of great power in the industrial
world. There are now industries of such financial and material
strength that they are greater than the combined power and produc-
tiveness of all the piano industries existing at the incoming of
the upright in the early 70's. And the piano dealers who expect to
stay in this business permanently must establish themselves now
upon a foundation so firm that the inevitable changes of the future
can not shake them.
TRADE PAPER SECRETS
A very intelligent piano factory executive writes to this paper
as follows:
The trade papers today are not making the effort to get the many thou-
sands of music dealers being created every day, and phonographs, etc., on
their mailing lists.
We believe that, as applied to most of the trade papers, that is
an exact statement. If the music trade journals have made any
special effort to secure paid subscribers they have done it so quietly
that only their office forces have found it out. We except of course,
Presto, for this paper has kept up a steady and persistent campaign
for new readers. This paper has sent repeated special propositions to
every retail member of the trade whose name has been accessible.
It may do no harm to refer directly to some of the special cam-
paigns which this paper has inaugurated during the last few years.
Of course since the post office authorities became so strict that enter-
prise along this line has been restricted it has not been possible to
exercise anything like the degree of enterprise in the subscription
department that marked the years before the war. But we hope to
return to it again soon.
A few years ago Presto had prepared for its special purposes of
inducing new subscribers a very attractive watch-fob, upon which
was a musical emblem and on the reverse the name of this paper.
Several thousands of the fob were distributed to members of the
trade and their employes. In one case a large piano house in the
East sent the names of fourteen salesmen, every one of whom was
made a subscriber and was presented with a fob.
Shortly thereafter, the publishers of this paper arranged with
a Connecticut industry for a large number of small combination-case
watches, which were offered to new subscribers together with the
fob, making a very handsome premium which, of course, cost about
as much as the subscription price. But the result was attained and
about two thousand of the watches were distributed and, no doubt,
are now telling the time for as many workers in the trade who read
Presto, and in most cases, are still reading it.
Following the watch-and-fob campaign the publishers of Presto
contracted with a Chicago novelty industry for a large number of
pocket knives of special design. On one side of the knives was the
name of this paper. On the other side was the name of the sub-
scriber. Of course to print the individual names, in enamel and
colors, was an expensive process, but, by ordering a lot of them, it
was possible to present every new subscriber with the knife and a
year's Presto for $2. About two thousand piano and music men are
probably still using the Presto pocket knives and most of them are
still reading this paper every week.
The success of the subscription campaigns was such that Presto's
publishers decided to do something even more directly in line with
the practical needs of the trade. A series of business-building sys-
tems was thought out and developed. It consisted of three clearly
defined plans for retail piano merchants, by which actual sales in
practically unlimited number, might easily be insured. The formulas
were: first, a prospect-finding plan by which the country schools
were enlisted in a campaign for securing pianos without cost, as a
return for interesting the pupils in having instruments in their homes;
second, a series of follow-up letters for uses of local dealers; third,
a set of advertisements specially adapted to local newspaper publicity,
with suitable cuts. The watch-fob also went with the formulas, and
the latter embraced complete letters, circulars and other materials
by which many dealers secured a great many sales—so they reported.
In connection with all of the special premium campaigns, Presto
Buyers' Guide was also presented to all new subscribers. The fact
that about five thousand of the "book that sells pianos" were dis-
tributed in connection with the fobs, the watches, the knives and the
piano selling formulas, seems to us very conclusive proof that the
results were adequate, so far as Presto advertisers are concerned,
irrespective of the cost to the publishers.
In showing a little of the inside workings of the publication busi-
ness, we know that there has been a prejudice against the premium
plan of securing new subscribers. The subscription agencies do not
approve. Some of the advertising agencies do not approve. But
we know positively that no paper can serve its advertisers unless it
has a paid circulation. And we know, too, that no trade paper can
do good work unless it has a changing circulation—new readers, in
other words. Presto has some readers who have been on the mailing
lists for from ten to twenty years, without intermission. Those
readers rely upon what this paper says, and have faith in its ad-
vertisers. But new readers are the buyers who must choose from
the advertising columns.
Furthermore, we do not believe there is a piano dealer, large
or small, who doesn't know Presto, or who doesn't at times, if not
regularly, see it and read it. To explain this part of the inside of
the circulation department would demand more space than can be
given to it. Besides, it wouldn't be interesting. What we have said
was suggested by the writer of the letter from which an extract is
made at the beginning of this article. Perhaps some other music
trade paper can tell a similar story. We doubt it.
This is a good time for the wise dealer to pay particular attention
to the trade-ins. Never before was there so good a value in second-
hand pianos as now. That is, to the retail dealer, and it is probable
the basements and back rooms contain many used pianos that could
be put back into stock after the necessary going over in the repair
shop. It is a strange fact that there are a few dealers who do not
realize a plain chance for profit today.
The sheet music trade is profitable if the dealer knows how to
make it pay. A dealer from the West said, in Presto offices one
day last week, that he had built up a large and very profitable sheet
music business by confining his counter to one large catalogue and
pushing it. The line that is paying the dealer is the McKinley, and
there are many other dealers who are having the same experience.
*
•
*
Some time back there was a good deal said about the adapt-
ability of women to piano selling. We don't hear much of it today,
but the army of female workers in the factories grows steadily. An
article in this week's Presto advises merchants to employ the wiles
of women freely in business.
* # *
That was a striking tribute by Mary Garden to a great piano
in last week's Presto. There was a handsome portrait of the famous
singer and this autographed dedication, "To the only piano for the
voice! To my piano—Knabe."
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;'fi
*
There was a fine article in last week's Presto on "The Evils of
Bargain Sales." By some inadvertency credit to the author of the
article was omitted. The article was written for this paper by Mr.
Warfield Webb of Cincinnati.
What do you suppose all the piano travelers are doing these
days? Some are still straightening out the old accounts; some are'
resting, and many, we hope, are just clipping coupons and cashing
them.
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