Presto

January 6, 1923.
destined to greatness. But they had not yet pro-
gresred very far in the early eighties.
Julius Bauer & Co., was promising to create ar-
tistic pianos. The great house of Lyon & Healy was
distributing larger quantities of good pianos from the
East. So was the John Church Co., the parent house
of which had brought the "Everett" to a tine position
in the trade.
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Adam Schaaf was doing a good business, and there
were other progressive retailers and jobbers. But
neither Lyon & Healy nor Adam Schaaf had begun
to manufacture the instruments which are now so
famous. T. V. Steger was pushing his business rapid-
ly to the front, but the phenomenal "piano city"
"where the Lincoln and Dixie highways meet," had
not been founded, and the slogan, "Most valuable
piano in the world/' had not yet been formulated and
sent sounding throughout the world.
Exclusively Trade Papers.
Why, then, an exclusively music trade paper, when
Presto came upon the scene which it has followed
with growing interest through nearly forty long
years?
But it was not long before the piano industry had
waxed great, and the place for a special publication
seemed to open wide enough. It was not very long
thereafter when it became advisable to abandon the
idea of a compound, or dual, publication and drop the
critical and general music part of the paper.
From that time, nearly a quarter-century ago,
Presto has been a music trade paper, pure and simple.
And in its capacity as a music trade paper it has
refused to consider anything else. It has given no
ear to any other line of endeavor, and it has refused
to consider many demands upon its space for pur-
poses of promoting other industries even, at times,
such as seemed more or less related to music.
Through Forty Years.
And through the forty years of its existence, Presto
has watched the never ending progress and the fre-
quent changes which have come to shape particularly
the piano and its interests.
Men have come into the industry and trade and
have passed out again. Ideas have come to notice,
developed efficient realities and then disappeared.
The wonders of scientific research have kept steadily
moving forward. The parlor organ gave way to
the square piano. The square gave way to the up-
right. And then the playerpiano came and it has de-
veloped until the almost marvelous reproducing pi-
ano has come.
Great piano names have been created since Presto
came upon the scene. Older ones have been kept
abreast the constantly shifting events, and have
grown stronger with each passing year. Others, just
boundless possibilities, well foreshadowed, have been
permitted to drop out and decay. A list of them
would surprise any of the younger generation of
piano men.
And what of the future? Through times of pros-
perity and times of depression. Presto has followed
the trade with never failing confidence that without
music and its means of interpretation the world would
cease to revolve upon its axis. No world without its
sun, no life without its music! And with the same
confidence Presto looks ahead into the future. There
will be changes. There must be progress. But
there will never come a time when the demand for
pianos will not exist. And there are piano names
already fixed in the world of art and intelligence which
will remain as long as civilization endures.
A FAVORITE "BIDDLE" PLAYER.
Of late the Biddls Piano Co., of New York, has
been gaining a popular place in the trade. The Bid-
die Piano Co. is one of the large industries, the
products of which have met the approval of the
trade for their attractive appearance and money-
making characteristics. The playerpiano herewith is
one of the most popular styles of Biddle player-
pianos.
J. R. Weaver has opened a new music store in
Lomita, Calif.
PRESTO
MAKING SMALL SPACE SELL PIANOS
The Photo, Bargain Appeals, Personal Copy, and Other Major Devices
for Multiplying the Selling Power of Small Advertise-
ments in the Retail Trade.
Every little while, in places big and little scattered
all over the United States, some keen, enterprising
retail advertiser demonstrates one or another of the
power-in-small-space principles which the writer pur-
poses to describe in this article.
And other dealers smile. Perhaps, they say: "My,
but Jim is clever! J> ; or, maybe, go in and buy the en-
terprising advertiser's wares. A secret of small space
advertising has been used before their very eyes.
Yet they don't realize it. If they did realize it they
would go and do likewise.
How many retailers there are who don't advertise
because they are not aware of these principles? They
feel that they can't use large space and so use none
at all. There certainly is a tremendous number of
these. Most retailers would like to advertise, if
they felt that it was practical for them to do so.
They are as anxious to expand their businesses as
the larger ones. They reason like this:
"My business is relatively small, and I can't, con-
sistent with sound business policies, spend large
sums for advertising, and to use large space, I'll have
to spend a great deal of money."
"Small space the solution? No. Small space
wouldn't sell goods."
So they go on, year after year, without any adver-
tising at all.
Sizes Not Everything.
The selling power in a given piece of newspaper,
or other, advertising space, is almost always measured
by the physical size of the space, and by what is put
into the space. Now, between different kinds of copy
there often is vast difference in selling power. This
has been proved over and over again by advertisers
who keep close check on returns. To find one piece
of copy pulling twelve times as much business as a
second piece, occupying the same space, is not an
uncommon occurrence.
Small space definitely is practical for the retailer
if he will use one of the standard advertising methods
for multiplying space power. Here are ways by
which to do this:
1. Use your photo in your ad. There is a 16th
street, Denver, retailer, Tom Macdonald, who built
a small business into a large one with the use of
small advertisements featuring his photo. With a
head of Macdonald to start with, an artist would
sketch the outlines of his figure, thus showing him
"in action."
The writer wishes to tell of an incident connected
with Macdonald and his "photo" ads which proved
conclusively the great selling power given to an ad-
vertisement by the photo, no matter what the facial
characteristics of the dealer who is shown. Mac-
donald syndicated his ads. A retailer in Toledo, one
in Detroit, one each in several other cities, used
copy identical with his.
Running the advertisement the retailer would
make a single change he would put in a "head" of
himself in substitution for Macdonald's head, and
would alter names.
And in every city that advertising was used, it
pulled its head off, in a way of speaking.
The Manufacturer's Photo.
In the piano business the use of the photo has not
been infrequent. It has proved especially efficacious
in the manufacturers' publicity. The trade papers
have featured the personality of the piano manufac-
turers in such a way as to create a string asset in
many a piano name associated with the photo. It is
probable that some of the features of the men at the
head of piano industries are as well known to the
reading public as most of the prominent public men.
It has been said that sometimes the salesmen have
used the photos of piano manufacturers to impress
upon the customer—the retail buyer—that the in-
strument is sponsored, not only by a substantial busi-
ness organization, also owes its existence to the ar-
tistic characteristics of the gentlemen whose por-
traits they display. And it is not merely compliment
to say that, often, the piano manufacturers present
in their faces the characteristics which suggest un-
derstanding of music and the kind of spirit that de-
velops the higher things of life. It is, in short, a
study in psychology as well as a business principle.
A great many retailers, the writer finds, are averse
to publishing a photo of themselves. "It would scare
away trade," the writer has been told more than
once. "If I were only handsome—"
Such considerations must be put out of mind. In
the syndicate advertisement incident narrated above,
there were all sorts of faces. And all pulled. Almost
any human photo is much better than none at all.
Good "Copy" Counts.
2. Make the copy personal. A photo, in combina-
tion with good "copy," is powerful. But small space
advertisements can be made successful in other per-
sonal ways. In lieu of a photo, the retailer's signa-
ture can appear at the foot of the message. One ad-
vertiser makes a two-inch advertisement powerful
through use of a unique headpiece—a log, and the
words, "Tim Young's Log." The copy used is
tinged now with humor, now with epigram. It is
original.
Still another small space advertiser uses person-
ality, to make small space big, by addressing a daily
letter to the public. This letter begins, "dere pub-
lick," and is featured with grotesque spelling through-
out. Also it is of a jovial nature. It disputes the
notion that "dignity" is an essential in advertising—
even in advertising the things of music.
3. The bargain appeal. Some retailers like the
bargain idea, on policy; and some are averse to it, on
policy. This is for those who like it. Bargains will
make small space pull. By all means, though, made
them real bargains. One retailer's plan is to feature
articles bought at a bargain by himself, and passed
on to the customer at practically cost. In this way he
gets an avertisement offering of eye-opener character.
Newspaper bargains ought to be eye-openers, if they
are really to multiply space-power.
A variation of this method is to give a premium
from time to time. As powerful a word, perhaps, as
can be put into any advertisement, not understanding
that it is commonplace, is, "FREE", in big letters
prominently displayed. A premium given to all cus-
tomers on a certain day, or with a certain amount of
purchased goods, is a space-power multiplier.
Novelty and the Want Ad.
4. The novelty or quality leader. Novelty mer-
chandise sometimes constitutes an excellent space-
power multiplier. "Something the other fellow
hasn't," the possibilities in which for retail profits
more and more business men are coming to under-
stand, often has great advertising possibilities. The
exclusive thing the retailer has may be an article
handled, a service furnished. Simply a store location
sometimes constitutes a competitive advantage over
other retainers which can be put with profit into
small space advertising.
In piano selling it is the "exclusive agency" of
some well known instrument that constitutes the
powerful "other fellow hasn't" inducement.
5. Are there want ad possibilities for you? The
want ad sections of newspapers have been in process
of evolution for several years, and in many cities, in
many newspapers, retailers are finding they can use
classified ads to advantage.
In their attitude toward want ad advertising, the
writer finds there are two kinds of retailers. One
kind reads the want ads; the other kind doesn't.
Those that read them see possibilities; those that
don't naturally think of others as having equal dis-
interest. However, great numbers do read the want
ads, and there are various retail successes which
have built on such ads.
The want ad is something the retailer, if he is sit-
uated right, sometimes can turn to in big cities,
where newspaper advertising rates necessarily are
very high. In the same class with it is the so-called
liner, or reader.
Endless Opportunities.
All these space-power multipliers the writer has
described are in successful use in various parts of
the United States. Every little while, some new ad-
vertiser sees what can be done with them, and har-
nesses advertising as a powerful aid in his business.
It is up to the individual retailer to decide which
methods he shall use, but the genuine opportunity
exists, if he will but seize it.
FAILURES IN 1922.
Preliminary statistics compiled by R. G* Dun &
Co. indicate 23,595 commercial failures in the United
State during the year 1922, with liabilities of $615,-
257,987. In point of number, the returns make an
adverse exhibit in comparison with the 19,652 de-
faults reported in 1921, but the indebtedness in that
year was $627,401,883. During 1920, only 8,881 in-
solvencies occurred, involving $295,12-,805 of liabili-
ties, and in 1919 the record was remarkably favor-
able, with but 6,451 failures for $113,291,237.
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