Presto

PRESTO
July 28, 1923
REMARKS FROM THE SIDE LINES
NEWSPAPER'S TRIBUTE TO
PRESIDENT W. C. HEPPERLA
By HENRY McMULLAN
Head of Premier Grand Piano Corporation Com-
mended for Splendid Radio Programs.
It was distressing to find the symptoms of diseases
among apparently healthy piano men met in offices
and warerooms this week. Many victims of the fol-
lowing were met with; Automobiliousness, golfitis,
piscamania, tennisea and baseballchrondia.
* * *
One kind of dollar diplomacy is baiting your ad-
vertising hook with "a dollar down and a dollar per"
hunk, of bait. Another kind of dollar diplomacy
is diplomatically evading the amount of the first
payment until you diplomatically make financial
soundings of the ultimate consumer. And still an-
other kind of dollar diplomacy is the kind that pre-
sents such a good piano for the money that the cus-
tomer gets dizzy with delight and falls for the large
and juicy first payment and a respectable monthly
bit. Xow, dear reader, the question is: Are you a
grand little old diplomat or merely dippy?
* * *
"If there's no harmony in the factory there will be
none in the piano," suggests the Packard Piano Com-
pany, Fort Wayne, Indiana. "Isn't that the truth?"
as the Kentuckians say. How many thousands of
employers and employes have separated owing to in-
harmonious relationship. There is always a limit be-
yond which change cannot take place without the
cessation of certain activities.
* * *
Before opening a factory on limited capital it
might be well to read a few of the maxims of Poor
Richard. A point not to be overlooked in his phi-
losophy is the establishment of a contingent fund;
the setting aside of an allowance to meet conditions
that can not be foreseen. The sinking fund may act
as a compass and help in the navigation of the not
fully-charted sea of manufacturing and marketing
the new piano.
* * *
The difference between the cost price and the sell-
ing price is the chief concern of the piano retail mer-
chant. This is as it should be commercially. But
if he be the broad-minded type of piano man, he
will regard himself as much more than an interme-
diate agency between factory and customer. He will
be altruistic, realizing that he is catering to the senti-
mentality of the higher classes of mankind, and he
will be actuated by a regard for their welfare. He
will, therefore, deal in good instruments so that he
can give them the greatest value attainable. And he
will be so considerate of the factory man that he
will order early, instead of waiting until late in the
fall when the plant may be crowded beyond the limit
of supply. Just now when the farmer is feeling rich
over a fine crop of wheat, this fine piano retailer will
do his master-work by taking orders in competition
with the best of his rivals.
* * *
When a business man is ripe for mighty enter-
prise but short of money, that capitalist is a fool
who will not come to his aid. In short, great enter-
prises have been denied birth almost as often as other
big businesses have been brought into existence. The
birth of an idea should never be treated with ridicule,
particularly in these times when fruit-bearing ideas
are none too plentiful. So, Mr. Capitalist, if you
know a trusty piano manufacturer who is in need of
cash to start a new factory or enlarge a going one,
back him to the, limit of his requirements and do not
interfere with the enterprise further than to caution
him against foolish financiering.
* * *
Now is a good time of the year to get out and sell
a piano or two to the heads of institutions. There
are many of these that have not been catled upon—
all the way from music school heads to matrons of
private hospitals and old ladies' homes.
* * *
Thanks to good advertising the mocking-bird
salesman is disappearing from the ranks of the piano
hustlers. We mean the fellow who armed himself
with a lot of talking points and flung those at each
and every prospect. Idle gas, my dear boy! As
well talk about the indeterminate subject of reality.
Of course, emphasize the piano's good points—its
tone, its volume and range, its language of comfort
and cheer. But as you appreciate bread and butter
and pie, forget the rigmarole you learned out of a
book of instructions on salesmanship or from some
smart (?) crew manager.
* * *
Whatever we may believe in the abstract about the
necessity for decentralization of power in politics or
business, we are aware that power centralizes faster
than ever before. Smaller cities are in the grip of
mighty Chicago corporations that exact sky-high
rates for electricity, gas and water, all of which are
on meter. One does not have to go to India to find
a drink of water a high-priced commodity and a bath
a luxury for the wealthy. In some cities of southern
Indiana the cost of keeping an ordinary-sized lawn
sprinkled would regularly pay the installments on a
better-grade piano. The mental power, the central-
ized power that controls these rates for water, gas
and electricity, is located at Chicago, and may partly
explain why so many costly limousines purr ever so
kittenishly soft through the parks of that beautiful
city—parks that are watered at wholesale cost or
nearly so.
* * *
Determining the distance that a small business
should plan to go in a day or a year is much more
difficult than for a big business to measure off its
quota of work for similar periods of time. One sale
means so much more to the little fellow. One "punk''
sale may spell ruin to him. To speak in measured
terms, he should be twice as careful as the big
dealer.
* * *
Those companies that have established foreign
trading monopolies are now finding that their efforts
are paying ventures. More thought is required, more
letter-writing, but the trade thus secured is more ex-
clusive and in most instances the profits are as large
as for the instruments sold in the domestic market.
* * *
The veneer mills of Louisville and the two of New
Albany have been receiving very large consignments
of fine logs for piano material during the last three
or four weeks. The Southern Railroad, which skirts
the north bank of the Ohio River through New Al-
bany, is hauling about as many logs westward to the
mills in the western part of that city as it is to the
mills in the eastern part and to the mills across
stream in Louisville. White oak prevails, but there
were two carloads of great walnut stumps. The
Cumberlands and the Ozarks are being swept for
the best material.
* * *
Evoking interest in your piano by means of adver-
tising is a psychological affair, and psychology of the
crowd is but little understood even by those whose
work it is to solve the whyness of it. What is there
about a mass of human beings that affects us so?
The feeling of influence is distinct, although the ex-
planations are not satisfactory. The advertising ex-
perts may differ as to methods, but the end of all is
the same—to get the crowd talking and thinking
about the thing advertised.
* * *
The use of the taxicab as first aid to the crookess
"putting one over" on Minneapolis dealers is re-
ported. With a flourish of the horn and a staccato
cough with a gasoline flavor the taxi pulls up at the
curb. Miladi, with cold Grecian features and a warm
The wide feature range embodied in the programs
of Station W D T at the Premier Grand Piano Cor-
poration, 510 to 552 W. 23rd street, New York, oper-
ated by the Ship Owners' Radio Service, Inc., is
learned from the advance programs issued this week.
The New York newspapers are devoting consider-
able space to Station W D T and its programs. The
Evening W r orld of July 14 contained almost a full
page of text and illustrations relating to that broad-
casting station w r ith details of its operation. This
illustrated article included a fine tribute to President
Walter C. Hepperla, of the Premier Grand Piano
Corporation, commending his public spirit and enter-
prise in having Station W D T function from the
Premier factory.
TRADE-MARKS IN CHINA.
The Inspector General of Customs at Shanghai has
issued a notification to the effect that after July 1,
1923, all applications for the filing of a trade-mark
or patent with the Maritime Customs must be ac-
companied by a Chinese version, in duplicate, of the
application and of the description. Any application
received after that date without a Chinese translation
will not be accepted. The American consulate gen-
eral at Shanghai, through which applications for fil-
ing may be made, consents to undertake such trans-
lations if the applicant is not prepared to make them.
No responsibility, however, is assumed in regard to
the translation of technical terms. The fee for this
translation is $1 (United States currency) per 100
words, and it is estimated that the fee for the average
application will amount to $2.
NEW CLEVELAND BRANCH.
The Wolfe Music Co., Cleveland, has formulated
plans for the opening of a new branch store for the
125th street section of the city and it is possible the
plans will be realized before the end of this month.
Unusual facilities for window displays arc among the
advantages of the store selected. The Story & Clark,
Cable-Nelson and Kohler & Campbell pianos and
players will be carried in the new branch.
Bulgarian -costume, alights and enters the piano
store. Dealer, seeing these evidences of the prim-
rose path of opulence, smiles his willingness to please
to the limit of her fourflush. She buys; first pay-
ment $25. Can the dealer cash a check for seventy-
nine dollars and sixteen cents? Sure, with the great-
est of pleasure. How would madam like the balance;
in large or small bills? It is the old drama of the
check on a mud bank. The setting is new.
Widen Your Sales Field With the Miessner
The many prospects for the Miessner Piano in your locality are difficult to sell any other
piano. No other type of instrument is as well adapted for use in schools, colleges, clubs,
churches, hotels, theaters, etc., and for the increasing number of small home and apart'
ment dwellers.
So by offering the Miessner, you are offering a
product that in no way interferes with your present
business. By failing to tie up with this line you are
overlooking one of the fast growing sales fields; one
which is proving highly profitable to thousands of
dealers in all sections. Selling the Miessner is
simply broadening your sales field.
The Miessner, the original small upright, is today
first in development and perfection. It is the product
of specialization. It claims the entire attention of
the Miessner organization. It is built to lead, not
merely compete. Made to pick up the profitable
small piano trade.
Consider what a piano of this type will do for you
in this growing field; how it will actually build busi-
ness for you; bring you big profits that you're pass-
ing up today. Write for attractive dealer proposi-
tion.
"The Little Piano With The Big Tone"
MIESSNER PIANO CO.
126 Reed St., Milwaukee, Wis.
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