The Edison phonograph monthly (Jan-Dec 1916)

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EDISON PHONOGRAPH MONTHLY, MAY, 1916 Edison Phonograph Monthly Published in the interest of EDISON AMBEROLA PHONOGRAPHS AND BLUE AMBEROL RECORDS By Thomas A. Edison, Inc. ORANGE, N. J., U. S. A. Foreign Offices: 164 WARDOUR ST., LONDON, W. ENGLAND 364-372 KENT STREET, SYDNEY, N. S. W. 3 YORKSTRASSE, BERLIN 59 RUE DES PETITES-ECURIES, PARIS Your Window The average merchant of the smaller class who makes use of newspaper advertising and window displays is inclined to give more attention to the composition of his advertisements than to the trimming of his windows. The reason for this probably lies in the fact that he is paying hard cash for newspaper space while he is not paying anything for the window in which he displays his goods. He does not stop to consider that the cost of his window is figured in his rent or in his taxes and cost of upkeep. Your window is as good an advertising medium as you have access to, and its value might be impressed on you if you will make some attempt to reduce its worth to terms of dollars and cents. Figure up what part of your rent you are paying for having display windows, and take the same care in arranging displays in them as you would in writing a newspaper advertisement. Vacancies Did you ever pause to consider the fact that each vacancy in your stock may be responsible for a vacancy in your cash-drawer. Simple logic will make this apparent to you. If you did not have any stock at all you would not need any cash-drawer. With an incomplete stock your cash-drawer will be only incompletely filled. It is the full stock that provides for the desires of all patrons and keeps your money-box or your bank-book correspondingly full. It will never be ruinous to your business to have a few leftovers each month, but your reputation will slowly be lost if you cannot supply the wants of your customers. You must never allow a vacancy to develop in your record stock and to prevent this you must keep watch of your sales and make frequent repeat orders as well as ordering the complete list of Blue Amberol records each month. There is a vast importance in selling satisfaction as well as merchandise; and delivery without delay is one of the most important elements of good service. Art and Business A bank deals in money and in such an institution it is good policy to display gigantic steel vaults, barred windows, and other equipment that suggests the dollar and its value. The Edison dealer, however, is merchandising art and, inasmuch as art and money seem to be diametrically opposed, it is best to keep your cash register out of sight and base your efforts to sell instruments on other primary arguments than those relating to price. Too much talk about the price will lead your prospect to believe that you are more interested in the figure that the instrument sells at than you are in the quality of it and the service that it will give. The theme of the song of the cash register is "profit, profit, profit," and the theme that you wish to impress upon your prospects is "quality, quality, quality." Give your prospects high class demonstrations and dwell on the many advantages of the Diamond Amberola. Discuss the splendid records that ar/> listed in the Blue Amberol catalog and the artis,^ or organizations by which the records were made. Talk about quality, service, and art first, and leave the discussion of money and price until last and you will find that you will sell better instruments and more of them than by making price your sole argument. Development The day when anybody was considered competent to demonstrate and sell sound-reproducing instruments has passed and only those who are specializing in the study of the development of the instrument and who are students of music are realizing the full possibilities that the merchandising of the phonograph offers. There was a time when the phonograph was considered a novelty that could be sold by any cheap canvasser or dealer, but th: was when it was first placed on the market ark when the range of selections that might be played b\ it was extremely limited. The improvements that have developed the phonograph from the first crude instrument to the superb Edison instrument of to-day have steadily broadened the range of the music that is adaptable to it and have brought the phonograph business to a point where it is a complex study and where it requires a person of musical education and appreciation to demonstrate and sell an instrument. This development has created a situation that is highly favorable to the alert and modern dealer and that is fatal to the reactionary or unprogressive merchants who do not keep their own development abreast of the improvements that are made in the merchandise they handle.