The Edison phonograph monthly (Jan-Dec 1908)

4 Edison Phonograph Monthly, August, 1908 A Dealer who appreciates that a lively store sells most goods will make the Edison Phonograph sell itself. Keep it playing. Nothing you can say about a Phonograph will have as much effect in making a man want to own one as what the Phonograph says for itself. Nothing you can tell them about the Records will sound as well as the Records. Have a regular concert once a week and an impromptu concert whenever there are several people in the store. A certain number of people are going to buy Phonographs and Records every week ; not all of them are going to buy Edison Phonographs, and not all of them are going to buy at your store, but you can count on a certain, steady trade somewhere in your town — it is up to you to get it. It is up to you to make the people in your town believe that your store is the best store to buy Phonographs and that the Edison Phonograph is the best Phonograph to buy. If you do this you will get your share of the trade. The trade is there. It is just as certain and just as steady as the trade in any other line of goods. Our national advertising takes care of that. We are reaching practically every family in the United States every month with advertisements of the entertaining qualities of the Edison Phonograph. Making the windows work is simply keeping in them Records and Phonographs which will interest the passing public. Elsewhere in this number will be found attractive show cards which can be easily lettered in your own store. These call attention to the new Records, to old Records or to the Phonograph itself; to some special phase of enjoyment to be had with the Phonograph. Very little skill in window dressing will make your windows good advertising for your store. Never forget that the primary object of the Edison Phonograph is to amuse — a number of people are willing to pay for amusement. The best of theatres are crowded with spectators with high prices for good seats — all catering to amusement. The Edison Phonograph supplies the same sort of amusement that people go to the theatre to get. In no other form can so much of this sort of amusement be had for so little money as in the form of the Edison Phonograph. If you have a successful window display take a photograph of it and write to us about it; tell us how you did it and what the results were. It will do you good to describe your own window and how it worked and it will help other Dealers in other towns. We are so interested in getting Edison Dealers to make the most of their windows that we propose shortly to offer a series of prizes for the best windows. If you have a bright, young clerk in your employ with a knack for such things, set him to work dressing windows using only the material in the store, that is, the Phonograph, the Records, the various cards, posters and other things that we supply. We furnished enough material to produce a series of excellent windows if intelligently handled. All this matter is free to the dealers who will use it; the whole thing is to get you to use it — to make the most of your opportunity. The entire advertising system of the National Phonograph Company is intended to help you sell more Phonographs and more Records — but you must take advantage of it. Have the Records people ask for and they will ask oftener. An old Record is new to all who have not heard it. Let the people hear those on your shelves as well as those which have just arrived for August. Sell for cash if you can ; on the payment plan if you must. August is an out-of-doors month. The Phonograph is an out-of-doors entertainer. A Phonograph lasts a life time; the new monthly Records mean a perpetual revenue. Make the welkin ring with the Bryan speeches -now's the time. One-price puts it squarely up to the Dealer. Your Competitor who orders by the carload has no advantage over you. Whether you make a success depends upon your service and your advertising. Study to make both perfect.