The talking machine world (Jan-June 1919)

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86 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD April 15, 1919 Ramosola Phonographs The Talking Machine With a Soul Best on Earth. We Prove it by Perfectly Playing All Makes Of Disc Records. To The Blind Typewriter So Will it be with the One School Machine and The So-called Universal. Richmond Made Perfectly Adjusted Machine of Universal Proclivities. Thirteen Models. Write for Trade Discounts. We also Job the Quality Line of Motors, Tone Arms and Records We Have Profited by The Mistakes of Others. The Proof of Our ProfitLook What Happened We mean OkeH Records, Heineman Motors, Meisselbach Tone Arms, Cleartone Needles. Ramos-Eubank Phonograph Mfg. Co. The South's First Phonograph Manufacturers P.O.Box 1354 104 N. 7th Street Richmond, Va. PART OF SELLING AND ADVERTISING IN RECONSTRUCTION Wm. Maxwell, Vice-President of Thomas A. Edison, Inc., Makes Stirring Address on This Important Question Before Advertising Convention in Buffalo, N. Y. Buffalo, N. Y., April 4. — The importance of the selling departments and advertising men during the reconstruction period was emphasized at the Advertising Affiliation convention recently held in Buffalo. This point was driven home by William Maxwell, vice-president of the Thomas A. Edison Co. Mr. Maxwell spoke on "Engineering a Sales Campaign." "The word engineer is much misused in this country," said Mr. Maxwell, who has charge of the immense sales engineering department of the various Edison enterprises. "First let us have some understanding and agreement as to what we mean by an engineer. My conception of an advertising engineer is somewhat different from the man pictured in the advertisements of the correspondence schools, who casually looks at a blueprint, announces a pronunciamento out of the vastness of his catalogued and tabulated wisdom which shall be as precise and as definite as a chemist's formula. My conception is a man of learning, training and modesty, who is not so sure of anj'thing but established fact — and for the most part when fact becomes so well established that it can be announced with cocksure certainty it is no longer of much use to us. Yet he should be sure that nothing is impossible. "A man who is around Mr. Edison very much is bound to absorb some of his ideas and I claim no exemption. Mr. Edison is looked upon by the average person as a genius. Mr. Edison himself, however, doesn't believe in genius in the popular conception of the word. He believes that genius is composed of one-tenth inspiration and nine-tenths perspiration. The less a doctor, a lawj'er or an engineer knows the more likely to be cocksure he is. "Now, if mechanical engineers cannot be cocksure of their program, how much less can an engineer in salesmanship? Describes Methods of Edison Plants "There are two chief classes of enterprises with which the selling engineer has to do. First the class where the sales department sells whate\er the factorj' can make, and, second, the class which determines what can be sold and then has the factory make it." After describing an experience with a factory of the first class in which he had launched what he called a campaign of impudence in which the prospective buyers were pompously invited to a hotel to inspect the new article to be sold and which it developed that only the merchants bought and which they never resold, Mr. Maxwell described something of the methods that are followed in the Edison enterprises. "Mr. Edison has always contended," he said, "that there is more science in the selling than in the inventing or making of any article." That fact is reflected in the Edison Co.'s policy in which the sales department has great authority and responsibility. "It is the business of our phonograph manufacturing department simply to keep the sales department busy. Only on the authority of the sales department is any change in the Edison phonograph ever made. We are obliged to schedule our requirements eight months ahead and we have a staff of what we call dopesters at work relating past performances ^s racetrack dopesters do. They are right about as often as a racetrack dopester also," he said with a humorous twinkle. "A department is in constant communication with owners and dealers who sell the instrument. They get about 300 letters a day on which to base their figures and suggestions. Thank heaven — all of them are not complaints! Co-ordination of Departments "It is our program to co-ordinate all departments, the designing, manufacturing and the selling departments. Since that policy has been in effect its success has been shown by the fact that not a single change has been made in the phonograph by any of our competitors the nature and effects of which were not known to us before it appeared. It is a fine tribute to the men in our research department. "Mr. Edison is also a great believer in the importance of careful inspection. He holds that the best of tools, material and workmanship may easily be wasted if the inspection is faulty or careless. "The campaign of a selling engineer cannot be reduced to blueprints. It must be so elastic. The sales engineer must prepare for the worst when he hopes for the best and be prepared to shift his course to a second or even to a third program if the first goes wrong. "The responsibility resting on sales departments and advertising men is at least comparable to the responsibility resting on the soldiers in time of war. It is up to you to provide business sufficient to give work to the returning soldiers and to all other worthy people in this time of reconstruction." Mr. Maxwell's address was heartily applauded and the responsibility apparently accepted with gracious eagerness to serve their country by th» assembled sales experts. NEWHARD GETS EDISON AGENCY Harry R. Newhard, of Northampton, Pa., has received the sub-agency to handle the Diamond Disc talking machine. The agency will be a branch of the Yeager Furniture Co., Allentown. A large assortment of Edison machines and records will be carried. Progressive jobbers advertise in The Talking Machine World. Consult their announcements. INSTALL MOTOR SATISFACTION Your customer, Mr. Builder, will judge the value of the talking machine you sell him by the performance of the motor. It's the one moving part — hence the one part that must be perfect. If it satisfies, your machine "goes big." No use risking your business future by an inferior motor. Use a DAYTON Motor And Be Assured of the Best Made by the best mechanics in "The City of Precision," where National Cash Registers, Delco Starters, and hundreds of other delicate products have developed wonderfully skilled men. It has made good everywhere and is proclaimed by the users as "the best motor in the world." Let us prove it's the best for you, too — in quality, price and service, WRITE TODAY FOR FULL PARTICULARS Made in Four Sizes for Full Line of CabineU — from Lowest Priced to the Highest Grade' The Thomas Manufacturing Co. 322 Bolt St., DAYTON, O. Chicago Office, 1500 Republic BIdg.