The talking machine world (July-Dec 1924)

22 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD October 15, 1924 Cashing in on Holidays Through Windows Seasonal Displays of the "Eye-Arresting" Type Impress Passersby at an Opportune Time — Important Element of the Sales Drive With Thanksgiving in the offing it is time for talking machine dealers to think of ways and means of making this holiday pay dividends in sales. More and more each year music is being accepted as an important element in making the holidays thoroughly enjoyable, and live music dealers vie with one another to make pre-holiday days profitable. To what extent any individual dealer succeeds in this depends entirely upon himself and the efforts he puts forth. The Seasonal Window The window display and advertising offer the talking machine merchant the most effective methods of getting his message before a substantial portion of the public. In the case of the window display the retailer has a great advantage, for he can visualize the message designed to create sales of the product he handles. The seasonal window is especially forceful, from the standpoint of creating a desire for the instruments displayed, and it also implants a thought in the mind of the passer-by — the thought that music helps make the home happier and the holidays more enjoyable. The illustration herewith shows a simple and at the same time appealing Thanksgiving window display arranged by the Barnes Music Co., of Los Angeles. The display fairly breathes the holiday spirit and the golden days of Fall. The simplicity of the arrangement is most attractive. It will be noted that there is a lack of crowding, a fault too often prevalent in window displays. Only two talking machines are shown, an upright and a console. Placards placed in advantageous positions strike the eye with significant messages. The cost of such a display is very small. The leaves and other embellishments can be secured by a trip to the outskirts of any town or city. The natural background of the window or a strip prepared especially for the display to carry out the theme A Thanksgiving Window Display Which Will can be secured from the local sign painter at comparatively small cost, and can be used each year for similar displays. Make 'Em Stop and Look To make passers-by stop, look and think is the function of the window display. It is said of one dealer in a small town that his displays are so original and striking that each week his window is the Mecca of most of the shopping portion of the public. The window is a powerful "silent salesman" and it works twenty-four hours each day. It is valuable space for which the dealer pays dearly and so it is up to him to get some return from it. The only way he can do this is by compelling those who pass by on business or pleasure bent to stop and look. A display which does this results in two things — first, it emphasizes on the public mind the dealer and his business, and, therefore, may result in future sales, and, second, it creates immediate sales. The talking machine dealer who secures the greatest benefit from holiday sales who utilizes all the Make 'Em Look possibilities is the one forces at his command in a consistent drive for business, and by no means least of these is the window display. During the days, and even weeks, preceding the holidays the public turns out to do its shopping in greater numbers than usual for the reason that this is the season of family reunions, festivities and feasts. At this season also window displays attract greater attention than usual because the American public has been educated to look for unusual and beautiful exhibits. Window shopping becomes the favorite sport of father, mother and the children. They are all in a receptive mood and the sales message of the talking machine dealer expressed through the medium of the window display has greater force than at any other time of the year. However, while the window display is in the front rank as a holiday sales producer, newspaper advertising, direct mail and other methods of making the public realize the enjoyment to be derived from appropriate music at this time are all important links in the sales-promotion campaign and none should be neglected. A well-rounded campaign demands that the retailer make each unit of his drive for business as strong as possible. By the time the issue of The World in which this appears reaches the trade Thanksgiving will be only a few weeks off — little enough time for planning the holiday sales campaign. A successful compromise between price and quality has never yet been arranged. Responsible manufacturers never attempt it — responsible purchasers never really expect it. There is no recorded instance of gold dollars having been purchased for less than 100 cents — and there never will be. Each Doehler Die-Casting has a quality that is honestly measured by its price. Each dollar paid for a Doehler Die-Casting buys 100 cents' worth of sound serviceability, accuracy, strength, metal quality, satisfactory service. Announces Booklet on Radio Art Furniture BROOKLYN. N.Y. POTTSTOWN. PA TOLEDO. OHIO. BATAVIA. N.Y, The Columbia Mantel Co., Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y., recently sent a letter to the trade announcing its new booklet on "Radio Art Furniture." This well-known furniture manufacturing house during the thirty years of its existence has witnessed the growth of the talking machine industry from a small beginning to its present status, and is enthusiastic over the future of the radio industry as part of the talking machine business. Within Greater New York it is announced that auto truck delivery will be made right to the premises of the purchaser and even in more distant shipments it has established a slogan of "Without a scratch'' for its delivery department.