ipip 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page II 



Building a National Market for Northwest Fruits 



TWENTY years ago, when men first 

 began to discover that the Pacific 

 Northwest had the potentialities of 

 a great fruit section, tliey had one am- 

 bition — to grow the best fruit in the 

 world. These pioneers of the North- 

 west fruit industry went through hard- 

 ships clearing the land, planting their 

 orchards, and nursing them into full 

 bearing. 



No one questions that their ambition 

 to grow the largest, finest apples; the 

 most luscious peaches and pears; the 

 most luxuriant berries, was not a thing 

 that makes national marketing possible. 

 As one great merchandizing man has 

 said: "Selling and advertising are not 

 the most important things about the 

 product . Frankly, there is one thing 

 more important, and that is the merit 

 of the product." 



During this generation the magnitude 

 of the Northwest fruit industry has 

 become a reality. The Hood River, 

 Yakima and Wenatchee districts are 

 growing an immense tonnage of apples. 

 Through the care taken in planting, 

 growing and harvesting, a large propor- 

 tion of this tonnage is being shipped as 

 fancy and extra fancy fruits. 



Because of the way in which North- 

 western apples are grown and marketed 

 at long distances they must necessarily 

 be a high grade product. Box apples 

 cannot compete with barrel apples in 

 the markets of the United States on 

 anything but a quality basis. 



Now, the selling end of the Northwest 

 fruit industry, with several exceptions, 

 has clung to older methods for dispos- 

 ing of their products. This method was 

 the method "Push!" It meant a great 

 many growers and associations pushing 

 their product out to wholesalers, who 

 in turn pushed it out to retailers, who 

 offered it to the consumers. Markets 

 were shifted each year from one section 



By David M. Botsford, Portland, Oregon 



of the country to another, depending 

 upon the competition from local grown 

 apples. 



A few of the associations and ship- 

 pers in the Northwest sought newer 

 methods for building a national market. 

 They have taken the method of "Pull," 

 as compared with the method of "Push." 

 They have recognized that there are 

 people in every community with whom 

 quality is the first consideration. These 

 people are being educated to buy good 

 apples, and to buy particular brands of 

 apples. 



Among the advertising of the North- 

 west apples carried on there was that 

 of the Hood River Association. In 1913 

 a campaign of newspaper advertising 

 was started in Los Angeles in connec- 

 tion with specialty work among the 

 retail trade. One year later, encouraged 

 by the success in Los Angeles, the same 

 campaign was started in San Francisco 

 and other cities. 



One interesting incident in connec- 

 tion with the San Francisco advertising 

 of Hood River apples ran like this: In 

 the opening newspaper advertisement 

 was the telephone number of the local 

 representative, with the suggestion that 

 if the housewife could not obtain Hood 

 River apples from her grocer, to tele- 

 phone the representative and he would 

 see that she would be supplied. It 

 happened that this local representative 

 lived at a down-town hotel, and his 

 telephone number given was the hotel 

 number. On the day the first advertise- 

 ment appeared he dropped in at his 

 hotel and met a demoralized condition 

 among the telephone operators. He was 

 handed several hundred numbers, with 

 the courteous request that he should 

 install a private telephone if that sort 

 of thing was to continue. 



This incident shows that enough inter- 

 est can be aroused with the housewife 



to get her to want a particular kind of 

 apple. Such illustrations cannot but help 

 to convince the most skeptical of us that 

 apples can be merchandized and adver- 

 tized just like anv other commodity. 



During the fall of 1918 the Yakima 

 Fruit Growers' Association ran a full- 

 page and several smaller advertise- 

 ments on Big "Y" apples in the Satur- 

 day Evening Post. As a result of this 

 they were able to extend their distribu- 

 tion considerably along national lines. 

 And they received direct consumer in- 

 quiries which showed the interest of 

 the public in the advertising of quality 

 apples. One man, living seventy-five 

 miles from a railroad in Nevada, 

 ordered five boxes of Big "Y" apples 

 sent to him. 



The Yakima Fruit Growers' Associa- 

 tion are planning to gradually extend 

 their efforts to nationalize the Big "Y" 

 apple. As their volume and distribution 

 grow they expect more and more fully 

 to cash in on advertising that reaches 

 two million people. In the meantime 

 they are laying a foundation which will 

 enable them to spread their tonnage 

 over the country within reach of dis- 

 criminating people who are willing to 

 pay prices based on the merit of the 

 product. 



Probably the most striking illustration 

 of the success of building a national 

 market for Northwest fruit products is 

 that of loganberry and apple juice man- 

 ufacturers. Four years ago the North- 

 west Fruit Products Company was 

 organized at Olympia, Washington, and 

 Salem, Oregon, to produce and sell fruit 

 beverages on a national scale. These 

 products were "Loju" loganberry juice 

 and "Applju," a sparkling, clarified 

 apple juice. About the same time 

 "Phez" pure juice of the loganberry 

 was put on the market by the Pheasant 

 Fruit Juice Company at Salem, Oregon. 



SPECIMENS OF PROGRESSIVE ADVERTISING FOR A NATION-WIDE CAMPAIGN TO PROMOTE THE SALE OF NORTHWEST FRUIT PRODUCTS 



m «.W;«..«-I they're ju.cy- 

 V^-fi -: - muppifj'' they re delicious 



mt ■siTti^.o^r KVi 



7ro/n Mneyards 0/ Oregon 

 to Refresh f/?e Natioi 



!jf. They're big- 



Buy "Big Y" Apples by the Box 



■BigOApplfc^ 



Page advcitiscnicTil iiscil in 1918 in Saturday 



Evening Post l)y tlie Yakima, Washington, 



Horticultural I'nion to make its flne fruit 



better known. 



The Northwest Fruit Products Company of 

 Salem, Oregon, will use this advertisement 

 in the Saturday Evening Post in 1919 to 

 make known the merits of its popular 

 driuk "Phez." 



Appliu 



T-'HK tanvm-' orchards ..r\\V 

 ' ■nf^K'n inO Oregon iii|>|ily ( 

 apple* "f Applju. Tht« lire »M>n 

 npt apple*! h^nii picked und i 

 \p<.m.il tf)i i)U4liiy. 



"Applju," another of Ihc products of the 

 Northwest Products Company of Salem, Ore- 

 gon, will also be extensively advertised by 

 this company in 1919. 



