538 



HOKTICULTUBE 



AprU 5, 1913 



THE PUBLICITY PROPAGANDA 



By M. C. Ebel. 



No more perplexing problem con- 

 fronts the business man than what to 

 do, and how to do it, to get the great- 

 est return from his expenditures In 

 creating a selling market for his pro- 

 ducts. More money is wasted in this 

 branch of a business than in any 

 other department because it is next to 

 impossible to trace returns on all that 

 es expended, and so we must be con- 

 tent to strike a happy medium, where- 

 as cost of production may be accu- 

 rately figured. 



I have, however, been quietly watch- 

 ing the course of events since I fired 

 my first shot at publicity in the trade 

 papers last May, and the interest 

 ■which has been manifested among the 

 florists generally in this subject since 

 then must assure anyone, not a pessi- 

 mist, that the publicity movement will 

 not be permitted to wane, but that it 

 will progress until it will finally make 

 its power and influence felt in the 

 florist industry just as it is doing 

 among the younger industries today. 



The power of the press, and nothing 

 else, has built up many industries in 

 the past quarter of a century so that 

 where their resources a decade ago 

 were reckoned in the hundred thou- 

 sands, they are today counted in the 

 hundred millions. And let me tell you 

 some of these industries did not have 

 the foundation to build on that the old 

 florist industry has, but which up to 

 now it has not undertaken to develop. 

 I say, the old florist industry, for it 

 is the oldest industry in the world. 

 What other industry can trace its 

 ancestry as far back as the Garden of 

 Eden? And had the first partners in 

 the business been alive to conditions 

 as they exist today, they would prob- 

 ably not have trafficked so unwisely 

 with the fruit, but would have begun 

 to create a better market for it, by 

 which we might all have benefited be- 

 fore the cost of high living for every- 

 thing but flowers overtook us. 



The consequence of the lack of wis- 

 dom on the part of the first planters 

 is that some of the boys have risen 

 above the old man and our younger 

 industries have become prosperous 

 and powerful enterprises, though some 

 of them have admittedly been founded 

 on very flimsey superstructures. Now 

 there is that stability behind the flor- 

 ist industry which as it develops can- 

 not be shaken, for it will be builded 

 differently than, you may say, practi- 

 cally all other iudustries. in that it 

 will never be created as a monopoly or 

 trust; and thus it will remain separ- 

 ated from that greatest of all evils, 

 political intrigues which are seriously 

 affecting the business life of this 

 country today. 



There is no question, however, that 

 the florist business, and in that I mean 

 the various branches of horticulture 

 and floriculture, already unconsciously 

 following in the evolution through 

 which other successful industries have 



passed from their minor state into 

 great enterprises. I refer principally 

 to the large commercial florist estab- 

 lishments which are producing along 

 the same lines that the large manufac- 

 turers produce, studying all the phases 

 where economies may be practiced 

 and then taking advantage of the eco- 

 nomies to reduce the cost of produc- 

 tion, and so as in other fields of en- 

 deavor the large grower can make 

 money at prices at which the small 

 grower cannot afford to produce. 



This feature of the florist business 

 is never again going to diminish, but 

 on the contrary will continue to in- 

 crease, and with this development of 

 the business the chances of your ever 

 seeing much higher prices for flowers 

 than those now prevailing become 

 more and more remote. It is true that 

 in food products and in other neces- 

 saries of life there has been a con- 

 stant increase in prices due to a large 

 extent to manipulation but among 

 manufacturers generally the selling 

 price if anything has been lessened, 

 brought about by modern manufactur- 

 ing systems which have helped the 

 strong and driven out the weak in va- 

 rious trades, and this is the situation 

 which sooner or later is bound to con- 

 front the florist. 



Mr. Wallace R. Pierson in his paper, 

 "The Florist and His Market," presents 

 some arguments which should make 

 grower, wholesaler, and retailer sit up 

 and take notice. He says they are all 

 in the same boat. He is right, taking 

 the florist business collectively and 

 this he has done, for I am satisfied that 

 the establishment with which he is 

 identified is not concerned over the 

 selling markets. His plant is one I 

 had in mind where every branch is 

 carefully watched and where the cost 

 of production is regarded more essen- 

 tial than the going market prices. He 

 urges co-operation between the grower, 

 wholesaler, and retailer, rather than 

 competition and warns of the possi- 

 bility of a chain of stores handling 

 flowers as they do other commodities. 



This is no longer a possibility but 

 will soon be an announced fact; for a 

 strong organization is already under 

 contemplation having associated with 

 it a man heavily interested in several 

 similar successful, what might be 

 termed, endless chain store enterprises. 

 It will seek direct outlets for its pro- 

 ductions, and as its retail business 

 expands, it can continue to increase 

 its growing capacity, if it chooses, or 

 exercise the privilege if it finds it more 

 profitable to do so, of going direct to 

 growers and contracting for their en- 

 tire output. The opportunity is a 

 great one. The mystifying part of it Is 

 that it has not been taken advantage 

 of before. It brings to mind an old 

 saying that it takes an outsider to dis- 

 cover the inside of one's opportuni- 

 ties. 



No general publicity campaign will 

 be required by such a concern. It will 

 do its own advertising and create its 

 own markets; but this is individual 

 advertising and will not help its neigh- 

 bor in the business. Individual adver- 



tising only helps the individuals to 

 whom it is directed. 



Then we have our local publicity or 

 advertising campaigns. They may have 

 some good features, but I have failed 

 to discern any in watching what has 

 so far been undertaken. No doubt 

 some of them have been productive of 

 results, but could they be declared a 

 success when the expenditures are 

 taken into account. For arguments 

 sake let us concede that one of the 

 local publicity committees would hit 

 on a plan whereby a greater demand 

 and better prices for flowers could be 

 established within its region. How 

 long would it be before the growers 

 from elsewhere would swamp that 

 locality with shipments to get some of 

 those better prices and they would 

 again be confronted with the problem 

 how to overcome the gluts. 



Curtailment of products can not be 

 successfullly maintained in the florist 

 industry although the suggestion was 

 offered at the Philadelphia meeting, 

 where Mr. Pierson first read his paper, 

 that the florists' devote some of their 

 glass for a time to vegetable growing. 

 The weak point here is that the vege- 

 table grower is confronted with the 

 same problem as the florist— no proper 

 selling market, — but were this not so 

 and the experiment tried and proved 

 successful, and prices of flowers would 

 advance, Mr. Vegetable Grower would 

 soon be found giving some attention to 

 the florist business. It is but human 

 nature. 



Universal publicity, educating the 

 public to the usages of flowers and 

 plants, instructing them how to grow 

 and care for them, how to employ 

 them, and convince them that they are 

 not luxuries but comforts which glad- 

 den the heart and mitigate sorrow 

 and suffering, that is what is now re- 

 quired to increase the selling market 

 for the florists and there is nothing 

 else left to accomplish this for you. 



Some will dispute my idea and say 

 that we are having lots of education 

 already and are getting it for nothing, 

 but let me ask you If you ever ob- 

 tained anything for nothing that was 

 worth anything? 



I know the Sunday supplements are 

 furnishing a lot of gardening talk 

 about this season of the year as an 

 incentive to get the florists and seeds- 

 men to advertise in them, but it is 

 not of the right sort. For Instance, I 

 picked up a paper yesterday which 

 told how to care for plants during the 

 winter to carry them over into the 

 spring. This information is given in 

 February and will be useful to some 

 next fall. How many people do you 

 imagine that article Interested? Such 

 matter is not instructive and will not 

 hold the attenion of readers long. 

 Tell them something they can do now 

 and they will be interested. Our gar- 

 den magazines are already doing much 

 good instructive work in floriculture 

 and horticulture, but they reach a very 

 small percentage of the people. To 

 get at the public, the dally newspaper 

 is the great channel. 



{To he ConttHueii) 



