166 



horticulture: 



August 8, 1908 



ADVERTISING— AS APPLIED TO 

 THE HORTICULTURAL TRADE. 



<An address by Robert Pyle before the 



1';, .lists' Club of rb.iladelpb.in, 



April 7tb, 1908 



Philadelphia is the home of one of 

 the largest, If not the largest, adver- 

 tising agency of the world. Some 

 twenty-five years ago one of the lead- 

 ing men of that firm, easily one of the 

 most prominent advertising men in 

 the country today, used to say after 

 laying out an advertising campaign 

 with one of their clients: "Well, now, 

 as to results you know and I know 

 that neither one of us knows anything 

 about it." 



But in spite of the chances they were 

 taking as to the outcome Mr. McKin- 

 ney and the man wit It whom he was 

 working continued year after year to 

 turn over to the printer and publisher 

 in hard, cold cash approximately three 

 times the amount of the net profits of 

 the preceding year of that particular 

 firm, and gradually and steadily built 

 up a business reputation anil confidence 

 in the name of that firm which is now 

 known in every flower-growing country 

 on earth. It is the printing press and 

 the post office that have made such 

 conquest possible. 



For our purpose tonight advertising 

 may be said to be "applied salesman- 

 ship" with the possibility of sales mul- 

 tiplied to the "Nth" power but the 

 printed sheet is by no means the only 

 medium. Heinz with his 57 varieties 

 built a big pier at Atlantic City and I 

 have no doubt as an advertising move 

 it pays him well. P. T. Barnum, dur- 

 ing the height of his fame as a circus 

 manager upon coming to one of the 

 largest cities, is said to have rented a 

 small plot of ground adjoining the 

 tracks of a leading railroad which car- 

 ried thousands of passengers everj day 

 to and from the tin. He set an ele- 

 phant to work ploughing that field 

 with a man from Ceylon as a driver. 

 You can readily imagine the interest 

 that stub a spectacle would create* 

 People talk and papers print the novel 

 thing that interests them. The amount 

 •of free publicity that Mr. Barnum ob- 

 tained would be difficult to estimate. 



Looking at it broadly, advertising is 

 publicity — telling other people some- 

 thing about which you want them to 

 know. Influencing them to think of you 

 and to desire the thing you have to 

 sell, whether it be pickles or seats at 

 the circus, professional services or 

 Easter lilies. But, tonight, of course, 

 we are most interested in floricultural 

 and horticultural advertising. 



Flowers, Trees, Seeds, Bulbs, 

 are the things we have to sell and right 

 here comes a distinction— at least i 

 would like to make the following per- 



;ti bitrarj distinction — for the more 

 convenient handling of my subject. 

 Some of us an re com- 



mission men, and some cater to the 

 general public and naturally we have 

 a different selling proposition in each 

 To the former the trade papers 

 arc the mediums of vital interest tmore 

 about them later). The rest of us in- 

 cluding, we'll say, i lie seedsmen, nur- 

 serymen and general catalog men have 

 learned that we must depend upon ad- 

 vertising for our bread and butter. 



Because of the very nature of the 

 case the advertising carried ou by these 

 men is perhaps as broad and general as 

 that done by any class of men in the 

 plant business. Perhaps, therefore, it 

 would be worth our while to go into 

 the office of one of these firms and 

 watcb tliem laying plans for next sea- 

 son's campaign. 



The conditions which the advertising 

 man has to face are these: As buyers 

 he has all sorts and conditions of men 

 and women — they are located all over 

 the country — and the product which he 

 has to sell includes all kinds of 

 plants, trees, etc., used to beautify the 

 surroundings of the average American 

 home. I use the word "average" as 

 excluding that class of homes which 

 look to the landscape architect for 

 their advice. The average American. 

 we believe, depends upon the florist 

 catalog in the main and upon the mag- 

 azines treating of this subject to give 

 him the information necessary for the 

 decorating of his grounds. 



The Catalog. 

 The first and indispensable thing for 

 a salesman to consider is his catalog, 

 or primarily a list of the things he has 

 for sale with the prices thereof. But 

 the successful catalog man knows that 

 bate lists and prices will of themselves 

 bring very little business, and there- 

 fore, he devotes time and earnest 

 effort ires no expense to ar- 



range, amplify and beautify his cata- 

 log. He will take care to have the 

 plants properly classified, to have them 

 ullj and accurately described, ana 

 also to include if possible directions 

 for their culture, until it bcomes a 

 veritable encyclopedia of the tilings 

 listed. He also engages the services 

 of the best artists, will have his own 

 photographic department or go where 

 he can to get illustrations that will 

 speak louder than words and make his 

 catalog to vie with the modern maga- 

 zine in rare attractiveness. In making 

 up a catalog we think it is always well 

 to bear in mind the attitude of the men 

 or the women who will read it. Ama- 

 teurs as a rule want to know and are 

 glad to be shown, and there are some 

 women who will real a catalog from 

 cover to cover, no matter how long the 

 descriptions: but the general tendency 

 and a good one is to cut down these 



long descriptions and to insert in a 

 clear, readable, well arranged manner 

 only such things as would stand the 

 of actual usefulness and give an 

 accurate picture to the prospective 

 purchasers of what he is asked to buy. 

 There are man; other details that 

 might be treated of. for which there 

 Is uot room here, as ri cards the size of 

 the catalog page, the number and kind 

 of Illustrations, special offers, bar- 

 gains, etc. 



The English Excel. 



Before leaving the subject we would 

 like to call attention to the fact that 

 the English florist of today is ahead 

 of his American brother as evidenced 

 by the splendid specimens of catalog 

 making which they furnish patrons. 

 not only as regards fine paper and 

 beautiful illustrations, but the compre- 

 hensive text-book-like treatment of the 

 subjects listed makes them delightfully 

 entertaining in every way and, if the 

 high prices which they seem able to 

 get is any criterion, we believe they 

 must be good pieces of advertising. 



We have here a sample of one of 

 the English catalogs, nearly 400 pages, 

 heavy plate paper, exquisitely executed 

 color work, weight 2 1-2 lbs. in the 

 mails. They must cost more than $1.00 

 apiece. The catalogs issued in our 

 country average in price from 1 cent 

 to 35 cents in the mail bag. There are 

 a great many houses publishing about 

 one hundred thousand books: very few 

 approach the million per year edition. 

 The number needed depends, of course, 

 upon the number of regular customers 

 fas we call those who order intermit- 

 tently year after year) plus the number 

 of new nanus that may be obtained in 

 one way or another, so that right here 

 comes the next point for the adver- 

 tising man to consider in laying out his 

 campaign. How many new names will 

 he get? 



The answer which almost immediate- 

 ly follows is. how much money have 

 you got to spend'.' This question is 

 more easily answered when some plan 

 of operation has been arrive! at. How 

 shall we go about ii to get n< w cus- 

 tomers, a problem more fascinating 

 than a game of chess, most uncertain 

 as regards the ing to 



bring rich rewards. How shall we 

 reach the general public? To a man 

 with a small place doing a local busi- 

 ness that problem would be a i 

 paratively simple one. He would prob- 

 ably put up a sign, make his place look 

 as attractive as possible, using the 

 local papers and sending out to his 

 list of customers attractive bits of 

 advertising literature at proper inter- 

 vals. Of course, this is but a mere 

 outline of what he might do. But our 

 general catalog matt is catering to a 

 verj scattered public with wonderfully 

 diversified interests, living under mul- 

 tifarious conditions of climate and en- 

 vironment: he must catch their eye 

 and gain their attention long enough 

 to impress them. 



Selecting Advertising Mediums. 



One of the first things to consider, 

 therefore, is what mediums shall he 

 use, and the second thing is what kind 

 of a proposition will he circulate 

 through these mediums. It is very 

 much like sowing seed: good seed in 

 poor ground is not much better than 

 poor seed in good ground: both must 

 be good to form a successful combina- 



