784 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Dec. 15 



General Correspondence 



PROGRESSIVE ADVERTISING, 



A Few Points that Every Bee keeper who has 

 Honey to Dispose of Should Carefully Con- 

 sider. 



BY E. G. HAND. 



Has it ever occurred to you, gentle reader, 

 how strange it is that the average bee-keep- 

 er seems to have an idea that he has prac- 

 tically no control over the demand for hon- 

 ey in his locality, even as the fraternity at 

 large has apparently given up what little 

 glimmer of hope it ever had of exercising a 

 control over the general demand for its 

 stock in trade? Whatever may be the ex- 

 planation, the bee-keepers of the country 

 seem to have resigned themselves to unpro- 

 tested acceptance of whatever demand the 

 fickle public may choose to make upon 

 their product. When a good crop is se- 

 cured, either locally or generally, the first 

 result is usually quite a panic on the part 

 of the producers to get it off their hands 

 as quickly as possible. For fear the other 

 fellow will get his crop on the market first, 

 the price is pruned to the necessary extent 

 to induce the commission man to take the 

 crop. The commission man chops his price 

 to the wholesaler, the wholesaler to the re- 

 tailer, and the retailer to the consumer. 

 This, of course, stimulates the demand to a 

 certain extent, though to a limited one only. 

 But wherein does the bee-keeper profit by 

 his big crop under these conditions? He 

 has had more labor with his heavy crop 

 than he would have had with a lighter one, 

 and is no better off. 



With this scrambly method of market- 

 ing pursued, what surprises me is not that 

 the price of honey is so low, but that the 

 large amount produced each year is disposed 

 of at all. The average producer, especially 

 the large producer, does practically nothing 

 to help place his product in the hands of the 

 consumer. He seems to have the impres- 

 sion that, when the crop is out of his hands, 

 that is as far as he is concerned in it, and 

 that what becomes of it afterward does not 

 make any particular immediate difference 

 to him. "Let the commission man and 

 the retailer find their own market; they 

 took the job and it's up to them," appears 

 to be about the stand he takes. 



Now, this is all wrong, and the sooner the 

 bee-keeping frnternity learns that there is 

 easier money in the proper and scientific 

 disposal of a crop, right up to the time it 

 enters the hands of the consumer, than 

 there is in the production of the crop — well, 

 the better it will be for the fraternity. 



Honey is but a vague word to the great 

 majority of the poj)ulation. Millions of 

 people never taste it from one year's end to 

 another, and most of them have forgotten 



its very existence, almost. This is not be- 

 cause these people do not like it, but be- 

 cause it has never occurred to them to re- 

 gard honey as an article of food; and the 

 reason such a thought has never occurred to 

 them is, nine times out of ten, because noth- 

 ing has ever happened to suggest such a 

 thought. 



It has been my experience, and I believe 

 if a "census " were taken it would be found 

 to be the case the country over, that 75 per 

 cent of the honey produced is used by 25 per 

 cent of the people. Why is this? Princi- 

 pally because the 25 per cent have, more or 

 less by chance, discox ered ttiat honey is in- 

 tended to be eaten, and is good to eat every 

 day, and have accordingly formed the 

 "honey habit." The other 75 per cent are 

 almost complete strangers to the very name 

 of honey; and, unless they happea to have 

 it personally and directly brought to their 

 notice by a "honey peddler," or chance to 

 fall over it in their blunderings through the 

 underworld of the grocery store, the proba- 

 bilities are that they will never come to be 

 users of any great amount of honey. Peo- 

 ple get into ruts in the matter of the food 

 they eat, just as they do in the matter of 

 the clothes they wear or the thoughts they 

 think. 



It isn't because he is stupid that the 

 average man fails to take advantage of the 

 good things of life. It is usually because he 

 is asleep. All he needs is to be wakened 

 up, and the present-day advertising cam- 

 paign is planned with just this idea. No 

 matter what it is that is being advertised, 

 the principle is the same. 



Now, let us see how this principle can be 

 applied to the honey-selling proposition. 

 Let us see by what means the producer of 

 honey can induce the somnolent 75 per cent 

 of the population to awaken to the fact that 

 it is to their advantage to use honey as a 

 regular article of diet. I am speaking now 

 more particularly to the individual producer 

 who is bent on stimulating his local mar- 

 ket; and if he will work somewhat along 

 the lines I suggest I think he will be sur- 

 prised at the ultimate result. I say "ulti- 

 mate," because it must be understood right 

 on the start that advertising does not jerk, 

 but pulls. The fnan who expects to get big 

 results from two or three advertisements is 

 in for a disappointment. The proper plan 

 is to decide how much it will be wise to in- 

 vest in advertising, taking into account the 

 size of your markelJ and the amount of hon- 

 ey you' want to sell in it, and then arrange 

 to spread that expenditure over the whole 

 year, or at least as long as you have any 

 honey to sell. 



In these days of cheap newspapers the easi- 

 est,quickest, cheapestandmostfffectualway 

 to get an audience with the public and arouse 

 interest in any legitimate article is through 

 the columns of the papers. There is scarce- 

 ly a house in the land at the present time 

 into which a newspaper of some kind does 

 not find its way with more or less regulari- 

 ty. As the iiurpose for which the paper is 



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