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Gleanings in Bee Culture 



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CONSTRUCTIVE ADVERTISING. 



Getting the Good V^ill of the Purchasers, and Con- 

 vincing them of the Superior Quality of 

 Your Products. 



BY DAN WHITE. 



[The writer of this article is an experienced 

 honey-salesmau as well as producer, and what he 

 has to say is based upon fact. Notice that con.strtic- 

 tive advertising, for the future, makes possible the 

 disposal of a larger and larger output each year 

 with an expenditure of practically no greater effort 

 than at first.— Ed.] 



The word "progressive," used by E. G. 

 Hand, p. 784, Dec. 15, 1910, is all right. 

 Don't you see that this progressive adver- 

 tising, if properly attended to, will induce 

 thousands of people to sample honey? Mr. 

 Hand's stunts and advice on how to adver- 

 tise are sound. Let me quote the wording 

 of one of his advertisements: " Honey from 

 my apiary has been produced and put up in 

 the most approved and careful manner. Its 

 strong point is quality y How true it is 

 that the masses, these days, are looking for 

 the very best quality in every thing in the 

 line of food! This alone should convince 

 every producer of extracted honey of his 

 duty to suj^ply customers with so good a 

 quality that they will not only continue to 

 be buyers but will tell their friends about it. 

 Their children will, at the same time, be 

 educated to eat honey, and as time goes 

 on it will prove the true way to do everlast- 

 ing advertising. 



About forty years ago the few colonies of 

 bees 1 had were on I.angstroth combs. I 

 want to relate my first extracting experi- 

 ence. I had heard' enough about the busi- 

 ness to know that some sort of whirligig 

 threw the honey out of the combs; so I tied 

 a long rope to a rafter in the barn, procured 

 a comb just filled with new honey, fastened 

 it in an upright position in a good-sized tin 

 pail, then tied the handle of the pail to the 

 end of the rope and proceeded to twist the 

 rope w^ell. I then let the pail begin to whirl. 

 Around it started, and 1 believe the honey 

 came out of that comb from both sides at 

 the same time. Anyway; it came out of all 

 sides of the pail at the same time. I was 

 driven out of the barn. It was thin honey; 

 and, thinking of it now, I am glad I lost it. 



Very soon after this I bought a new Nov- 

 ice extractor; and, just as everybody was 

 doing, I started in by going through the 

 brood-combs and letting the new extractor 

 take out some sweet stuff mixed with larva> 

 in all stages (it's a wonder we strained it, 

 but we did). Somebody gave it the name 

 of "honey," and labeled it ''Pure."" After 

 two or three years of experience, without 

 hearing a good word for my honey, and 

 with few purchasers a second time, I said to 

 myself, "I don't like this honey myself. 

 Nearly everybody has tasted good comb 

 honey, and can't be fooled with such stuff." 

 I began to feel ashamed of myself, and 



finally decided that selling thin unripe honey 

 was poor policy. Then I was far from doing 

 as I would wish to be done by, having helji- 

 ed to give extracted honey an everlasting 

 reputation that would be handed down from 

 generation to generation. I resolved to get 

 a supply of surplus combs and i^ile them up 

 over the bees until the honey season was 

 over, then let the bees take care of it until 

 it was just as good as time could make it. 

 The honey was left until October: and when 

 it was out of the combs, and ready for mar- 

 ket, I knew I had honey of quality. There 

 was about 4000 pounds to dispose of, but I 

 started out with plenty of confidence. 

 When I met those who had bought of me 

 before, and still had some on hand, my 

 proposition was to weigh what was left, in 

 exchange for an equal amount of new 

 honey. As time went on, realization was 

 beyond anticipation; and in two or three 

 years I was an extracted-honey crank. 



As the trade increased, people began to 

 come to the house for honey, and mail 

 orders, too, began to reach me; so it was evi- 

 dent that the days for peddling my honey 

 were about over. I fancied I would some 

 day be a second Father Langstroth. In my 

 anxiety to reform the whole extracting fra- 

 ternity I wrote an article for (tLEANIngs, 

 which was printed. Some of our most able 

 writers and leading apiarists came back at 

 this very article in a way that made me 

 know better than to do any more writing; 

 but I had the satisfaction of feeling that I 

 had been defeated in the right. 



Plfteen years later, when I wrote another 

 article, the sentiment had begun to change, 

 as many prominent bee-keeptrs were begin- 

 ning to favor putting nothing but the best 

 quality on the market. Now% a large share 

 of those who i^dvertise honey for sale are 

 I particular to say, "Thoroughly ripened on 

 'the hives by the bees." The w'ords "ripen- 

 ed honey" are becoming fashionable. 



This is progression in the right way; but 

 the coveted harbor is still a long way off. 



What is successful advertising? It mat- 

 \ ters not what industry, isn't it the confi- 

 i dence of the public that must be secured 

 before the desired results can be attained? 

 Think of the thousands of great industrial 

 plants that now cover acres of ground, that, 

 years ago, started in two-story buildings! 

 Have they made this enormous growth with- 

 out judicious advertising and careful man- 

 agement of the sales end of their business? 

 Are they not continually looking after cus- 

 tomers, and especially after jjrospective 

 consumers of their i^roduct? Imagine the 

 great field of prospective honey-consumers. 

 What would be the result if every producer 

 of honey in the United States would indi- 

 vidually, this year, advertise in the local 

 and county newspapers and would start a 

 campaign of education to prove to the mass- 

 es that there is more nourishment in a 

 pound of honey than there is in a pound of 



