22 



The Florists' Review 



OCTOBBB 4, 1917. 



S. A. F. PUBLICITY FUND 



HOW THE MONEY ROLLS IN! 



W. F, Therkildson ambitiously planned 

 To make flowers popular o'er all the land. 

 The plan looked uncertain till live Joe Heaeock 

 Said, "I'll give five hundred"; then up went the 

 stock. 



Gee Whiz! How the money rolled In! 



Some gave a liundred; some gave more; 

 They boosted the fund with a mighty roar. 

 When the excitement subsided, the delegates 



found 

 They'd raised twelve thousand at a single bound. 

 Gee Whiz! How the money rolled in! 



It's still rolling in, sums large and small; 

 The florists are nobly answering the call. 

 Then great magazines, the big business powers. 

 Will herald the slogan, "Always send flowers." 

 Gee Whiz! How the money will roll in! 



THE PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN. 



Birth of Idea in 1915. 



At the convention of the S. A. F. 

 in San Francisco, August, 1915, in my 

 address, I called attention to the pub- 

 licity question as follows: 



"It is needless to point out the value 

 of publicity for disseminating proper 

 knowledge and educating the public in 

 the more general use of horticultural 

 products. It is necessary for the so- 

 ciety to organize a publicity bureau, 

 whose work would be along the lines 

 of a campaign, directed primarily for 

 the annual increase of the sale of flow- 

 ers, plants and plant products through 

 new and varied channels, and also to 

 take means to prevent any society, cor- 

 poration or individual from decrying 

 the use of these products for special 

 occasions. We often learn of repeated 

 attempts made to discourage the use of 

 our products. Such cases should be 

 taken up by the publicity bureau and 

 every means possible taken to offset the 

 effects of such adverse influences. 



"I am much in favor of a standing 

 committee of five members, whose duty 

 it shall be to cooperate with the re- 

 tailers, wholesalers and producers, so 

 that our business shall be brought be- 

 fore the public in a much more favor- 

 able and effective light than it has been 

 in the past. We should have recourse 

 to the leading daily papers throughout 

 the country, which I believe will gladly 

 publish from time to time articles on 

 commercial floriculture. This will have 

 a wonderful effect, for it will bring 

 before the American people the merits 

 of our business and the enjoyment de- 

 rived from the use of our products. 



"The hour has come when we should 

 give this question our best thought and 

 action. I think greater benefits can be 

 secured from aggressive work of this 

 nature than any we can engage in. I 

 feel that the results would justify a 

 reasonable expenditure annually for the 

 maintenance of such a committee." 



A Pew DoUars for More Dollars. 



At the meeting of the board of direc- 

 tors held in Philadelphia, March, 1916, 

 the by-laws were amended to create a 

 committee of five on publicity. This com- 

 mittee was made permanent by the act 

 of the convention held at Houston, Tex. 

 Not until this year has any practical 

 work been done. 



Under the guidance of the chairman, 



W. F. Therkildson, the work done at the 

 New York convention has taken on a 

 practical and effective form, something 

 we have been trying to do for thirty 

 years. The members present at the 

 New York meeting subscribed about 

 $15,000, showing a splendid spirit of 

 cooperation. All those who make a 

 business of floriculture ought to do his 

 part by contributing to this fund. The 

 committee needs about $50,000, of 

 which the above-named sum has already 

 been raised. 



We should all unite and give our sup- 

 port to an enterprise of this kind; the 

 beneficial results of such action taken 

 at this time can hardly be estimated. 



The list is now open. Let us hope that 

 every florist who can afford it will give 

 some amount to keep up the good work. 

 Indirectly he will get it back tenfold. 



Patrick Welch. 



A Bia BUSINESS BOOST. 



Totty Talks Turkey. 



Eegarding the $50,000 that the florists 

 of the country are raising for nation- 

 wide publicity in the use and sale of 

 flowers, I think if every florist stopped 

 to realize the benefit of concerted pub- 

 licity, the comparatively small amount 

 asked for would be subscribed in a 

 week. Right now is the time to start such 

 an advertising program, just when the 

 fall season is opening up and the mighty 

 effect where many minds are concen- 

 trated on some particular object will be 

 at once apparent. This is not a situation 

 Avhere one can say, "Let the other fel- 

 low do it," and the other fellow can 

 say, "Let George do it," etc. Every 

 man with a spark of business ability 

 should be able to see his own particular 

 interest in this campaign. This applies 

 with more particular force to the re- 

 tailers than to the growers, since the 

 retailer will be the man who will im- 

 mediately reap the benefit from this 

 program. While I am not belittling for 

 one .moment the work of the grower 

 and what he should do, he will in most 

 cases willingly do his share, also. 



Too many retailers think that all they 

 have to do is sit in their stores and wait 

 for the public to come to them. I have 

 lieard retailers argue that the growers 

 should take care of the publicity game, 

 exactly as the wholesale producers of 

 matches and soap or other like products 

 do. They forget that the man who 

 advertises soap or matches does not 

 have the loss that the growers do, be- 

 cause soap or matches sell just as well 

 next month or next year. But growers 

 are handling a perishable product, and 

 should not he asked to carry the whole 

 burden of advertising for the sale of the 

 stock. 



A Wonderful Opportunity. 



I think this is a wonderful chance for 

 every retailer, not alone in large cities 

 but in every community. If he will get 

 the literature put out by the publicity 

 committee and turn it over to his own 

 local paper, supplementing it with a 

 fair-sized ad calling the attention of 



his local people to the product he is 

 handling^ he will soon find his sales 

 largely increased. He should let the 

 people know he is a member of the pub- 

 licity committee in its nation-wide cam- 

 paign. In this way he will find a new 

 dignity attaching to his store and to his 

 ideas of business, and this should have 

 a wonderful effect on his cash register. 

 I emphasize the retailer's position in 

 this matter because he is the medium 

 between the wholesaler and the ultimate 

 consumer. Without his active aid, much 

 of the effectiveness of the advertising 

 will be lost, whereas if every retailer 

 could be enlisted to put even a card in 

 his window announcing the fact that he 

 is a part of this publicity program, it 

 would add to the continuity and reitera- 

 tion of advertising, which, as every ad- 

 vertising man knows, is the basis of 

 success. 



Every contributor to this fund can 

 rest assured that every dollar contrib- 

 uted will be used in a good and proper 

 manner. He also will have the use of 

 the advertising experience of successful 

 men, should he care to ask for it at any 

 time. A recent note from the publicity 

 committee states that cuts or plates can 

 be procured at a figure that would be 

 impossible except in this wholesale way. 

 These can be procured direct from the 

 committee. Window cards and posters 

 will be furnished at a price barely 

 covering the cost of printing. These 

 will be written by experts who know 

 the advertising game thoroughly. In 

 fact, the benefits of publicity through 

 the committee are unlimited. 



The Growers Will Profit. 



The growers, also, should not stand 

 aside and say: "This is the retailer's 

 business, since he is selling to the cus- 

 tomer, and it is only boosting his end 

 of the game." If the retailer sells 

 more, he has to get more flowers, the 

 grower will have to produce more and 

 so the benefit is carried out to the end 

 of the chapter. 



This is a splendid chance to show 

 what can be done by concerted effort 

 along these lines. "In union there is 

 strength," and I predict when this pro- 

 gram of publicity is well under way, 

 the appropriation for its continuation 

 will be increased year after year. It 

 is absolutely the biggest thing in sight, 

 supplementing as it does the work of 

 the National Flower Shows, which have 

 been educating the people in the love of 

 flowers, and in this way have increased 

 the sales considerably. 



A motion is under consideration in the 

 New York Florists ' Club, to be taken up 

 at its meeting October 8, to contribute 

 $1,000 to this advertising fund. The 

 motion undoubtedly will go through and 

 will most likely be followed by other 

 florists' clubs throughout the country. 

 The national organization, the S. A. F., 

 will also contribute generously for this 

 purpose, but this does not have the di- 

 rect personal interest that would come 

 if 1,000 florists throughout the country 

 pledged themselves to give from $10 to 

 $100 each. 



While this general advertising pro- 

 gram was promulgated by the S. A. F., 

 every florist and grower, whether he 

 belongs to the S. A. F, or not (as a 

 matter of fact every florist should be a 

 member of this society), should feel it 

 a personal duty on his part to contrib- 

 ute to this fund. 



Every florist will benefit, but natur- 



