August 21, 1919. 



The Florists^ Review 



35 



this money might have been spent for 

 advertising space.* Articles have ap- 

 peared weekly in the trade papers point- 

 ing out the fact, and yet despite all, 

 the responses have in no way been in 

 proportion to the results obtained. 



I wish to point out here a plan of 

 procedure that if adopted where pos- 

 sible might help solve the problem of 

 equitable plan of assessment, and where- 

 by everybody pays his correct propor- 

 tion and allows for seventy-five per cent 

 of the money so collected to be used in 

 the local community, through the hard 

 and earnest effort of President Ammann. 



How St. Louis Does It. 



The St. Louis florists have adopted 

 tlie following plan: To charge every re- 

 tailer purchasing flowers at commission 

 nouses for advertising. That is, if the 

 retail florist purchased $25 worth of 

 flowers he would be charged 25 cents for 

 .advertising, the grower to be assessed 

 one-half of the one per cent as his share. 

 The commission houses, as their share, 

 are to be collectors and distributors"" to 

 an advertising committee who have in 

 charge the matter of properly using it 

 for advertising purposes. Twenty-five 

 per cent of this fund is to go to the 

 national publicity campaign. The bal- 

 ance is to be used locally. This method 

 has also been used in the city of Mil- 

 waukee, where the results were so great 

 and the increase in the business so 

 noticeable that the amount assessed 

 was doubled. The only difference is 

 that they have not as yet decided to 

 give twenty-five per cent to the national 

 fund. Thus, everybody pays exactly 

 alike and in proportion to the amount of 

 business done, and it is surprising that 

 with ever so small an assessment the 

 amount obtained will run into thousands 

 of dollars. 



One per cent of what the retailer buys 

 in cut flowers really amounts to 1/35 of 

 the 1 per c^nt of his total business. In 

 other words, he secures an extraordinary 

 amount of publication for the sale of 

 flowers, and as figured out by the lead- 

 ing retail florists' of this country, that 

 from 3 to 5 per cent of his gross busi- 

 ness is the amount he should spend for 

 advertising. If this is so he still has 

 about 90 cents left out of every dollar 

 he ordinarily spends for advertising. 

 Docs it not show to him clearly that he 

 is securing any i^umber of times more 

 publication and saving for himself a 

 great deal of money? The grower is 

 affected in the demand for flowers keep- 

 ing up in prices to a much higher level, 

 therefore his half of the 1 per cent is 

 hardly noticeable when the difference in 

 his receipts are considered. Such a 

 ••ampaign conducted locally could take 

 care of glut season and save the grower 

 considerable money. 



I am now going into discussion as to 

 the future conduct of the affairs of 

 those who have charge of this important 

 work. Those of you who are familiar 

 will remember that through a recom- 

 mendation of Ex-president Patrick 

 Welsh the national publicity committee 

 ^vas originated, to be composed of five 

 men. One was to be retired each year, 

 the incoming president to appoint his 

 successor. Their duties were to have in 

 charge all matters pertaining to the 

 I'ublicity. 



Launching the Campaign. 



At this time the national publicity 

 ampaign was but a thought, and it was 



only after a wonderful paper read by 

 W. F. Therkildson on publicity, at the 

 New York convention, and the recom- 

 mendation that came from him, who was 

 then chairman of this permanent com- 

 mittee, that the convention voted 

 unanimously to approve of his recom- 

 mendation. And then and there the 

 project was launched. After further 

 discussion, Chairman Therkildson sug- 

 gested that a special committee be ap- 

 pointed to have in charge the raising of 

 money to finance the project. After a 

 debate, action was passed that a com- 

 mittee of five be appointed to have in 

 charge the. financial end of the cam- 

 paign. Thus the committee, of Vhich I 

 am chairman, has acted since this time, 

 acting on all appropriations, superin- 

 tending the collections of funds, etc. 



The wise selection of the O'Keefe 

 agency has left little for the publicity 

 committee to do. Major O'Keefe and 

 his associates, with the assistance of 

 Chairman Penn, have demonstrated that 

 they are entirely efficient to prepare 

 good copy and sketches that go to make 

 the advertising effective. His sugges- 

 tions to the committee have proven con- 

 clusively that he has wonderful ability 

 in placing money where it will do the 

 greatest good. 



At the last joint meeting of both of 

 our committees, held in Cincinnati, it 

 was decided that the railroad traveling 

 expense of the two committees was a 

 great expense and I suggested that the 

 national finance publicity committee, of 

 which I am chairman, be abolished. 

 After considerable discussion President 

 Ammann, who presided at these com- 

 mittee meetings, secured an expression 

 from all of the members present and it 

 was the unanimous opinion that one 

 committee should handle the entire 

 work, working on similar lines as the 

 National Flower Show committee works. 

 One man retiring each year means that 

 there will always be on the board men 

 of from four to five years' experience in 

 the handling of the campaign. 



Each member of the committee could 

 be delegated to take care of a certain 

 department. You are all aware that the 

 principal work must be done by the 

 secretary and office force and suit- 

 able appropriations must be made to 

 establish a systematic method of pro- 

 cedure. If there were only five mem- 

 bers to be considered in calling a 

 session of this important committee 

 tlicy could have meetings more often 

 and, of course, results obtained would 

 be better. 



Billboard Advertising. 



I point out to you the danger of hav- 

 ing an appointive committee, whose 

 term expires each year, in charge of 

 such important work. The feasibility 

 of this action will appeal to all. At a 

 recent joint meeting of the various 

 trade interests in Chicago th" Whole- 

 sale Growers' Association of Cook Coun- 

 ty proposed a billboard campaign, hav- 

 ing in view an easy matter of obtaining 

 sites for the erection of billboards, 

 with nothing but our slogan, "Say It 

 with Flowers," throughout the country. 

 They offered to erect boards at their 

 own cost. There are any quantity of 

 locations where greenhouse plants are 

 and where the railroad passes and auto- 

 mobile traffic is heavy, and you can 

 imagine what an addition to publicity 

 could be gained by the thousands of 

 billboards all over the country witli our 



wonderful slogan, "Say It with Flow- 

 ers." I am about to have an interview 

 with one of the largest billboard agen- 

 cies in the country and perhaps may 

 have something further to say on the 

 method and cost at that time. The fol- 

 lowing is the brief summary in total of 

 the financial conditions of the campaign 

 up to August 1: 



Total amount of fund $ 42,069.60 



Of this amount there has been collected 35,518.75 



Balance due and unpaid 0,549.75 



Cost of magazine advertising up to 



date of this year 24,938.24 



Drawings, plates, etc 2,187.81 



$111,259.05 



Subscriptions by States. 



Secretary Young's report as a mem- 

 ber of our committee and in charge of 

 detail will be more comprehensive to 

 you. His report will give in detail the 

 expense and work of the promotion 

 bureau. It may be interesting to the 

 convention to know the amounts sub- 

 scribed by each state, which are as 

 follows: 



Illinois $5,887.50 



New York 5,807.50 



Pennsylvania 6,055.00 



Ohio 3,347.00 



Michigan 8,182.00 



Massachusetts 2,651.00 



Missouri 2,045.50 



New Jersey 1,808.00 



Wisconsin 1,377.00 



Connecticut 1,219.00 



Indiana 1,022.60 



Texas 892.00 



California 878.60 



Iowa 633.00 



Minnesota 540.00 



Maryland 611.60 



Colorado 446.00 



Washington. D. 406.00 



Kentucky 366.50 



Rhode Island 338.00 



North Carolina 236.00 



Canada 215.00 



Utah 168.00 



Oklahoma 127.50 



Virginia 126.00 



Louisiana 200.00 



Maine 100.00 



New Hampshire 95.00 



Oeorgia 92.00 



North Dakota 80.00 



South Carolina 77.50 



Kansas 68.60 



South Dakota 60.00 



Florida 56.00 



Vermont 28.00 



Idaho 20.00 



Principal Work Done. 



It wants to be borne in mind that the 

 jirincipal work has been accomplished by 

 our committee, as ninety per cent of the 

 $47,000 now subscribed is for four years, 

 and as I said before, if the present ratio 

 of the subscriptions is kept up on a four- 

 year basis there ought to be at least 

 $65,000 for the publicity committee to 

 start with January 1, 1920. 



I wish to say to the members of both 

 committees that they have responded to 

 every call and have given me every as- 

 sistance possible and to them you owe a 

 debt of gratitude for this service. I 

 know that I speak the thoughts of all of 

 the members of our committee when I 

 say we all feel gratified in knowing we 

 have not labored in vain and feel happy 

 to think that we have been part of this 

 great movement which has done so much 

 to bring prosperity to the florists' busi- 

 ness. 



Following is the resolution that I re- 

 ferred to in my message that will abol- 

 ish the finance publicity committee and 

 put all the work into the hands of the 

 publicity committee as originally in- 

 tended: 



"It is hereby resolved that the com- 

 mittee known as the finance publicity 

 committee be abolished December 31, 

 1919, and that the work of financ- 

 ing and appropriating moneys to take 

 care of the national publicity campaign 

 be added to the duties of the national 

 publicity committee." \ 



