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TALKING TURKEY <^ 

 (^ TO GET TRADE 



Little developed, in proportion to its possibilities, Thanksgiving offers 

 an opportunity for increasing sales of both cut flowers and plants. Some 

 florists have made this holiday a big sales occasion. This season is a favor- 

 able one for others to make it a day of flowers as well as turkey. 



lEST in chronological order 

 among American holidays, 

 Thanksgiving is far from 

 being first among florists' 

 big days. It is, indeed, 

 far from the position it 

 should hold as a sales occa- 

 sion for the trade. In this 

 J country as general ob- 

 servance is made of the 

 last Thursday in November as of Easter 

 Sunday. Not alone the descendants of 

 "the Pilgrim Fathers, but Americans of 

 every extraction, make this a day of 

 festivity and social enjoyment, whether 

 the time-honored turkey adorns the 

 festal board or is replaced by some pack- 

 ers ' product whose price soars not so 

 high. Tlie big spring flower day, Easter, 

 is an occasion of religious observance. 

 Thanksgiving is an occasion of family 

 gatherings and household festivities. 

 It is celebrated, not in a church or other 

 public place, but in the home. The ex- 

 tent of its observanci is not dependent 

 upon anyone's attendance at services 

 or ceremonies; it takes place at each 

 hearth side, as they said in olden days, 

 whether, to be more modern, said hearth 

 side is a hotel dining room, a one-room 

 apartment, a brownstone city residence, 

 or a real place by the big fire * ' down on 

 the farm." In view 

 of this wider and 

 more general observ- 

 ance of the day, it is 

 hard to see why we 

 have not a big 

 autumn flower day 

 more nearly worthy 

 to rank with our big 

 one of spring. 



Effort Needed. 



Perhaps the answer 

 lies \^thin ourselves. 

 Little effort has been 

 made, as a general 

 rule, to develop sales 

 for Thanksgiving. 

 Here and there a 

 florist, by folders, 

 newspaper advertis- 

 ing or window display, 

 seeks to arouse the 

 interest of his patrons 

 at that time, and 

 the results are so suc- 

 x-essful that it is sur- 

 prising the example 

 has not been followed 

 more widely. During 

 the autumn season 

 the last two years, of 

 course, florists were 

 busy enough — t hey 

 «xperienced s u c h a 



demand for flowers that they had little 

 time or wish to develop more. But this 

 year conditions are otherwise. Even 

 though chrysanthemums are not so plen- 

 tiful as they were in most markets a 

 year ago, other flowers are in good sup- 

 ply and prices are not so stiff as they 

 were a year ago. Moreover, the public 

 is becoming more and more used to 

 flowers for all sorts of occasions. 



Why Not Now? 



So what better time to start active 

 promotion of Thanksgiving as a flower 

 day than the present? The trade has 

 demonstrated its ability to develop a 

 flower occasion and will no doubt do so . 

 again. Thanksgiving offers us an op- 

 portunity. 



The way has been blazed already by 

 members of the trade. Indeed, the trail 

 is pretty clearly marked out, if one 

 wishes to follow it to bigger sales for 

 Thanksgiving. There are numerous ways 

 of going at it, for the day lias a variety 

 of associations in people 's minds. It is 

 a day of giving thanks for national 

 good fortune and prosperity, being thus 

 semi-religious in character. It is a day 

 of memory, also, harking back to the 

 early seventeenth century in New Eng- 

 land — it was first celebrated in 1C21 — 



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Newspaper Advertisement that Boosted Thanksgiving Sales for Indianapolis Firm. 



recalling the Mayflower, the Pilgrim 

 Fathers, the Indians with whom they 

 dealt, the rigorous Puritan customs and 

 their quaint dress. It is a day, also, 

 associated with the harvest time, and 

 cornstalks, pumpkins and turkeys are 

 emblematic of the occasion. This last 

 phase of the day has encouraged the 

 celebration of it after the fashion of the 

 Pilgrims in 1621, with a bountiful re- 

 past. And what dinner can be preten- 

 tious without flowers nowadays? 



Ample material is at hand, it is evi- 

 dent, for the florist who wishes to 

 develop the day by any of the means 

 he customarily employs, whether by 

 mail, by newspaper advertising, by win- 

 dow displays or by any other form of 

 publicity. 



An example of a catchy form of ad- 

 vertisement is given on this page. It 

 is one of several used by Bcrtermann 

 Bros. Co., Indianapolis, Ind., in wliich 

 the turkey provided the Thanksgiving 

 note. Chrysanthemums in each case 

 formed the floral part of the decoration. 

 This form of illustration served to draw 

 attention to the advertisements — it was 

 striking, novel and timely. The appeal 

 in type was in one case to possible 

 guests and in another to the hostess. A 

 few words only were necessary to send 

 it home. The occa- 

 sion, the day itself, 

 is the biggest sales 

 factor. 



Wide Variety. 



But if a florist 

 cliooses. he can use 

 another subject. He 

 docs not have to 

 "talk turkey": he 

 can use as his theme 

 any of the other as- 

 sociations attached 

 to the d;iy. a number 

 of w h i c h are men- 

 tioned above. Wheth- 

 er it is a day of 

 thanks, of memory, of 

 festivity, or of merely 

 social entertainment, 

 Thanksgiving i s a n 

 occasion to "Say It 

 with Flowers." "The 

 florist can play upon 

 any of these phase.s 

 in his newspaper ad- 

 vertising, or he can, 

 should he choose, em- 

 ploy a different theme 

 in different a d v e r- 

 tispments. 



In window decora- 

 tion, also, the same 

 varietv o f illustra- 



