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30 



The Florists^ Review 



May 4. 1922 



L __. 







Sunday, May 8th 



Milwaukee Let Mother Speak for Herself. 



out of tlie entire proceeds, should we sell 

 out at prices fixed on the entire stock we 

 bought. We sold out completely before 

 8 p. m. the Saturday preceding Mothers' 

 day. We ordered more flowers for Sun- 

 day morning and sold out before 11 a. m. 

 We turned away many customers and 

 had to stop selling for two hours Satur- 

 day afternoon until wo caught up with 

 orders. One of the last customers Sun- 

 day took all our roses without stems. 

 Dozens of men went away wearing a 

 spray of valley. A mechanic in his 

 working clothes bought two orchids, the 

 last flowers on the premises." 



In addition to several large advertise- 

 ments, the above firm arranged with the 

 local newspaper to insert some half- 

 dozen notes, one at the head or at the 

 end of a column here and there. 

 "Mothers' day is Sunday. Order flow- 

 ers Saturday — telegraph service for all 

 whose mothers reside out of town," was 

 the message. 



There are many cases where distinc- 

 tiveness counts and, certainly, there is a 

 premium on a good idea. Various kinds 

 of circulars can be distributed to those 

 on the mailing list. I^ast year Fancher's 

 Greenhouses, of Binghamton, N. Y., cir- 

 culated small blotters, on which was the 

 picture of a little boy waving a rose 

 aloft and slioiiting, "Flowers for 

 Mother!" McKellar's Flower Shop, of 

 Columbus, O., sent out still smaller blot- 

 ters, Sx.") inches in size. On each blotter 

 was a dainty scene, to the left of which 

 appeared the admonition, "Don't forget 

 mother." Max Schling last year dis- 

 tributed artistic cards, 4^/^x7 inches in 

 size, on which were ha7id-lettered, in the 

 style of his newspaper advertisements, 

 the words, "Your mother thought of you 

 every day. Think of her on Mothers' 

 day. Order flowers for her now, to be 

 delivered wherever she may be, in New 

 York or a thousand miles away." To 

 this was added, "You and your friends 

 are invited to call and receive a bouton- 

 niere with our compliments." 



The ordinary envelope can l)e put to 

 good advertising use, as shown last year 



by Howard E. Gates, of Anaheim, Cal., 

 who had printed on each envelope a 

 reminder of Mothers' day under an 

 appropriate cut. These letters go far 

 and wide and create much i)ubli<!ity. 



Working Together. 



Cooperative advertising is more com- 

 prehensive and more constructive to the 

 trade as a whole than any other form. 

 For instance, a number of retailers and 

 growers advertising on a full page of a 

 daily paper exert an influence for all 

 florists. And this pays. The advertise- 

 ment used last year by Knoxville florists 

 came at a high figure, but it brought re- 

 sults that made the original cost of the 

 advertisement seem diminutive. The 

 same was done in many other places 

 with equal results. St. Louis has been 

 setting a leading pace in cooperative 

 achievement this year, as was witnessed 

 at Piaster, when more than $4,000 was 

 spent by growers and twenty-five retail- 

 ers on double-page advertisements in the 

 local press, with big results. St. Louis 

 already has her Mothers' day plans laid. 

 Such advertising is paying everywhere. 



Organizations throughout the country 

 have also done much to build up the day. 

 Last year at a meeting of the Ohio dis- 

 trict of the National Flower Growers' 

 Association it was decided to conduct 

 a small advertising campaign to promote 

 the use of flowers for Mothers' day and, 

 according to the secretary, within a few 

 minutes subscriptions were made among 

 the men present amounting to more than 

 $000. This is exemplary of what is tak- 

 ing place in many places. Are you alive 

 to the situation? 



This last Easter was a record-breaker. 

 And there is no reason 'why Mothers' 

 day should not be just as great a success. 

 Advertising flowers for the second Sun- 

 day in May tells in dollars. For a num- 

 ber of years The Eeview has urged flo- 

 rists to make the most of the day, to 

 !idd to its sales and to its profits. Those 

 who have put strong efforts into adver- 

 tising the day have made money. This 

 year make your advertisements business- 

 pullers. Make "Mother" preeminent. 

 Introduce a good picture of a mother, 

 perhaps like that on the cover of this 

 issue; word your advertisement well, 

 and look for results. 



WHY EARLY ACTION COUNTS. 



Capitalizing Time. 



"I must take time, for I am in n 

 hurry." said Alexander the Great. 

 "Haste makes waste" admonishes an 

 old and proved proverb. Says another, 

 "The early bird catches the worm." 

 All these wise bits of advice strike like 

 triiihammers in the ears of the florists 

 who have seen hundreds of would-hc 

 buyers turned away because of a short- 

 age of stock, and the thinking trades 

 man who learns lessons from the trend 

 of business is planning to "take time 

 by the forelock" this coming Mothers' 

 day. 



And with good reason. The florists' 

 trade has reached a point where, to care 

 for the demand, generalship is re- 

 quired. And the future florist, from all 

 indications, will be he who thinks out 

 the campaign — and gets started earlv. 

 Your flower-loving citizen who used to 

 dash into a store at the last moment and 

 get his order filled satisfactorily, is 

 alive to the fact that in the future he 

 will have to order early. Some buyers 

 are already ordering two or three davs 



in advance. Since "u bird in the hand 

 is worth two in the bush," the wise 

 florist will campaign for these early or- 

 ders. If he does this, the last-minute 

 demand will be decreased and the sum 

 total of profits will be greater and more 

 sensibly achieved. 



Practice Proves. 



Examples of the lesson learned are 

 without number. This Easter, Mrs. T. A. 

 Moseley, of Kansas City, Kan., made 

 what the firm calls a "clean sweep," 

 and more stock could have been sold, 

 had it been obtainable. In contempla- 

 tion of the big success, the firm writes: 

 "There is one important matter to be 

 learned from this last Easter's business. 

 The tardy customers of former years 

 showed they had learned the lesson of 

 experience, by placing their orders 

 early. One lady, especially, ordered 

 thirty days ahead of time, since she was 

 disappointed last year and 'got left' 

 in her selections. The advantage flo- 

 rists gain by placing their orders in ad- 

 v.ance is greater assurance in quantity 

 buying. This Easter demand was 

 greater in most cases than the supply 

 at the greenhouses." 



Getting ready early, in its deepest 

 sense, implies preparation at all times. 

 Accurate notations of what conditions 

 are this Mothers' day — the demand, the 

 supply, the public's attitude, etc., — will 

 go a long way in laying a firm founda- 

 tion on which to base judgment at fu- 

 ture holidays. And for these occasions 

 do that advertising early. 



The McCarron Flower Shop knows. 

 This year the firm began Easter adver- 

 tising early and, as a result of the plan, 

 the company can state enthusiastically: 

 "Now we do know the cause of the tre- 

 mendous business that we had at Easter, 

 especially in corsage work, where we 

 averaged eight corsages to any of the 

 other orders. Our early advertisements 

 in the local newspapers began about a 

 month before Easter and we kept this 

 campaign up until April 15. By adver- 

 tising early we gave people the oppor- 



UoiW^ Day 



Sunday, May 8th 



Remember Mother — 

 Flowers Are Most Appropriate 



They can be made so sipiificant of every- 

 thing in the heart of the sender. 



Their sweet memories cling long after the 

 blooms have passed forever. 



Color or kind matters not— neither the 

 quantity. The thought that YOU hatt> re- 

 membered even by a single blossom means 

 much to her. 



Stnd Mclhcr Flou'eTS or Wear Thtm in Het Honoi 



Roses 



Carnations 

 Swerl Peas 

 Snapdragon 

 Calendula 

 Tulips 



iiydranyeas 



Lilies 



Rox Bushv, 



Geraniums 



Doisy Plinlt 



Ferns ' Palim 



VOIR FLORIST CAN SERVE YOU WELL 

 The Flower Producers of Clevetand 



Cleveland Growers Ran This Last Year. 



