Junk 4, 1914.' 



The Florists'" Review 



13 



GETTING TOGETHER 

 GETS RESULTS 



How Florists of Detroit and Toledo increased holiday business 

 beyond all expectations by means of co-operative advertising 



ROBABLY no general move- 

 ment in the trade has ever 

 put so much money into 

 florists' pockets in an 

 equal length of time as 

 the movement for coopera- 

 tive advertising. The re- 

 sponse to The Review's advocacy of 

 this means of boosting the business for 

 special flower days has been far 

 greater than was at first anticipated. 

 Although Mothers' day provides the 

 strongest illustration of the results 

 achieved in this way, the plan is com- 

 ing more and more into use for other 

 occasions, and others besides those 

 whose opinions are given here have 

 been busying their brains with the 

 question how far cooperation in this 

 line can be carried. Probably the 

 question can be answered only by ex- 

 periment. The experiments so far 

 made have proved successful even be- 

 yond expectations; there seems to be 

 no likelihood that others 

 will not be successful 

 also. How this plan can 

 be carried out is clearly 

 set forth in the follow- 

 ing descriptions of its 

 workings in Toledo and 

 Detroit, given by promi- 

 nent members of the 

 trade in these cities: 



IN TOLEDO. 



[BY HENRY E. KLUNDER.] 



In cooperative adver- 

 tising we have at last 

 the solution to the retail 

 florists' advertising prob- 

 lem. Every retailer feels 

 that he must advertise, 

 but he knows that the 

 size of the advertisement 

 his business can afford to 

 buy will not bring him 

 the results necessary to 

 make the venture a pay- 

 ing proposition. For this 

 reason the small retailer 

 is even worse off than 

 his bigger brother. 



Until recently the value 

 of cooperative advertis- 

 ing had not been consid- 

 ered. Mothers' day gave 

 the opportunity, inas- 

 much as the florists 

 throughout the country 

 deemed the day's busi- 

 ness too small to warrant 

 a large expenditure and 

 turned to cooperative ad- 

 vertising as the cheapest 

 means of gaining the de- 

 sired publicity. The re- 

 sults of this trial were 

 far beyond the most san- 

 guine expectations and 

 proved completely its su- 



periority as a means for florists to 

 reach the public. 



Size of Advertisement. 



A great deal may be said about the 

 size of the advertisements necessary fo 

 give results. It is my opinion, derived 

 from various experiences in this line, 

 that the larger the city the larger the 

 advertisements must be. In the lead- 

 ing cities page advertisements would 

 be necessary to give the results which 

 would be produced by half-pages in the 

 smaller cities. In the busy life of the 

 largest cities a small advertisement 

 does not make the impression that it 

 does where life is less complex. Two 

 insertions are, of course, far more pro- 

 ductive of results than one. 



In carrying out our cooperative ad- 

 vertising in Toledo for Mothers' day, 

 we had some difficulty in getting 

 enough subscribers to make it a suc- 

 cess. The original plan was to get 



"Mather it the name of Ood iit 

 the lips and hearts of tittle cAiJ- 

 dreii. • '—THACKERAY. 



"Youth fades, love droops, the' 

 Icafes of friendship fall, a m9ther's 

 secret hope outlives them all."— 

 HOLMES. 



$10 from each of the leading retailers 

 of the city, but as a number objected, 

 we succeeded in getting only thirteen 

 at $5 each. This gave us $65, with 

 which we were able to get one inser- 

 tion each in the two leading evening 

 papers, of the advertisement shown on 

 this page, approximately a quarter of 

 a page in size. 



Trade Must Push Special Days. 



Although florists were the pioneers in 

 making Mothers' day a great occasion, 

 we must continue to push it, in com- 

 mon with other special days, or else 

 other lines will find ways of taking 

 part of the business away from us — 

 such as advocating gifts of boxes of 

 candy to living mothers. It is my be- 

 lief that in every fair-sized city the 

 florists should have a fund to make co- 

 operative advertising a part of the 

 preparation for each holiday and me- 

 morial occasion. 



Full page advertise- 

 ments with the subscrib- 



Sunday, May /0th. 



Xcirt Sunday is Mothers' D»y, set aside by the whole nation to honor universal 

 Motherhood and your own Mother in particular. Govern ot Cox in his proclamation 

 just issued, «aj-s, "We have reached that point in our civilization where Motherhood 

 is enshrined in the hearts of the human race as fa no other sentiment." AU over the 

 nation everyone honors Mother by sending her flowers, or a ba.sket of her assorted 

 favorites, or a plant that she loves, Common custom the country over has led to 

 the adftption of the following slogan fof Mothers' Day, 



"A Colored Flower for Mothers Living, 

 A White Flower for Mothert Dead 



The leading florists here represented have 



made special preparations to deliver flower and 



plant orders promptly in any quantity to all 



parts of the city and to supply the public with 



fresh, choice flowers, or baskets daintily 



made up, or any seasonable plant^. 



/ 



The Art Tloral and DecoratinffOo. 



>l> M. Clair H. 



Krusger Bret., 



>«'."d. •«! (lark ala. 



Meti b Bateman, 



111 Ma«la<m aie. 



Spanner, 



i 



3M Nanumt. 



Harry Heinl, 



l>«croli are, 



Scottwood Oreenhonae, 



ti'-ouwood and Banrmft. 



Schramm Broi.; 



ISI5 f-hfTT) M. 



CHuM. XoeUcer ^roa., 



4M EMpIre Arradc. 



Helen F. Patten, 



M7 Madlaoa a>r. 



S. M. Peck, 



£mil Kuhnke, 



nolMnd. N>ar WoodvUlc 



Paul Timm, 



ZtMM Moaror. 



Mrs. J. B. FrMmaiif - 



SM Knpftior. 



The G)-operatfve Advertisement that Boomed Mothers' Day in Toledo. 



ing florists' names alpha- 

 betically listed will be 

 sure to bring all the busi- 

 ness that can be ade- 

 quately handled. Occa- 

 sions in addition to the 

 established flower days 

 which are much in need 

 of boosting are Thanks- 

 giving, New Year's and 

 S t . Valentine 's day s. 

 These days have never 

 been thoroughly exploit- 

 ed and offer great possi- 

 bilities for cooperative 

 advertising. 



A point of vital impor- 

 tance in getting up these 

 advertisements is not to 

 push any particular 

 flower, but to make the 

 statements broad enough 

 to include about every- 

 thing seasonable, both in 

 cut flowers and blooming 

 plants. In this way only 

 can the prices be kept 

 down so that the retailer 

 can show a profit for his 

 efforts. 



IN DETROIT. 



[BY J. F. SULLIVAN.] 



The Detroit Florists' 

 Club has a publicity com- 

 mittee, which has in 

 charge all the advertising 

 and different forms of 

 publicity carried on by 

 the club as a whole. Last 

 year this committee 

 placed advertisements in 

 all the local papers, call- 

 ing the attention of the 

 public to the proprietv of 



