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Apbil 15, 1915. 



The Horists' Review 



11 



BAYTON tjAIUYfiEWS „ ■— — «■ 



THt OHO ST*TI JOURNAL < 



This was a full page in a Dayton newspaper. 



How the Florists in Two Ohio Cities Employed 



And this a full page in a daily at Columbus. 



G)-operative Advertising for Mothers' Day Last Year. 



tide is the result. All the letters 

 printed here were written while the 

 subject was still fresh in mind. The 

 man who wants to push can find in- 

 spiration in them and the man who 

 wants to lie back, believing "we'll 

 sell out anyway," will find here others 

 of the same mind. But read them all; 

 they're worth it. 



A Bad Start. 



Baltimore made a first attempt and 

 bad start — too much was undertaken. 

 Two florists, assisted by the advertis- 

 ing manager of the News, secured sub- 

 scriptions from forty members of the 

 trade, and they printed all their names 

 and addresses, with a story twice too 

 long, in a space only eleven inches on 

 three columns. The results were not 

 appreciable to many of the forty sub- 

 scribers, according to one of them. 

 Samuel Feast & Sons say: 



"The idea originated through the 

 columns of The Review; one of our 

 local papers worked up the scheme, 

 based on the article that appeared a 

 few weeks before Mothers' day. Our 

 local retail and wholesale florists and 

 growers subscribed to the fund and the 

 ad that appeared was the result. Now 

 as to the benefit that the trade de- 

 rived from same, we are sorry to state 

 that the majority of these advertisers 

 have reported that the ad did not ma- 

 terially help their sales on Mothers' 

 day, as business was only normal; that 

 is to say, on the same line as that of 

 previous years. We do not know but 

 it may have a good effect on the fu- 

 ture, but our personal experience this 

 year was with the majority. 



"It seems that the public has been 

 educated to the fact that nothing but 

 the white carnation should be used, 



and as in previous years, the supply 

 soon ran out. If they were better in- 

 formed through the press that any 

 white flower is appropriate for moth- 

 er's memory and that colored flowers 

 should be used for mothers at home, 

 we believe that the trade in general 

 would be benefited by such a campaign. 

 As the matter now stands, the Balti- 

 more public is still in the dark as to 

 the intent of the day." 



It Worked Well at Springfield. 



At Springfield, Mass., five florists 

 signed an ad of almost exactly the 

 same size as the one used at Baltimore 

 but containing far less matter, with no 

 reference to the carnation. Here is 

 what Mark Aitken says about it: 



"The idea was not original. I saw 

 in The Review an advertisement sim- 

 ilar to the one used Jiere. If I re- 

 member rightly, it was an advertise- 

 ment the florists of Detroit used the 

 year before, for Mothers' day. There 

 is no doubt this advertisement did all 

 the florists a lot of good, even those 

 who did not participate in it. It 

 brought to the mind of the public the 

 fact that the particular date was Moth- 

 ers' day, which was all that was neces- 

 sary to make a lot of business for that 

 day. A year ago, when we first ran 

 this ad, it almost doubled the amount 



MOTHERS 

 DAY-. 



C5UNDAY) ^l 



A Cleveland Newspaper's Day's Head. 



of business done on Mothers' day, and 

 we did much better this year. 



"The cost to the florists who partici- 

 pated in the advertisement was about 

 $5 each for one issue." 



And Then Go West. 



Spokane, Wash., also made its first 

 attempt at cooperative advertising, 

 using a half page. This is A. J. Burt's 

 story of it: 



"In regard to cooperative advertis- 

 ing for Mothers' day, I wish to say 

 that I was much pleased to know it 

 aroused more than ordinary interest 

 among the trade. The idea was intro- 

 duced by Leroy B. Hill, who was at 

 that time The Review 's correspondent 

 here and the manager of my retail 

 business. In calling on the trade he 

 found that a few of the florists ap- 

 proved of his plan and believed cooper- 

 ative advertising would pay. This was 

 tipped off to the advertising manager 

 of one of our large dailies, who imme- 

 diately set about working up an agree- 

 ment among the florists. Five of them 

 fell in line at once. The cost, $90, was 

 stood by the florists in pj-Qportion to 

 their estimated business, three of the 

 large firms standing equally two-thirds 

 of the cost, and two smaller firms the 

 remainder. 



"The result was the breaking of the 

 records of previous years, the results 

 being generally attributed to coopera- 

 tive advertising. All kinds and colors 

 of flowers were sold, and also a great 

 many plants, much to the delight of 

 the florists. 



"Mr. Hill called upon our mayor, 

 asking him to issue a proclamation for 

 Mothers' day, but the mayor consid- 

 ered the idea of the florists purely 

 mercenary and refused to do so. An- 



