August 6, 1908. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



■■ ■ I..'- 



Dorothy Eckford Sweet Peas at Sugar Hill, N. Y. 



ping of the water that wears away the 

 stone. 



In answering the question, "How to 

 Advertise!" let it be understood that 

 there can be no hard and fast rules gov- 

 erning the making of business-getting 

 print. 



It can't be measured with a yardstick. 

 However, there are certain known ingre- 

 dients possessed by all successful adver- 

 tising. 



A CareftiUy Laid Plan. 



First of all, there must be a definite 

 plan. 



Successful advertising does not just 

 happen. It is the result of carefully 

 thought out and well executed plans. 



Quality must necessarily precede quan- 

 tity. If both can be had, so much the 

 better. The man who has to dig for 

 every word that goes into his ad turns 

 out a much more readable product than 

 the fellow who can grind it out by the 

 yard. 



Be careful that you don't crowd too 

 much matter into your space. 



Leave off the frills and the trimmings 

 — and don't talk over your readers' 

 heads. 



Plain, common-sense talk is the desired 

 kind. Be sensible if you want sensible 

 people to read your ads. 



Simple language is easily understood 

 by everybody. 



Don't ruin the effect of the entire 

 space with such incongruous headings 

 as "We are It," "We have the goods," 

 "Sizl" "Boom!" "Bah!" and such 

 other meaningless nonsense. 



Drop the ' ' We ' ' habit in writing your 

 ads— "We this" and "We that." Get 

 the "You" habit. It is much better. 



There is no person we are interested 

 in quite so much as ourselves. It is 

 much more agreeable to be saluted as 

 a "you" than a "we." 



Avoid demanding business. Don't im- 

 press people with the idea that you think 

 they are under obligations to buy from 

 you. 



Solicit patronage in a courteous, busi- 

 ness-like way. 



A request is tenfold more powerful 

 than a command. 



Don't talk price^talk quality. There 

 are plenty of people who would rather 

 buy a good article than a cheap one. 



Time to Awake* 



There is an awakening among the re- 

 tail florists to the realization tBat a bet- 

 ter and more up-to-date plan of adver- 

 tising is now in order if they expect to 

 keep on the firing line. 



Still, the formal, stilted, unchanging 

 card announcement style of advertising 

 is in all too common use among florists. 



Many continue to cling to this lifeless 

 and well-nigh ineffective kind of pub- 

 licity — using practically no other means 

 to tell the people that they solicit their 

 patronage. 



Bare statements and prices alone are 

 not the best means to get people to do 

 as you would have them do when, pos- 

 sibly, they are inclined to do something 

 else. 



For example, is there anything par- 



ticularly attractive or appealing in an 

 ad like this? 



EMPIRE FLORAL CO. 



CUT FLOWERS AND PLANTS 

 DECORATING 



100 Main St. Tt. 13 W 



And yet, hundreds of just such * * foot- 

 less" announcements are still occupying 

 valuable space in the newspapers. 



That's about all they do — just "oc- 

 cupy ' ' space. 



Why not put a real, live message in 

 that space? And every florist has many, 

 if he only realizes it. 



Tell the people about your flowers and 

 their many points of excellence. Why 

 and how they differ from the ordinary 

 run — and many other topics which can 

 be presented in an attractive, interest- 

 ing and convincing manner. 



Have every ad contain and deliver a 

 message. 



A small ad, given even a few inser- 

 tions, is worth any number of timeworn 

 "classics" of the above variety. 



Keep in mind that your advertising, 

 first, last and all of the time, must be 

 salesmanship. 



When your advertising ceases to be 

 salesmanship, then it isn't worth your 

 paying for space to display it. 

 \ H. Baymond Campbell. 



SWEET PEAS ON SUGAR HILL. 



Sugar Hill, near Watkins, N. Y., is 

 the home of Louis J. Bates, who ships 

 asters and sweet peas to the New York 

 city market in large quantities each sea- 

 son. He begins to cut the latter part of 

 July and last year made his latest ship- 

 ment October 18. He trains his sweet 

 peas on the American Field wire fence, 

 forty-five inches high and set several 

 inches above the ground. At the time 

 of taking the photographs reproduced 

 herewith, late last season, the vines were 

 veritable bushes, four to five feet thick. 

 The varieties grown are principally Nora 

 Unwin, Dorothy Eckford and Countess 

 Spencer, and even in as unfavorable a 

 season as last year stems ten to twelve 

 inches long were the rule; occasionally 



Nora Unwin Sweet Peat at Sugar Hill, N. Y. 



