44 



The Florists^ Review 



AaoDST 22, 1012. 



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ADVERTISING; SOME WRONGS 



TO MAKE RIGHT 



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Advertising — what is itt 



Some say it is a hybrid tea rose. 



Others, that it is a sport of Killar- 

 ney. 



But I say it is the American Beauty. 



It is the strong-rooted, long-stemmed, 

 vigorous plant that yields the deep red 

 blooms of big business successes. 



Sight away many of you growers 

 begin shaking your heads, saying: 

 "Advertising is all right for the other 

 fellow, but my business is different. 

 In the first place, there isn't profit 

 enough in the flower business to stand 

 for advertising. (Every grower knows 

 that isn't so the minute he has said it.) 



"Second — I have tried it two or 

 three times, and it was just like throw- 

 ing so much money down a knothole. 



* ' Third — my business always has paid 

 without advertising, so what's the use 

 of blowing in my money just because 

 those blasted magazines and papers 

 hound the life out of me, or Hot Air 

 Tuthill gets up there on the platform 

 and claims advertising is the American 

 Beauty of business — the life-saver of 

 profits, and all that rotf" 



What Advertising Beally Is. 



In answer to all of which, let's back 

 up and begin all over again, and find 

 out just what advertising really is. 



In short, it's the quickest and surest 

 possible way of letting it be known to 

 the greatest number that you are in 

 business — where you are in business — 

 what your business is. It's the short- 

 est short-cut method between the seller 

 and the buyer. It's the modern power 

 that accomplishes in two years what it 

 used to take ten to do. 



But it's more than b builder — it's 

 also a destroyer; a quick, unrelenting 

 destroyer. Iherefore it needs to be 

 handled carefully — knowingly. It 

 quickly builds up a business that is 

 backed up by good goods and the 

 square deal. It still more quickly 

 wipes off the map, destroys, concerns 

 that either misrepresent their stock, or 

 that fail to meet their customers just a 

 little more than half-way. 



' ' Oh, well, ' ' you say, ' ' of course I 

 do in a way believe in advertising, 

 because when I have a few thousand 

 extra cuttings more than I can use, or 

 am overstocked on some plants, I just 

 send an ad to the florists' papers ^nd 

 unload. But as for my advertising at 

 any other time, it's ridiculous, as I 

 send all my stock to the commission 

 man. What's the use of advertising to 

 himt He knows me — knows ray goods. " 



A National Awakening. 



Listen: As old as the florist busi- 

 ness is — it's really among the young- 

 est there is. It's just beginning to 

 really begin. The real beginning began 

 about ten years ago, when Doubleday, 

 Page & Co. started their Country Life 



An address by L. W. C. Tuthill, of New York, 

 before the Society of American Florists at the 

 Chicago Convention, August 21, 1012. 



and Garden magazines. These maga- 

 zines brought a message of flowers and 

 country beauty to thousands and thou- 

 sands of people who simply needed to 

 be thus stirred into action. Soon fol- 

 lowed other magazines, like Suburban 

 Life, House and Garden and ones of a 

 similar nature, and then still other 

 mediums, and even the daily papers 

 caught the flower fever, until now the 

 love of flowers, stimulated by all these 

 publications, is fast becoming a notice- 

 able national trait. Every time one of 

 these country life magazines gets a 

 convert to the joys of flowers, you 

 growers have one more possible buyer 

 of your products. 



But this national awakening to the 

 appreciation of flowers also brings with 

 it every year a greater discrimination in 

 the buyers. The so-called "bread and 

 butter" carnations are fast becoming 

 more difficult to sell, simply because 

 the public is rapidly getting to know 

 flowers, and insisting on better and bet- 

 ter quality. 



An Identifying Trade-Mark. 



Now suppose I could go into one of 

 the Chicago florist shops and ask for 

 not only "just roses," but roses grown 

 by one Frank Jones — and those Jones 

 roses bore some identifying means so 

 that I knew I was getting Jones roses. 

 Now, don't you think it would pay both 

 the grower and the florist to get to- 

 gether somehow and spend a little joint 

 money in letting the public know that 

 Jones' Superior Boses always carried 

 an identifying trade-mark? 



Most assuredly it would! 



There is just as much of an oppor- 

 tunity to trade-mark Jones' Superior 

 Roses as there is Butter-Krust bread or 

 Borden's milk. 



And it's going to be done. 



One of your largest eastern growers, 

 whose stock is always of the finest, has 

 for a considerable time been suffering 

 from substitution — stock being sold for 

 his that is not his. You know! 



He and the ad agency I am associ- 

 ated with are now working on a plan 

 to overcome this trouble. 



It's been a hard nut to crack. 



It looks as if certain kinds of adver- 

 tising and trade-marking were the only 

 thing that can make this wrong right. 



A Look Into the Future. 



While the demand for flowers and 

 plants is still at its height, and produc- 

 tion has not yet caught up with demand, 

 the advertising question won't receive 

 from you the serious attention it even 

 now deserves. But mark my word, that 

 just as sure as anything that's sure is 

 sure, the stimulating influence given by 

 the magazines is, sooner or later, going 

 to lose its force and some direct adver- 



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tising by the growers, as , well as the 

 florists, must then be done to further 

 stimulate the business. 



Just how to set the wheels of adver- 

 tising working to further this result, 

 is going to be the cause of many a 

 headache. Some of you who have your 

 ears to the ground have long been 

 turning this over in your mind, and 

 when the time comes you will be ready 

 with the answer. One Of the greatest 

 wrongs, then, to make right, is the 

 overcoming of the impression that the 

 flower market can escape advertising. 



Tying Up One's Pocketbook. 



The way some business men refuse 

 to get aboard the advertising train re- 

 minds me of a cousin of mine who was 

 determined to go to an evening party. 

 All day it rained hard. His father said 

 that if it rained he couldn't go, but 

 if the wind would veer around to the 

 west, it would surely clear off. So my 

 cousin watched his opportunity and 

 climbed up on the barn and tied the 

 weather vane fast so it pointed west. 



He went to the party — but it still 

 rained. 



You can tie up your pocketbook and 

 refuse to advertise, but that won't stop 

 the storm of competitors who will be 

 getting your business away. 



So much for the future. 



Now let's get right down to the 

 brass tacks of the present day sit- 

 uation. 



First, let's find a little good-natured 

 fault with the trade papers. 



What would you think of a firm who 

 put the index of their catalogue in 

 some obscure part, so you needed an 

 index to find the index? You would 

 say they certainly didn't have an eye 

 to business and that an index ought 

 to be the easiest thing to find and 

 should be placed where you couldn't 

 miss it. 



By the same token, what a lot it 

 would help every advertiser in making 

 it easy for buyers to locate his ad, if 

 the index to the trade papers were 

 placed every time right in the front 

 row, on the first inside page facing the 

 cover! As it is now, the publisher 

 knows where it is, but it takes a reg- 

 ular Sherlock Holmes for one less fa- 

 miliar to find it. 



Starting and Staying. 



Now a word about starting and stay- 

 ing. 



A serious and costly wrong that ad- 

 vertisers ought to make right is start- 

 ing in to advertise and then dropping 

 out before the ads have had half an 

 opportunity to get their good, telling 

 work in. Some men seem to think ad- 

 vertising is a sort of wizard game, 

 that should yield extraordinary results 

 in an extraordinarily short time — a 

 kind of waving of the wand that will 

 back a wagon up to their doors filled 



