FKiiiiiAiiY 20, mn. 



The Florists^ Review 



MAKING ANOTHER 



SPECIAL J^LOWER DAY 



How the Florists of Columbus, Ohio, boosted their St. Valentine's day sales by acting: 

 on suggestions in the St. Valentine's day Special Number of The Review. 



raiC^HE issue of The Review for 

 Ijy— -^ ij January 30 ^as prepared as a 

 c I a special St. Valentine's day 

 n 1. n number, as it said, "to get 

 jV^,_/| 10,000 florists each to. do at 

 ^^ least a little something to at- 



tract the attention of the public to the 

 appropriateness of Howers for use as 

 valentines." 



As early as the iss-ue of February 13 

 it was seen, from news-letters and cor- 

 respondence, that the idea had 

 been taken up generally by the 

 trade from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific and that, as a. result of* 

 the suggestions in TYie Eeview, 

 the public was to be awakened 

 to one more of the uses of flo'w- 

 ers as "messengers of senti- 

 ment. ' ' How thoroughly it 

 worked to advantage of thetrafl« 

 is apparent in today 's issue. 



In the majority of cases tbe 

 exploitation of St. "Valentine 's 

 day was undertaken a.s a purely 

 individual proposition — each re- 

 tailer did what occurred to him 

 as best for his own business. 

 Some did no nioretha,n decorate 

 the show window. Others sent 

 out mailing cards, i>rinted ac- 

 cording to personal ideas of what 

 was fitting. Others wrote letters 

 to customers. Others used dis- 

 play advertisements in their lo- 

 cal papers. But the loest results, 

 apparently, were obtffiiined where 

 cooperative publicity- was tried, 

 in charge of a committee or in 

 the hands of some progressive 

 individual who was sufficiently 

 enthused to get the florists of 

 his town together. 



All through this issue of The 

 Eeview, in practically every 

 news-letter, there are references 

 to the publicity woi-k that -was 



done, and to its success it 



never failed — but at probably 

 no other place was it taken up 

 in such businesslike fashion, or 

 with such good results, as at 

 Columbus, O. What was done 

 %re^ and JjigjsrJt liAXued out, is 

 tino subject of tliis intide. 



Let T. J. Jjudwig, manager of 

 the cut flower department of the 

 Livingston Seed Co., tell how 

 it started: "After reading the 

 St. Valentine's Numher of The 



of the florists to go in together on a 

 full page printed in two colors, which, 

 I understand, cost $200." 



Two of the evening papers of Febru- 

 ary 13 carried the cooperative adver- 

 tisement and the State Journal had it 

 on the morning of St. Valentine's day, 

 in the same issue with the full page 

 in two colors. The lay-out, copy and 

 cuts were all different, worked out by 

 the newspapers collaborating with the 



Let Flowers Be Your Valentine 



Sothtne )« ^ii* a« ApproprUtC U a pft >■ 

 Ctowcn in (Helirauon of Si VslowtiM'* D*v 



Mmcly rkpre««in( ^weclacM umI pitiitv '>f 

 iho«ctil. infv are a t*»t txpnt^inn r<f jotii hr<,\ 

 il« or awtcthrart. 



V 



These Florists Have Spent Months 

 Preparing For This Occasion 



Rcalizine the crowing tendencr to fivor ihc jifing of flower* » Valentina 



Dar lolieni. theft florisJt have made k concerted effort to prepare the 



best and freakesi of cut flowcn and potted bloomtQE plants for the 



ncedi of this occaiion. Several moaihs' time bat been conaumed 



ID thia preparation and thote making purchaiet of the 



floriata lined below can be auured of getting the beat 



of the following variiiea of flower*. 



Swt«t Ptat, Violets, Orehidt, 



LilieM of the Valley American Beautiet, 



Freeaia, Roeet, 



Caritation; NarciBtaw, Daffodil*, 



Tulips 



and a Great Variety of 



Blooming Pot 



Plant* 



Columbus' Leading Retail Florists 



Th» An Floral Co ' '.>)' 



Hrll M 1144 



Franli A. Bngft— K«il \ Vl 

 W«i. j BnM-< 11 «•-,- i!,|; 



Th* CohimbM Floral Co. 

 CoiUf* ItoM CtrdM -lit 



I v.M. H»ii, \r ;;," 



TW r»tk Av* F1«ral Co- 

 Lrt \H^1 Oil \>r(h Zl* 



llowsid 4 Compcfty — < i ' 

 Th« lo4t«*ola Flori— — "^ 



Miu E r Jonn 

 Ralph Knight 



Th* LivmgaMB So«d C» - 



.■I"' (ifll, M «J 



Th* MmUi riorel c«.-<:>i H 



llrlt W »1.M 

 K MMMUicr * Sm— Rrit 



Tb« Ohto Floral Co^-^.i ' 



Hfll M "»■- 



TW ftivKMdc Floral Co - 

 .(,173 B«;i, M ?J»«" 



Hilltop /074 



Bfll. Ka<t lirA 



-t». B«ll. M -'^« 

 Rtclwrd WMtcn. 



One of tfae Ads that Made Feb. 14 "Like Another Christmas.' 



Review," says Mr. I^udwig, * * it seemed 

 time for me to get "busy, so I called on 

 all the florists I could conveniently 

 reach, got them together and. to go in 

 on a general advertisement in three of 

 our daily papers. In all $132 was con- 

 tributed to the fund, by twenty-one 

 florists. This paid for one insertion of 

 a good sized space in each of three 

 papers. In addition, the Ohio State 

 •Journal took themsitter up and %ot ten 



florists. Each one was excellent, the 

 only possible suggestion for betterment 

 being as to the date of publication; it 

 is possible that earlier publication would 

 have been desirable. It should be pos- 

 sible to book orders for a whole week 

 in advance if the funds available would 

 })ermit so early a start with the adver- 

 tising. 



As the advertising could not be ef- 

 fective until the morning of February 



14, it crowded all the sales, into one 

 day. But business started off big that 

 morning and by night the florists of 

 Columbus had a trade that was "like 

 another Christmas," as the Columbus 

 correspondent puts it, on another page. 

 He says the trade was *' something -tyon- 

 derful; a regular cleanup." 



It was so good that J. E. Hellenthal 

 wrote The Eeview, the source of their 

 inspiration, on the evening of St. Val- 

 entine's day: ''Our St. Valen- 

 tine's day was the best ever 

 known; more basket.s filled and 

 used than anything else; you 

 certainly did the trade a serv- 

 ice. ' ' 



In some cases the sales for 

 the day actually doubled as 

 compared with last year, in 

 spite of the fact that last year 

 St. Valentine's day did not fall 

 in Lent, which no doubt was 

 more or less of a" handicap this 

 time. This is the way the 

 Fifth Avenue Floral Co. tells it: 

 ' ' The cooperative advertising 

 in the newspapers before St. 

 Valentine's day from all ap- 

 l>earances did great work, as our 

 business was about doubled this 

 season compared to last season. 

 Whether it was all due to the 

 advertising or not we are not 

 able to say, but the {jrobability 

 is that the publicity inspired 

 us all to greater efforts in all 

 directions. We had an outlay 

 of only $10 as our contribution 

 to the fund and if that did all 

 the work it certainly would pay 

 to try it again for other special 

 flower days; indeed, we are 

 much ii^ favor of trying it 

 again." 



The newspapers were willing 

 to back the florists up by pub- 

 lishing articles on the use of 

 flowers as valentines, so that the 

 trade really received consider- 

 ably more publicity than it 

 paid for, "The idea was car- 

 ried through to a glorious fin- 

 ish," says H. N. Munk, presi- 

 dent of the Munk Flor.il Co. 

 "The grouping together of all 

 our ads made a most impressive 

 sight, and it was not much trou- 

 ble to get the newspapers to 

 ' give us many complimentary 

 news articles on the old and beautiful 

 custom of giving flowers as best ex- 

 pressing the love, affection and senti- 

 ments of the day, and other articles 

 telling how plentifully supplied the 

 flower shops were, how beautiful the 

 displays, and how reasonable the prices. 

 These free articles were j»roductive of 

 wonderful results. Not only the ads 

 were attractive, but the news articles 

 well placed and well written. Also, the 



/ 



