THE PERSONAL TOUCH 



35 



essential. While billboards may be a good form of local 

 advertising, and inexpensive considering the number 

 reached, I think you will agree that it is inconsistent with 

 the aims of a landscape architect or gardener to blot the 

 landscape with billboards, however attractive they may be. 



Newspaper advertising is, then, the only sort of indirect 

 advertising which the nurseryman may use. When it is 

 used, care should be taken to make a strong feature of 

 some special offer or inducement to visit the nursery; 

 also the advertisement should be put in that paper (or 

 those papers) reaching only the best class of readers. 



If indirext advertising has so little value for the nursery- 

 men, what then are the great values and forms of the 

 direct kind? 



Undoubtedly the greatest value of this latter type is 

 in the personal touch which it gives. Rare indeed is that 

 person who does not delight in reading his morning mail, 

 however inconsequential it may be. The direct appeal, 

 therefore, usually fulfills its mission to the extent of being 

 read; its pulling power depends, then, on its attractive- 

 ness and the wording of its message. 



Secondly, direct advertising is timely. Given a good 

 mailing list of your prospects and a well written circular, 

 and you can reach your man on that first Spring morning 

 when he is all primed with the garden instinct. 



Also in a message of this kind there is a certain intimacy 

 that can be secured in no other way. You can deliver your 

 message without interruption and sometimes (which is 

 often more important) without having it duplicated by 

 your competitor. Enjoying the advantages of no inter- 

 ruptions and no competition, the advertisier is enabled 

 to present his arguments in a forceful manner. In fact, 

 the power of the message is limited only by the writer's 

 abiHty. 



