98 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
lie, as a strange race entirely foreign to onr own. Too 
many of us write high sounding things that we never 
would think of saying if we were face to face with that 
same public. We have a beautiful picture painted that 
may have nothing to do with the product we are selling, 
in the perhaps mistaken idea that we need “something 
unusual to attract attention.” And then we go on by put¬ 
ting in a description of what we have to sell as a sec¬ 
ondary thought. Try to get it without their knowing it, 
so to speak. 
Remember the people who will buy what you have to 
sell are the same kind of people that you and I are. 
They think the same kind of thoughts, most of them have 
no larger vocabulary than we have. They like the same 
things we do and they are attracted by the things that 
attract us. If you have an illustration of a beautiful girl 
adorning your advertisement, they may be attracted, but 
they may lose sight entirely of the fact that you wish to 
sell shrubbery to surround their homes. In other words, 
it is just as easy to use an illustration which ties up to 
your product to get your reader’s attention, as it is to 
use one a thousand miles away from it. Get their atten¬ 
tion in such a way that they will immediately know at 
least, the class of goods you are selling. 
Printed advertising is not just a pretty picture with 
a few high-sounding words around it. To be any good 
to you, it must carry a distinct selling message. Every 
single thought in it should be toward the end of selling 
your merchandise, and anything which does not aid this 
thought, is unnecessary and should be left out. 
A short time ago there came to my desk a catalog 
from a nursery company. I don’t recall what concern 
sent it, but I’m quite sure it was from some distance 
away and so I can talk about it safely here. That cata¬ 
log was a beautiful thing. It had so many wonderfully 
nice looking pictures that I almost forgot what it was 
they were trying to sell me. There was a concrete ex¬ 
ample of the illustrations overshadowing the selling mes¬ 
sage. I recall one other point, too, that impressed itself 
on my mind very strongly. When I got around to read¬ 
ing the descriptive matter that accompanied these beauti¬ 
ful pictures, I couldn’t understand it by the wildest 
stretch of my imagination. My course in botany at school 
was very brief and elemental, but I certainly needed a 
complete college course in it to read that catalog intelli¬ 
gently. Of course, that’s one point where allowances 
have to be made for the nursery business, but if the gen¬ 
tleman who sent me that catalog had talked to me in a 
language I could understand, he might have sold me 
something. I was not the least interested in the antece¬ 
dents and the past history of his plants—what I wanted 
to know was, what colors they were and how they would 
blend with the rest of the settings around my home— 
and I wanted to know how much they would cost me. 
I was looking for results and in that. I was no differ¬ 
ent than anyone alse. Very seldom do we buy a particu¬ 
lar product for itself alone. What we are buying is 
the things it will do for us, and the service it will give 
us, and in the case of the nursery business, not so many 
plants and shrubs, but attractive landscapes, rooms, etc. 
It can almost be said that you are selling home beauty. 
Carry that thought into your advertising and you will be 
appealing to the great mass of people in a language they 
understand. Bring home the thought that your products 
will beautify their homes—but make them realize that 
they must buy your products to get these results. 
If I were in the nursery business there is one form of 
advertising to which I would give particular attention 
and that is direct- mail advertising. This is the one form 
of advertising that reaches out for a definite prospect, 
without groping, without duplication, without chance. It 
leaves nothing to hazard or good luck. It is the most sci¬ 
entific and the most direct of all forms of advertising. It 
is definite and sure. It is not hit or miss. It is not gen¬ 
eral. It is not uncertain. Its success is due to the fact 
that it is personal advertising. It goes direct to the per¬ 
son you want to reach. It carries your message alone. 
In it you can tell your story in such a way that your pros¬ 
pect will think it was written particularly for him. It 
establishes a personal point of contact not obtained in 
any other way but by a salesman’s visit. 
I would use small space in “class” magazines which 
go to your particular consumer and also in the news¬ 
papers which reach the trade you desire to solicit in 
your immediate vicinity. 
This small space advertising would be all written on 
what is called the “inquiry basis.” Every single feature 
in each of these advertisements would be toward getting 
the reader to send for your catalog or whatever literature 
you have in mind to send him. The point is to build up 
with these advertisements a mailing list to which you 
can send catalogs, folders, mail-pieces and keep them go¬ 
ing out to your prospects and customers, constantly ad¬ 
vising them of what you have to offer. 
I have in mind a house organ edited by Mr. Charles 
E. Carpenter, president of E. F. Houghton & Co., Phila¬ 
delphia. In a recent issue of the “Printing Art” he ac¬ 
knowledges that the house organ he has been publish¬ 
ing for a number of years called “The Houghton Line” 
has been a substantial help in increasing his business in 
12 years from $350,000 to $6,000,000 per year. 
There is a concrete example of the value of direct-mail 
advertising. I know Mr. Carpenter’s house organ very 
well; I look for it every month, although I cannot buy 
the products he has to offer. It is one of the most inter¬ 
esting pieces of literature which comes to my desk. He 
has the happy faculty of presenting his stories in such 
an attractive way that they appeal to everyone practi¬ 
cally, and the fact that he has a selling appeal in this 
direct-mail advertising of his is proven by the figures 
that I have just quoted in his company’s business. • 
Direct-mail advertising, gentlemen, cannot offend any¬ 
one. It has no opportunity to talk back. It gets its mes¬ 
sage over to the person you want to reach in just the 
way you want to have him get it In many cases it will 
sell goods for you with no further solicitation and in ad¬ 
dition gets you an entree to prospective customers whom 
it would be very hard otherwise to reach. With it you 
can make, if you will, every single postman who works 
for Uncle Sam, the selling agent for you. 
In all of this talk I have taken it more or less for 
granted that the majority of men in the nursery business 
are not advertising at present. This, of course, may or 
may not be true. 
