One of the main projects has been the promotion of patented plants. This has progressed to a point where patenting of plants has had its 25th anniversary.
Prior to inauguration of plant patenting, producers of new horticultural items had had no legal protection. With patenting, royalties have made possible funds for promotional use, and have provided an incentive to plant hybridizers and to licensees who have produced and distributed the plants.
Initially, after plant patenting was inaugurated, the public relations practitioner came into the picture only to handle its introduction to the consumer. More recently, PR has undertaken a comprehensive project to ensure the client of acceptance by licensee, wholesaler, retailer, and consumer.
First step has been selection of probable and suitable growers in different parts of the country. Areas were determined in each case by tests of performance and hardiness by experiment stations and other agencies. Following this, licensee arrangements were concluded between client and licensees.
With licensees established in sufficient quantity and in all suitable areas, plans moved ahead to the second phase of the promotion the wholesaler.
An attractive brochure showing the qualities and features of the plant was distributed. The plant was given a popular name to supplement its botanical name. Trade publications received news about the plant. Promotion to the wholesaler was regulated to a degree by expectancy of a light crop of the new plant, or a heavy one. If produce was to be light, promotion was educational. With a heavy crop expected, hard sell methods were utilized.
In turn, the wholesaler promoted the plant to the retailer. A kit was made available to him, including a full color booklet, reprints of magazine and newspaper ads, and a series of newspaper mats, good clear photographs, and some merchandising ideas. Retailers also received a specially designed patent tag identifying the patent owner and the name of the plant.
Final phase was promotion to the consumer. Publicity events have been employed successfully. On the 25th anniversary of plant patenting, Mrs. Gladys Fisher, rose growing and hybridizer of Woo burn, Mass., received her patent for "Love Song."
An ideal publicity event occurred some years ago with the President Eisenhower Rose. Mrs. Eisenhower received a bouquet of the flowers amid a battery of cameras and a platoon of newsmen at the National Capitol Flower Show in Washington.
On such occasions, a ready made audience has been potential buyers, on hand to see the merchandise. Then, too, there are editors of horticultural publications, shelter magazines, local newspaper garden editors, and radio and TV commentators.
A special promotion to landscape architects has been appropriate. This has provided a means of describing advantages of the new plant, and showing how it could be adapted to existing or modern landscape schemes. Other promotions have been to Garden Clubs, horticultural societies, garden centers, schools with gardening courses, and farm media.
Tie in elements have proved effective. Among them has been a new perfume, fashion color or motif, or motion picture promotion.
At least one aspect of bids for more stature is that organizations with something to sell, or an ax to grind, don't automatically have great believability with the consuming public. Their actions tend to be discounted for about as much exaggeration as is normal in their advertising messages.
The problem can't always be met simply by reducing the size of the advertising adjectives. So organizations tend to seek more stature through newsworthy actions that show integrity, modesty, and some other of the old fashioned virtues.
The preceding case studies, in part, demonstrate bids for more stature, intentional or coincidental. The following paragraphs will add variety to the approaches.
The Personal Touch
When General Motors held a preview of Powerama in Chicago for upwards of 5,000 presses and other VIP's, President Harlow Curtice stood on a platform shaking hands with a continuous line of visitors for more than two solid hours.
Motorola, Inc., took over a tuner plant in little Arcade, N.Y. The town put on a welcome for President Paul Galvin. There was a dinner in the gymnasium of the high school. The ladies auxiliaries of the churches cooked the food and served the meal. Paul Galvin was so touched by the warmth of the gesture he spontaneously gave $500 to each church denomination.
During World War II gas rationing was one of the home front necessary evils. G. Howard Pew, president of Sun Oil Co., presumably knew where he could filch a few gallons of gas now and then. Instead, he rode a bicycle to and from the railroad station in his home suburb.
McGraw Hill editors wanted and needed an off the record exchange of viewpoints with the people who make policy decisions in various industries. They decided to go out and build a close relationship, rather than stay in their offices and worry about it. The vehicle selected was a caravan of editors touring key U.S. industrial centers annually and sitting in face to face two way sessions with corporate bosses.
The Chevrolet dealers in Detroit sponsored a plant tour of the Gear and Axle plant on a live TV program. Three camera crews leap frogged from one operation to another for an unbroken sequence of 14 two minute scenes.
In Milwaukee, the Marshall & Isley Bank took 3 D slide films of scenes at its opening. These were mailed with inexpensive viewers to the firms that had sent well wishing bouquets for the occasion.
Supplier salesmen calling on the Campbell Soup Company in Camden, New Jersey, received a vest pocket sized "Welcome" pamphlet. Contents detailed business hours, how to register with receptionist, find magazines, telephone booths and writing facilities, smoking and parking regulations, use of cafeteria and washrooms, how to call a taxicab, and the company's history.
Putting the Facts in Writing:
The N.A.M. has been praised and condemned alternately for all the characteristics that consumers assess to businesses other than their own. One of the ways the N.A.M. responded was with a booklet titled "The Battle of Ideas," reporting on factual surveys revealing overriding public opinions of N.A.M. and industry, and shifts of opinion. The facts were laid bare. Critics to the contrary, the survey showed
(a) there were fewer critics than a few years before.
(b) Less label of being anti labor.
(c) More acceptability of N.A.M. materials among teachers and clergy.
The New Mexico Automotive Dealers Assn. provided its members with an interesting poster for public display. The poster headed "Declaration of Policy" listed 10 basic principles of good business.
A realty investor, Louis Glickman, issued a psychologically sound booklet on a quarterly basis. Its subject "Famous Financial Transactions."
Stature minded Exhibits and Shows:
Anthracite Information Bureau sent out a "Coal mobile" to tour the Northeast states. The prime mission was to show how coal was as automatic for feeding fires as any other fuel. The "Coal mobile" had displays, literature handouts, and a film to show at Fairs.
For Oil Progress Week, the Oil Petroleum Institute came up with an hour long TV show. The film 1976 predicted the shape of life to come in the 200th year of U.S. independence.
The professional standing of Bitner's Pharmacy in Pennsylvania is stressed by several life size photomurals. These pictures on the wall of the store show the owner in conference with local physicians.
Some years ago Parker, Davis & Company commissioned Robert A. Thorn to do a series of 20 paintings. The theme was the history of pharmacy. A set of prints was made. A mailing went to all pharmacists to stimulate pride in the profession.
The Testimonial Approach:
Knox College, in Galesburg, 111., has sponsored annual Career Conferences for its senior students. One day each year is set aside for seniors to get guidance from Alumni prominent in various fields of endeavor. Selected Alumni cheerfully returned to the school on the appointed day to act as advisors.
The Atlee Burpee Seed Company established itself as an ultimate authority on marigolds. The vehicle was a $10,000 nationwide search for a white marigold. People submitting unusually light colored flowers received $25 awards from the company's president.
A GI, released from prison camp in Korea, asked immediately for coffee and drank three cups. He said that "helped wipe out the memory of 22 months prison, dirty clothes, and 101 meals of turnips." The Pan American Coffee Bureau picked up the news and turned it into an advertisement, "Coffee Break at Freedom Village."
Calling in the Expert:
The Minnesota, Public Relations Society of America, each year focused the attention of its member and local business generally on the growing stature of the public relations calling. It invited the PR department of a nationally prominent organization to come in and tell its story at a meeting. It audited the presentation.
In the 1930's when there were product promotional contests galore, repeated references in vaudeville planted and watered the seed of a suspicion that grand prizes always went to the bosses' relatives. The suspicion became general. Procter & Gamble, to help eradicate the suspicion, employed women of high repute to set up an outside judging firm. It thrives today. There has been no question of serious proportion regarding its absolute fairness.
Radio Corporation of America has long had a substantial identification with military electronics. One means among many to further the identification was sponsorship in Congress with the USAF of a two day conference which brought together designers, manufacturers, and users of military electronics gear. The stated objective was to disseminate ideas and techniques for raising operating reliability to new high levels.
In the early phase of color television the flood of claims and analyses by competing manufacturers tended to confuse more than clarify for the public. Recognizing the public confusion, the National Better Business Bureau issued a factual booklet on color TV. Most TV makers joined in mailing millions of the pamphlets.
