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In some ways the floral industry is a paradox.
On one hand we have a product that
everyone loves. On the other hand, at least in
the U.S. market, only a small percentage of consumers
consistently purchase flowers. Yes, we
have been fairly successful with selling fresh
flowers as holiday gifts. But we have struggled
as an industry to convince most American consumers
to purchase flowers for themselves on
a regular basis. Not only do we have one of
the lowest rankings of per capita consumption
of flowers among other industrialized countries
of the world, but as American Floral Endowment
statistics reveal, floral sales have barely kept
up with inflation in the last decade.
Now, in a weak post-9/11 economy, the
floral industry faces unique and difficult challenges:
how do we grow fresh flower sales and
profits in supermarkets, and what is the outlook
for the future of the floral department? What is
at stake is the tremendous potential for increased
profits and sales that floral offers supermarkets.
And at the very time supermarket management
is seeking ways to compete with other retailers,
such as Wal-Mart, no other department has a
greater opportunity for sales and profit growth.
The answers to these important questions lie in
our willingness to recognize, understand and
incorporate several basic fundamental keys to
success in purchasing and selling fresh flowers.
Think “value” not “quality”
The word “quality” has little to do with the
actual worth of fresh flowers today. After all,
do you know anyone who would admit to selling
or buying anything but “quality” flowers.
The key word in the successful marketing of fresh
flowers is “value”, within the two main categories
of flower sales: flowers as gifts and flowers
puchased for self-consumption.
The value of flowers as gifts is their ability
to effectively communicate or transfer human
feelings or emotions from the giver to the receiver.
Flowers can accomplish transfer of feelings
very well. Our challenge here is to continue
to convince consumers that flowers are a
superior alternative to the literally thousands of
gift items currently available to consumers.
Value in flowers as it applies to self-consumption
is another matter. While freshness and
vase life longevity aren’t much of a factor in flowers
purchased as gifts, those factors are virtually
the ONLY important elements in the value of
flowers to consumers wishing to make flowers
a regular part of their lives.
The self-consumption market offers us an
incredible opportunity for growth, but in order
to grow fresh flower sales for self-consumption
we will have to maximize flower freshness at
the point-of-sale, and then maximize flower vase
life in the home.
Freshness gets them to buy. Longevity
gets them to buy again.
Education
My grandfather, a school teacher, had a
sign on his wall that I would see every time I
visited him. It read: “To teach the lesson, first
you must know the lesson.” All of us who do
business in fresh flowers regardless of where
you are in the chain of distribution have a professional
responsibiliy to understand proper fresh
flower care and handling not just at your own
level, but at every other level from grower to
transporter to wholesale distributor to consumer.
The Society of American Florists (SAF) has an
excellent book written by Dr. Michael Reid of
The University of California at Davis and Dr. Terril
Nell of The University of Florida at Gainsville. Its
title is Flower & Plant Care :The 21st Century
Approach. They can be reached at 1-800-336-
4743.
Don’t assume your customers, suppliers,
or vendors are using proper flower handling
procedures. Make it your business and your
responsibility to find out what they do or don’t
do currently, and then work with them to execute
necessary improvements.
Satisfying Consumers
What is it about other consumer products
that compete with flowers for the shrinking discretionary
dollars available that has boosted the
competition’s sales growth while flower sales
have remained relatively flat for the last decade?
Examples of this competiton are all around us:
Starbucks and other coffee retailers, wine, cigars,
and candy are just a few of those products.
The difference is that those other industries
seem to be doing a better job in consistently
satisfying consumers. If we examine how
these industries and companies accomplish
consumer satisfaction, we can begin to see several
things that they all have in common.
• First, they do an excellent job at creating
excitement in the expectations of consuming
the product.
• Second, they give consumers what the
consumer considers value at the point-of-sale.
• Third, they deliver on their promise by
meeting or exceeding the consumers’ expectations
when the product is consumed. If they
didn’t, consumers wouldn’t keep buying their
products.
What must we do to consistently satisfy
self-consumers of flowers?
1. Incorporate a consumer orientation
into all activities, policies, and decisions. For
instance, is your category management program
limited to issues related to your bottom
line? Are you limiting consumer choices and
product synergies on the basis of margin alone?
Are you giving consumers opportunities to purchase
more than one product in the department?
Are you providing consumers a variety
of ideas on how to use fresh flowers in the
home? Are you selling high value vases?
2. Develop a solid foundation of flower
value by implementing value-assurance programs
that identify and apply proven, correct
flower care and handling procedures from the
grower to the consumer.
3. At the point-of sale, create the anticipation
of the enjoyment in the consumption of
flowers through information containing emotive
language, and offer consumers the freshest
flowers possible. Freshness makes the sale.
4. Assist the consumer in maximizing the
enjoyment of the consumption of the product
in the home. It is when the flowers are being
discarded that the consumer will determine
whether they got their money’s worth. Vase life
longevity brings them back.
(Terry Johnson is a frequent contributor to Fresh Digest
and has served on several committees as well as having
been member of the Board of Directors of the Fresh
Produce and Floral Council. He can be contacted at
Hortmarketing@aol.com.)
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