The other day on the Flower Council of Holland (FCH) website, I found a Power Point presentation made by Jo Read of FCH’s United Kingdom office, called “a Ferrari, an iPOD and a houseplant.” Two key remarks in the presentation stand out: we are marketing driven – not product focused, and we are looking for a solution – not a product.
The marketing campaigns for iconic brands like Apple and Ferrari are so successful because they create a “club-like” atmosphere. You have to belong to be a part of this elite group (problem), ergo you will buy the product because it’s the price of admission (solution). You may not want to switch to a Mac computer, but you definitely don’t want to look like that nerdy PC guy, so you get the Mac.
As a consumer, when I walk into a store I am looking for a lifestyle, a feeling, the ability to make a personal statement that says I belong. I am not looking for clothes to keep me warm; I am looking for items that make a statement about who I am. The same can be said of a home furnishing store or my local flower shop.
As I read my favourite shelter magazines, I am exposed to beautiful layouts that seduce me with their promise of clutter-free living in my modern and perhaps minimalist décor. I see lots of clean lines, glass containers with sculptural lines and individual stems with showpiece blooms that make a statement.
As a florist, you will need to become my interior designer, or interpreter. The truth is I haven’t got a clue how to make the flowers in your cooler turn into my personal statement. I need someone with an eye for design to set up the vignette, or display, that solves my problem (my home doesn’t look like those in the magazine). You have to put the flowers in the beautiful containers and display them so I can imagine them in my own setting.
A lot of the design energy in a flower shop goes into creating arrangements that we hope will attract and entice walk-in traffic to buy. These designs are often labour intensive and we worry about whether we can charge the full value of the design time. These essentially are the product of your shop. In a store with a traditional clientele, and on the traditional holidays, these will be the movers. But if I am not looking for a product, and I am looking for a solution to my décor dilemma, these arrangements won’t sell me. Merchandising that mimics the successful marketing campaigns of the moment will. Amusing containers and blooms that mimic the iPod rainbow and all things Italian are sure to catch my eye. Think about our good friend Martha Stewart and her loosely arranged bunches of flowers. She practically invented selling a lifestyle or image.
Focusing on marketing and solutions instead of product is an area of retail where it will be tough for a mass marketer or a grocer to compete. Not many of us dream of living in the ambience these retailers create. Now, of course, a small, intimate flower shop with a great selection of unique containers filled with trendy blooms, could send one’s imagination and lifestyle over the top. I think Amanda might call that one of her Top 10 reasons small business is better!
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