Marketing Flowers to the Aging Population
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| The senior years often come with many emotional challenges, but compelling research shows us that seniors who receive floral gifts display fewer signs of depression. |
Do you measure your life in terms of the number of days you have lived or in the number of days you have left to live? The Canadian population is aging – most of us are in our forties, fifties and early sixties. It stands to reason that businesses would be wise to target the older consumer since that’s where more consumers are clustered. We could talk about using larger type on your brochures for aging eyes or even about how to ensure that your retail space is wheelchair accessible. If we were discussing any other industry, addressing the physical issues of an aging consumer would be the main message. We’re not any other industry. We’re the floral industry. We sell ways to say: I love you, thank you, I’m sorry, I miss you. We’re there at all life’s big moments and small moments that are made bigger by beautiful flowers. The senior years often come with many emotional challenges, as mental alertness can diminish, but compelling research shows us that seniors who receive floral gifts actually display fewer signs of depression and increased mental alertness. Floral therapy seems to be a key opportunity in targeting the older consumer.
In her research paper titled “An environmental approach to positive emotion: flowers” Jeannette Haviland-Jones of Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey looks at why flowers are important to humans and how receiving them can have a measurable, positive impact on older people. In her report, Haviland-Jones proposes that feeling good about flowers isn’t something we’ve learned to do by societal influences but rather that it’s hard-wired into our psyches. She suggests that since we know that flowers have evolved to attract birds, bees and even bats to ensure they’re pollinated and propagated – why not humans too? If we think flowers are beautiful, we’ll want more of them and therefore will plant more of them – ensuring their survival. The study itself examined a group of older people (average age 73) over a two-week period. The participants were segmented into groups and some received flowers the first week only, some the second week only, some both weeks and the last group received none during the study but did receive a bouquet after the study was over. The participants were asked to keep diaries to measure mood and they participated in cognitive testing, which evaluated memory retention. The results were significant. The study indicated that the seniors who received flowers experienced less depression and scored higher on memory tests than those who received no flowers. Flowers also appear to have a cumulative effect. The groups of seniors who received bouquets two weeks in a row had the most positive scores for mood and memory retention. The paper also mentions that the research team received a raft of thank you notes from participants, which often included pictures of the arrangement they received, nad the researchers who delivered the flowers received spontaneous hugs and kisses. Haviland- Jones sums it up this way: “In many years of studying emotions, we have never received hugs and kisses, thank you notes or photographs, not even for candy, doughnuts, decorated shirts or hats, gift certificates, or direct monetary payment; the flowers are different.” The full report appears in the April 2005 issue of Evolutionary Psychology and can be found online at http://human-nature.com/ep/articles/ep03104132.htm. Check it out – it’s powerful stuff.
If we start to think of flowers as therapeutic aids instead of window dressing, then whom we target and how we target them from a marketing point of view completely shifts. Consider creating a brochure that speaks to “floral therapy” and then send it to customers in their 40’s and 50’s. Your target here won’t be the seniors themselves but rather their children who want to help an aging parent. Consider changing your marketing materials to refer to the findings of this study. Perhaps creating a “subscription” of flowers that would allow children to have a bouquet automatically sent to an aging parent once a month would be an effective way to target this segment. If you want to create a “community relations” program, donating bouquets to a senior’s home may be a way to promote your business and give something back at the same time. That seniors’ home may just allow you to leave some brochures at their facility too.
So, it appears as though flowers aren’t simply a “nice to have,” they’re actually a “have to have” – they make life better. This won’t come as a shock to those who are passionate about flowers; we’ve known it all along. It’s just very nice to see somebody finally prove it.
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