Research Suggests Unique Approach Will Help Sell More Flowers

May 5, 2000 -- The Flower Promotion Organization (FPO), an alliance between Colombian and American flower growers, recently talked with consumers across the country about the "Flowers. Alive With Possibilities."^TM campaign. The results indicate favorable reactions to the campaign theme, the positioning and the display ideas put forth in the innovative program campaign. Based on these positive results, the FPO continues to refine the campaign plans for a Summer 2000 launch of the integrated campaign designed to encourage current purchasers to buy flowers more often.

FPO talked to consumers via focus groups in three cities (Philadelphia, Houston and San Diego) representative of the five launch markets (to include Chicago and Detroit) that will be used for the campaign. Talking to consumers in the east, Midwest and west helps to assess whether there are any geographic differences affecting consumers' impressions of the campaign. Focus group participants were representative of the campaign target audience for the campaign, women ages 25-54 with a household income of $40,000+ who had bought flowers within the past six months. "We wanted to talk directly with our target audience to be sure the new concepts campaign would motivate additional purchases of flowers and also to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the campaign to make appropriate refinements," said FPO Board member Tony Vollering of Sunshine Floral. Reactions to the campaign idea, the theme and the specific elements were positive across the country.

Consumers were intrigued by the simple, unique ideas presented via the campaign, which shows easy ways to use flowers throughout the home and office to enhance living areas. The concept was perceived as a novel approach to selling flowers and gave consumers license to create their own ideas for using flowers in new, non-conventional ways. According to one consumer in Philadelphia, "This gives me a ton of ideas, and I'm going to go out and buy some [flowers]." Similarly, the reaction to the theme, "Flowers. Alive With Possibilities."^TM was well received. It "gets your creative juices going-encourages you to continue further than they have," said one consumer.

While the campaign approach was well regarded, opportunities for strengthening various parts of the program also were identified. The research confirmed, for example, the value of using point-of-purchase materials to boost incremental sales. In response to this learning, FPO is expanding the point-of-purchase component for the campaign, developing materials that traditional retailers and mass market retailers can use to tie into the campaign. "We know consumers need to be reminded to buy flowers more often," said Gonzalo Aristizabal, FPO Board member from Cultivos Miramonte. "We're developing a comprehensive array of materials to help drive traffic into the store and to remind consumers to make the purchase once they're there," he continued. Based on the research, FPO will also be refining the partnership effort beyond specialty retailers. FPO hopes to hold on-site flower arrangement demonstrations at popular home decorating retail stores such as Pottery Barn, and also at stores that sell flowers such as Costco. The POP program and the on-site demonstrations are part of FPO's non-traditional marketing efforts, reaching consumers in new ways and more places than ever before to remind them to buy flowers more often.

The non-traditional marketing efforts will build upon the strong foundation created by the advertising campaign. In addition to the print which will run in targeted, regional magazines, FPO is currently negotiating a powerful television schedule to effectively reach current flower buyers. Most of the commercials will run during local news programs to reach the largest proportion of target viewers. Advertising is also being negotiated to run during the summer Olympics in each of the five markets. This is a wonderful opportunity to effectively reach a large segment of the target audience within high-profile programming. FPO is also leveraging the online medium, featuring sponsorships and regionally directed online advertisements. These ads will leverage the traffic currently visiting established websites such as www.women.com to deliver "Flowers. Alive With Possibilities."^TM reminder messages. "We are confident that our unique, direct-to-consumer efforts coupled with our highly visible advertising campaign will help to boost consumer flower sales and benefit the industry," said FPO Treasurer German Botero of Asocolflores.

The Flower Promotion Organization was created to expand the US market for all cut flower growers. The FPO is committed to increasing short term and long term consumer demand for fresh cut flowers.

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