Well, the Valentine's Day flower bashing has begun. In the past few days I've responded to one of the country's largest candy manufacturers, a local magazine in Indiana and once again to the Danbury Mint. We'll be reporting on instances and our response regularly in E-Brief, but here are the latest details.
M&M/Mars. They may promise to keep your hands clean, but M&Ms is taking a swipe at flowers this Valentine's Day. A TV commercial for the chocolate candies asks, "Can I send [M&Ms] instead of flowers?" And the site's custom-print Web site shows pink and red roses alongside pink and red M&Ms with the headline, "Forget Roses." In a letter faxed the global chief marketing officer of Mars, Inc., the parent company, SAF noted that "consumers choose M&M's for many positive reasons. Therefore making references to flowers to make your products look good seems unnecessary."
Danbury Mint. The repeat offender's Valentine's Day jewelry catalog contains statements such as: "This Valentine's Day, don't settle for roses ... More precious than a dozen roses ... Roses fade quickly ..." SAF faxed, e-mailed and mailed a letter to the company's president, Peter Maglathlin, to request that the company promote its products on their own merits. SAF has contacted Danbury Mint each year since 2005, and each year the Norwalk, Conn.-based company fails to respond.
Although the negative floral references continue to go unanswered, it's important to let the company know that the floral industry is paying close attention and not giving up. One day, we'll get through to the Danbury Mint.
Terre Haute Living. SAF responded to an article in the January/February issue of the Indiana magazine. The article "Roses are red, Violets are blue: Really is that the best you can do?" makes disparaging statements about the price and freshness of Valentine's Day roses. In the letter to the magazine's editors, SAF stated: "While rose quality can vary due to so many outlets selling flowers for the holiday, your best bet is a local professional florist. Handling flowers is their business all year long, and they are educated in proper care and handling techniques and temperature management - the key to flower freshness and longevity."
Whenever you hear a negative floral reference, remember that SAF is the voice of the industry and let us know right away. You can contact me directly at
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; (800) 336-4743 or by fax at (703) 836-8705. For more information, visit SAF's Negative Publicity Response Web page at www.safnow.org/negativepublicity.
Achieving success on Capitol Hill requires patience and an appreciation of small victories. After that, you need more patience. That’s just about the way it goes in any effort where politics play a major role.
And it’s no wonder, when so many people describe politics as “the art of the possible.” Working on something that’s just “possible” literally screams a need for patience.
The California Cut Flower Commission (CCFC) has a victory to be proud of, yet ultimate success will require much more patience. Last week, language was added to the Agriculture Appropriations bill that urges the USDA secretary to use existing resources to help the domestic flower growing industry develop a better distribution system to compete more effectively. Congratulations to CCFC because it took a great deal of lobbying to get that far.
Granted, “urging” the Secretary to take action is not the same as “directing” the Secretary to take action. But it’s a steppingstone to the next level, and for that reason the language is significant.
More than 20 years ago, SAF experienced the same thrill of a seemingly small but, in reality, monumental victory when the floral industry was recognized, also in an Agriculture Appropriations Bill, as being an important part of the U.S. agriculture industry. This, combined with many subsequent years of lobbying, was the steppingstone to today’s $6.25 million Floral and Nursery Research Initiative.
That effort required patience and a compelling story to tell – two things CCFC will need as it moves forward.
The possibility of saving money and making a bigger profit brought more than 75 florists in the St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo., areas out of their businesses for the day – some even traveling five hours to get there.
That’s what happened a few weeks ago, when SAF co-hosted “profitability clinics” with Hortica Insurance and Baisch & Skinner, Inc. in two St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri, locations.
Our featured speaker, floral industry financial consultant Paul Goodman, CPA, presented two sessions during each of the two day-long programs. I hear he is called the Profitability Czar; I know why now! I was surprised that attendees were willing to spend a full day away from their business — no one bailed! That speaks volumes about our industry’s need for business programming (and Paul Goodman’s rock star status). He tackled topics near and (sometimes not so) dear to a business owner’s balance sheet: controlling costs of goods sold and payroll costs. His approach was very easy to listen to and to understand.
Hortica Insurance’s John Hodapp and Traci Dooley also had a presentation on how to be a good insurance customer. John and Traci joked about how riveting insurance is as a topic (not!), but really, when they explained the different types of coverage and which would be most beneficial in certain situations, it attracted quite a lot of attention from the florists there.
The team from Baisch & Skinner in St. Louis included John Baisch, Bob Baisch, Zach Baisch, Steve Frye, Tom Hofeditz, Sandy Petot and Michael Will. In Kansas City, John, Steve were there, joined by Brian Larkin, Sara Tafolla and Bob Oliva. They had an interactive session on how they make sure their customers are getting the most for their money. One idea that had a lot of people very excited was the “Boot Box,” which they fill with a diversity of cut flowers and greens, from different locations, all the best quality and very affordable.
But people were doing more than just listening. The ideas really started flying during my presentation about how retail florists are reaching out to their customers. Several ideas were prompted from attendees, including promoting at community events, such as county fairs, and reaching out to elementary school kids. Many florists are collecting their customers’ e-mail addresses and have launched e-mail newsletters to keep them updated on what’s going on and on the best deals available. There was much discussion on what SAF does to assist florists in dealing with funeral directors and the dreaded “In Lieu of..”, in addition to how SAF tackles negative publicity of florists and the floral industry.
While in St. Louis, I met one of the featured businesses in the cover story of the August issue of Floral Management: Kris Wittenaur of Diehl’s on Wheels in Waterloo, IL. She has done amazing things with her business. Besides her drive-up window and new greenhouses, she participates in a loyalty program to drive repeat visits from customers.
We hope to do more of these programs around the country. Let us know if it’s something you’d be interested in hosting in your market.
p.s. Wholesalers: If you think it takes a design seminar to bring your retail customers out of their business for a day, call me. Let’s talk.
Being a lifelong ‘skins fan, I was thinking it would be an uncomfortable stay deep in the heart of Dallas attending the Texas State Florists Association’s (TSFA) 96th Annual Convention last weekend. Far from it. Texans are some of the nicest, most sincere folks you’d ever come across, despite being Cowboy fans. :p
All kidding aside, TSFA’s Board, members and association crew, headed by Dianna Nordman, put on a great convention with lots of energy, a bustling trade show, fantastic design shows featuring the industry’s top talent and insightful business sessions – including my own on search engine optimization! Accompanying me on the trip was the Society of American Florists’ (SAF) Director of Member Services Lisa Sidletsky who spent quality time greeting Texan florists at SAF’s booth on the trade show floor Sat and Sun.
We set up the booth early Saturday and I had time to attend TSFA’s annual meeting. It was good news all around as TSFA reports a profit for this year despite some tough economic times around the country. As you may expect, board members provided reports of their committee activities but was real surprised to hear Patrick Berry of Vickery Wholesale Greenhouse in Dallas, TX talk about his wonderful experience serving as an SAF volunteer and how that sparked his desire to serve his state association. Patrick, it was a pleasure to meet you and thanks much for your gracious comments!
The show floor officially opened at Noon Saturday. Dianna mentioned the trade show was smaller this year but this didn’t seem to impact the hustle and bustle (check the video). The smaller space did a great job in compressing the action. First to greet me was William Armellini of Greenleaf Wholesale Florists in Miami Springs FL. We’d become geek buddies in the months prior via Facebook and several calls over our shared interest in developing the Joomla content management system, but have never met in person. As you may guess, it didn’t matter as it seemed like we were old friends. And our first order of business? Trouble shooting a Joomla Web site!
I couldn’t slide by the Bloomnet booth without reconnecting with Mark Nance. We’ve known each other since Mark worked in Oklahoma City with former floral wire service AFS, which was acquired by Teleflora several years back. After trading industry insights and secrets, we agreed to pick up the conversation in Phoenix during the SAF Convention as Bloomnet’s booth traffic picked up.
My next stop was to visit with J Schwanke of uBloom but the J was absolutely mobbed (visited with J later) so I returned to SAF’s booth. SAF’s presence was on the far end where traffic was a little lighter next to www.flowershopnetwork.com. Lisa was in the midst of talking to an instructor and a couple of his students on all the great information SAF provides to educators. (check the video).
The afternoon business session was "Product, Planning and Promotion for Your Profit" with Clay Atchison III of McAdams Floral in Victoria, TX, Charles Ingrum of Dr. Delphinium in Dallas, TX, Seleese Thompson and Gayle Johnson. It was a very informative with lots of great local promotion ideas for florists and focusing on in-house floral designs. I was particularly interested in Clay’s portion, which focused on building sympathy business.
Sunday morning I checked out Jack Cross’s “Step to Maximizing Profit in an Economic Downturn” and “Tasteful Tabletop Techniques” with Minh Nguyen. I didn’t stay long though in order to check logistics for my own program later in the afternoon. Both programs were excellent and again provided insight from industry veterans.
Prior to the Sunday afternoon sessions, TSFA puts on their Annual Awards bash. I sat next to Jack and his wife Denise. We talked mostly tech as both Denise and Jack were looking forward to my program. Lunch was great, lots of folks and sponsors were honored. I had a chance to meet with Teleflora Chairman Tom Butler and his grandson Cole. It was a quick hello since I still had to prep, however, Tom and Cole stopped by the room later to wish me well.
As you may expect, the highlight for my day was presenting the last business session for the conference, “Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Crash Course: Ensuring Your Shop’s Website is on Google’s Page 1 of Search Results.” I was excited prior to the session since Dianna kept changing the room to accommodate an increasing number of registrations for the session. The room was set for 75 with more than half filled. A little disappointing but a healthy crowd of florists nonetheless. In the end, I received lots of great feedback on the quality of the information and how the program was crafted specifically for floral retail businesses.
I ran back to the trade show floor just in time to help Lisa just pack one box (timing is everything). TSFA Convention co-Chair Peggy Franklin was kind enough to speed us back to the airport in her newest hotrod! Thanks for the ride Peggy and, again, it was certainly a great show. Flight was delayed but I was still glad to be back in my home in Virginia at 2am that evening.
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