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Trends and Research -
Business
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This year’s Seeley Conference, held a few weeks ago at Cornell University, generated lots for business owners to chew on with the theme of “Chaos: Are You Realizing the Opportunity?” Thoughtful and thought provoking discussion centered around meaty terms like market disruption, consumer psyche, business Darwinism, generational evolution, information omnivores and . . . Twitter.
As always with the Seeley Conference, practical takeaway is a matter of personal review, analysis and contemplation and not something that is always immediately apparent. But that’s part of the conference’s unique character as an industry “think tank.” (And yes that’s a shameless plug for the conference on which, in the interest of full disclosure, I serve as a member of its board of directors.)
Here are a few tidbits among the many I took away:
• As a society we have moved from conspicuous consumption to conscious consumption to newfound frugality.
• 75 percent of Americans have changed their buying behaviors in the last few months.
• 91 percent of Americans wear seatbelts, up four percent from last year.
• Consumer use of coupons is way up. Reward programs are way up.
• Consumers increasingly want to be in a partnership with a business and not just in a transactional relationship. That requires authenticity and honesty on the part of the business.
• Power -- a business telling people what to do -- is out. Strength -- built from engaging customers through social media (among other ways) -- is in.
• There is no future in selling undifferentiated commodities.
• The industry is not shouting out loud enough how flowers and plants improve our quality of life – and we own that theme.
• Word of mouth marketing is considered to be one of the most effective and “truthful” methods of marketing.
Do any of these resonate with you? Are any of them actionable? If so, please share your thoughts.
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Trends and Research 
Comments
The one point made above that strikes me the hardest is that there is no future in selling undifferentiate d commodities. Yet this is what the floral industry is doing with fresh flowers. Flowers that are grown with superior growing techniques are handled poorly by our distribution system and any differences between the best flowers grown and mediocre flowers are mitigated by the time retailers receive the flowers.
Consumers are currently very careful how and where they spend their money these days and if they perceive there is little or no difference between flowers purchased from retail florists and other retail sources, they will go to where flowers are sold at the lowest prices.
Additionally, we have to build greater value into flowers to keep other competing industries (like wine, jewelry, etc,) from grabbing consumer discretionary dollars that could be spent on flowers.
Four years ago Dr.s Reid and Staby wrote the White Paper (subtitled the Cold Chain Crisis) which was discussed at the Seeley conference. That paper made the strong link between the lack of proper flower handling (especially the cool chain) and the lack of consumer interest in flowers. Yet four years later little has been done to act on this crisis.
We need to get serious about making demands on our distribution system that should be keeping flowers properly cool (between 34-36 degrees) from farms to the retail florists doors.
Only then can we truly differentiate flowers and insure that consumers will be satisfied with their purchases and come back time after time for more.