Survival of the Fittest
According to a recent article in Floral Management magazine, today there are 22,700 retail florists in comparison to 26,200 only five years ago. ”…. Flowers are losing market share in the gift business, being out-positioned by non-floral gift…we have to get people thinking about flowers and give them reasons to buy”, writes editor Kate Penn. Further, market share for the retail florist shrank from 55.4 percent of the dollars to 48.7 percent of the dollars according to the January issue of Florist Review Magazine.
| This would appear to be daunting news. So what is the solution? How can florists survive in this ever-changing industry? Here, Mayesh takes a look at the optimistic side of 2004 and future opportunities for florists in 2005. Lights, Camera, Action! Reality TV has discovered the Event Planner and for florist this is good news, especially for shops that will decide to include marketing into their sales strategy for the New Year. Why? In2004 flowers received more television coverage through reality TV series than any other time in recent history and not just “flowers as a product” but more importantly for florists “design as a service”. 2005 is shaping up to be the year of the “Party/Event Planner” and Cha-ching; dollar signs are everywhere if you know where to look! As a floral designer if you are not capitalizing on opportunities presented from the reality TV craze then you are missing one of the largest bonanzas to hit this industry in recent years. With cable shows like Discovery's “The Party Planner with David Tutera and The Style Network's “Who's Wedding Is It Anyway” the prospect of entertaining and decorating with flowers reaches millions of viewers each week . |
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On one episode of “Who's Wedding is it Any Way” viewers are shown the florist's cooler spilling over with extravagant blooms where the bride works directly with the floral designer on selecting the best flowers for her wedding. TV viewers are provided a glimpse of what it takes behind the scenes to create a dream wedding and what it's like to work one-on-one with a floral professional. These series promote the benefits of using professionals by highlighting the pitfalls of event planning, as we know it. Take one episode where the main concern for the event planner was the humid and hot weather in Atlanta and how the flowers would hold up….. let alone the bride.........Page 1 2 3 |
