Floral Marketer Reveals Tricks of the Trade at PMA

AMY SUNG

Operating a successful supermarket floral department requires retailers to know their shoppers well, according to Pamela Smith, the director of marketing for Miami-based Nature's Flowers and speaker at this year's Floral Solutions Workshop at the Produce Marketing Association's annual Fresh Summit show. In an exclusive preview of her session, Smith highlighted some key facts about consumer floral shopping habits for SN.

Notably, tweens — ages 9-14 — and the regular teenagers, ages 15-19, hold a significant amount of buying power and shouldn't be ignored when it comes to floral marketing. In 2006, teenagers were responsible for an estimated $153 billion in retail sales, according to Chicago-based Mintel.

“Tweens will most likely have an older sibling that will be participating in sporting events, homecoming events or planning committees, and they may want to help celebrate or even congratulate them,” Smith said.

“Teenagers are going to be purchasing for the boyfriend or girlfriend, best friends, for personal use and for the actual school events, so they are going to be your biggest point of sale, as mentioned above.”

Toddlers also have a great deal of influence, but no money, which Smith calls “Pester Power.”

To appeal to young kids with items such as licensed balloons, Smith advises retailers to keep fixtures fresh and full at all times and recommends theming only one license per fixture.

“Moms will buy a balloon or stuffed animal — or if at checkout, it's generally a licensed balloon of what's hot and trendy like SpongeBob or Dora,” Smith said.

“Visually, when you're thinking about a display, you don't want to put them all in one, because it's easier for the kids to see it, it's a much cleaner look and it makes refilling easier.”

Consistency, convenience, organization, shelf management and item management are also successful ideas that work, Smith said, as category management places buying decisions in the hands of executives who keenly monitor consumer demand.

Smith also said she believes that the “one more item” strategy can improve the bottom line by using cashiers or having employees at the front end of the store to remind customers of floral products that are available.

“I call it the [McDonald's] apple pie strategy,” Smith said.

“You're enlisting your cashier as another person on the sales floor to sell more floral products, and there have been some stores where they've raised sales over 1,000% just by doing this, just by having the front-end checker encourage the customer to buy one more item.”

Outdoor seasonal sales are also a big money-maker for stores that embrace the concept, Smith said.

“They can really give you a great lift in a very short period of time,” Smith said, indicating that spring and fall are prime outdoor selling times of the year, and that outdoor selling which is specifically holiday-oriented, like Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, can almost act as a drive-through for floral at supermarkets.

“It's important to understand what motivates consumers to buy, who the customer is, why they buy, when they buy and how you can strategize your marketing and merchandising techniques around that,” Smith told SN.

Smith's floral session is being held Friday, Oct. 12 at the PMA Fresh Summit, from 2:45 to 4:45 p.m., in Room 361DEF of Houston's George R. Brown convention center.

Who Is the Floral Customer?

When do they purchase?