PROMOFLOR'S BEE GETS SWEET RESPONSE

AMY I. STICKEL

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- A survey that appeared in USA Today indicated that the National Promoflor Council's floral promotion campaign is reaching consumers.

A report on the survey released earlier this month said a majority of consumers liked the council's spokescharacter Buzz the Bee, and also liked the commercials in which Buzz encourages increased purchases of fresh flowers.

The survey was conducted by the Harris Ad Track Research Service for USA Today, and the results appeared in the newspaper's weekly "Ad Track" column, which gauges consumers' reactions to major ad campaigns.

The USA Today report said Buzz is as effective a spokesman for flowers as basketball superstar Michael Jordan is for McDonald's. "The USA Today article reaffirms two key points we knew all along," said Paul Bachman, who chairs Promoflor's marketing committee.

"Television as an advertising medium works to create campaign awareness, and Buzz is good for the floral industry as a whole," said Bachman, who is also vice president of Bachman's, a floral company based in Minneapolis.

Promoflor obtained more detailed results from the poll taker, Harris Ad Track. Promoflor officials said the results showed 41% of respondents liked the ads to some extent, while 59% said the ads were effective. In addition, 27% of respondents said they liked the flower ads a lot, while 8% disliked the ads. Another 23% of all respondents found the ads very effective. The survey also compared reactions to the Promoflor ad with an average of responses to previous ads featured in the column. The Buzz campaign proved more popular than the average, according to the Ad Track report.

Karen Morrison, director of industry relations for Promoflor, said Harris Ad Track Research Service took into account 51 ad survey results to figure the average ad score. "Overall, we're very pleased with the results," said Morrison. "To rank us as effective as the Everready bunny and Michael Jordan means we're in very good company."