You want it...you got it! Your E-Brief feedback worked.

We received a number of positive comments about E-Brief's new format last week -- plus a few suggestions we've added to this issue. 
 
• You can now choose whether you want to see one article at a time or all the articles at once. Just click the purple "View all articles on a single page" link at left.

• If you want to print out the entire newsletter, click to view all the articles on a single page, then click the "Printer Friendly Version" link.

• The printer friendly version now includes the same photos and charts as the electronic version.

• You can navigate to the "Next Article" and "Previous Article" using links at the top of each individual article page.

Many thanks to everyone for their response and great ideas.  Have more comments or suggestions for e-brief? Contact Shelley Estersohn, sestersohn@safnow.org.
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Headlines

Mother's Day 2007: Dissecting the Numbers

A nationwide poll conducted by SAF about Mother's Day 2007 points, at least tentatively, to increased holiday spending. 

The online poll found that more than 37 percent of Americans purchased flowers or plants for Mother's Day 2007. That number could represent a 3-percent increase from five years ago; however the 2002 data were collected using phone surveys, making the results not exactly comparable. Survey highlights include: 

• The average amount spent on flowers and gifts for Mother's Day was $41.90. Perhaps, not suprisingly, married people spent more than unmarried people, as did people with college or advanced degrees compared to consumers with a high school degree or less. 

• People 65 and older were less likely to buy flowers and plants for Mother's Day than 18- to 64-year-olds. 

• Higher rates of purchase also were found in households with annual incomes of more than $50,000. 

• Married people and households with children had higher rates of purchase than their counterparts. 

• Males were "directionally more prone" than females to buy flowers or plants as gifts for Mother's Day, meaning the difference was minor.

Retail Outlet

Poll results also shed light on where consumers shopped for Mother's Day flowers and plants, finding that 32.5 percent of holiday floral gifts came from supermarkets or grocery stores. Other popular venues included: 

• Garden centers, greenhouses or nurseries (23.7 percent) 

• Mass merchandisers, discount chains or wholesale membership clubs (22.8 percent) 

• Retail florists (20.2 percent) 

• Toll-free or online floral services (12.9 percent) 

• Home improvement centers (7.2 percent) 

• Street vendors (3.7 percent)

• Other outlets (2 percent)

• Convenience or gas/quick marts stores (0.3 percent) 

Poll results also show supermarkets and grocery stores are favorite outlets of buyers in their mid-40s to mid-60s, while twenty- and thirty-somethings tend to choose mass merchandisers. (Retail florists, and their Web sites, seem to cater most often to that same 25- to 34-year-old group.) At the same time, people in the $50,000 or higher income group were more likely than the less affluent groups to shop through toll-free or online floral services. Other findings include:

• Northeasterners favored garden centers, greenhouses and nurseries significantly more than those from other regions of the country.

• High school graduates, or those with less education, preferred supermarkets and grocery stores. 

• Retired shoppers patronized garden centers, greenhouses and nurseries more than working people. 

• Full-time working people shopped more often at retail florists than those who didn't work full-time. 

Find out more about the poll, including how it was conducted and additional results, at www.safnow.org.

--Ira Silvergleit
isilvergleit@safnow.org

 
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Texas Florists Participate in Funeral Directors Convention

Funeral directors in Texas will hear directly from florists about sympathy flowers, design trends and why "in lieu of flowers" is so problematic for the floral industry next month at the Texas Funeral Directors Association's annual convention in Corpus Christi.

"It's not the first time we've participated in the event, but [our participation in the past] hasn't been consistent," says Dianna Doss, AAF, executive director of the Texas State Florists' Association. "The major goal is to open a dialogue with the funeral directors to discuss alternate phrases [for 'in lieu of'] and to share with them the importance of having flowers at a funeral. We want to show them how the floral industry can tailor designs to the family's needs."

At the event, June 11 to 15, TSFA will have a trade fair booth, complete with trend information and research from SAF on the positive, emotional benefits of flowers, and the group will host a 90-minute educational seminar. Throughout the weekend, TSFA leaders also will conduct "mini interviews" with funeral directors to better understand the funeral industry's biggest issues and concerns -- information that will appear later in association publications, Doss says.

 "The TSFA Board is committed to continuing the dialogue," she says. "This is a beginning."

Read about SAF's latest effort to help members reach out to local funeral directors in last week's issue of E-Brief.

--Mary Westbrook
mwestbrook@safnow.org

 
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Low-Price Giant Takes on Organic

If customers aren't yet querying your sales staff about organic goods, they may be soon: Wal-Mart Stores recently announced it will stock up to 400 organic food goods by summer's end, a move experts agree could push the organic movement toward mainstream America.

"They have huge potential because it's not just Wal-Mart we're talking about, it's their entire supply chain," Jeff Erikson, U.S. director of London-based consultancy and research group SustainAbility, said to MSNBC.com.

Wal-Mart's organic push is part of a larger environmental movement engineered by the company's management, a movement the company says it launched to "meet consumer demand" and "cut energy costs." Critics, however, say the initiative is simply a shrewd way for the company to recover from bad press in recent years. Moreover, some say the organic effort could hurt local businesses -- a charge that led to some of that bad press in the past -- pulling "green" consumers away from local farmers in favor of Wal-Mart's organic offerings.

"I think the direction they've said is a positive direction. The question is, are they are going to go there strongly enough?" Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, who is a board member of the union-backed group Wal-Mart Watch that criticizes the retailer, said to MSNBC.

Still, critics and supporters agree on at least one point: With 4,000 U.S. stores and more than 2,200 stores internationally, Wal-Mart's decision to put more energy into sustainability and organic products will have pronounced repercussions on the retail industry, "forcing suppliers and competitors to keep up," according to the story.

"We love to see companies like Wal-Mart taking a big step and making pronouncements as they have, because their tentacles are so large," Erikson said.

--Mary Westbrook
mwestbrook@safnow.org

 
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Newsmakers

Home Ecology Lands in Natural Health

Natural Health magazine is the latest national publication to extol the benefits of flowers. Its

Natural Health promotes the benefits of fresh flowers.

May issue reads: "A vase of colorful, fresh-cut flowers always livens up a room. It can also lift your spirits, according to a Harvard Medical School study."
 
The article cites the Home Ecology of Flowers Study, a collective effort resulting from the strategic alliance between SAF and the Flower Promotion Organization (FPO), which found that participants felt "less anxious and sad" just a few days after floral arrangements were placed in their homes.
 
This coverage generated 1.2 million consumer impressions and marks the ninth time a national magazine has featured the Home Ecology of Flowers Study since its public relations campaign launched in October 2007. To date, the Home Ecology Study has generated nearly 168 million consumer impressions.
 
Capitalize on the Home Ecology of Flowers Study to generate positive publicity for your shop. For tips and tools, check your mailbox for the 2007 SAF Local Marketing Kit. 

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

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Florists Participate In Fund-raiser

Ten florists from Birmingham, Ala., recently got "arty" for a good cause.

On May 20, the 16th Annual Arty Party drew about 460 attendees and raised $60,000 for the Birmingham AIDS Outreach (BAO). The benefit featured artist Michael Marlowe and guest-auctioneer Sally Struthers, as well as the work of floral designers from Hothouse Design Studio; Uncut Flowers; Flowerbuds; Flora; Thomas Flowers; Norton's Florist; Lackey Floral Company; The Arrangement Florist; Dorothy McDaniel's Flower Market; and Continental Florist and Gifts. Tabletop designs from the 10 shops complemented the benefit's theme, Enchanted Dreams.

Payton Hilyer, the BAO' special events coordinator, says the theme was inspired by Marlowe's paintings of hazy, dreamlike trees and forests. It was this theme that led him to ask several different florists to design, rather than just one. "[In a dream] it's not one set look you see," he says. "You see many things."

And the florists rose to the occasion. To make his arrangement "look like it was growing out of the table," Andy Hopper, AIFD, of Hothouse Designs, an event veteran, used moss, driftwood, Dublin tulips and 'Freedom' roses. Meanwhile, Millie Radney of The Arrangement Florist created a design featuring a topiary with Asiatic lilies.

For the most part Hilyer chose florists for the event who are connected to the BAO (through previous event or volunteer work), but whose design work has not been featured recently at BAO functions. "The ones that participated this year were at the top of my list," he says.

For Millie Radney of The Arrangement Florist, the BAO was at the top of her list. "In the floral industry, we have people affected by [AIDS] -- and I wanted to give back," says Radney, "When you are in business, you have to give something back to the community."

Hopper says the high-profile fund-raiser also is a chance for participating florists to gain customers. "We always have [people come in] and say, 'We loved the work at [the event] because it's so different,'" he says.

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

 
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Trends and Tips

Did You Know ...

SAF's Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors About Floral Purchasing Study found that 72 percent of consumers consider membership in a national floral trade association as an important factor when choosing where to buy floral gifts.

Capitalize on this trend by displaying the SAF logo and a link to SAF's consumer Web site, www.aboutflowers.com, on your own Web site. Just right click the image above, and save it to your desktop.  If you have any questions, e-mail Shelley Estersohn at sestersohn@safnow.org

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

 
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Scammers Try Duping Florists

There's something irritating in the air lately, and it's more than just the late-spring pollen: At least two florists have used common sense -- and well-founded caution -- to thwart thieves' efforts to steal their credit card and identity information.

A man claiming to represent a credit card company recently called Rhonda Little of Millinocket Floral Shop in Millinocket, Maine, telling her that her cards' authorization codes may have been compromised. The contact number he gave Little connected her to a credit card processor in Mexico -- one that had never heard of the caller.  From there, Little reported the incident to her credit card processor.

 "The security team called me back and told me they were [already] aware of this gentleman," she says. 

Charlie Moran from Evergreen Florist in Lindehurst, N.Y., also reported being contacted over Mother's Day weekend. "He said the credit card machine was down, and he wanted me to read him the last five transactions that went through," says Moran, who did not give out his information.

According to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Moran and Little reacted appropriately. The bureau's tips on avoiding similar scams include:

• Never provide credit card numbers or other credit card account information, or provide any private financial or personal information to anyone who contacts you by phone. Your credit card company or other financial institution will never ask you to provide your account number over the telephone if they are initiating a call to you regarding your account. 

• If the caller claims to be from your bank, credit card company, government agency or other organization, ask that they put their request in writing and send it to you. And, ask for a name, physical location and telephone number. Then call the BBB to report your experience. The BBB has joined with government agencies and consumer organizations to raise public awareness of common telemarketing and mail order fraud techniques. 

• If you have divulged personal financial information to unknown callers, contact your credit card company or bank immediately. For tips and advice on protecting your personal financial information, visit the FTC Web site.

Heard about a potential credit card scam in your area? E-brief editors want to know! E-mail vmachir@safnow.org

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

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Rethinking 'Obvious' Solutions

Want to hold more effective staff meetings? The solution may be simpler than you think.

Studies suggest if you have people stand, rather than sit, meetings run about 35 percent shorter without any loss of decision quality, writes Bob Sutton, a professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University.

These kinds of studies -- which pinpoint easy-to-implement solutions for seemingly complex problems -- were among the indicators Sutton points to in his article as proof of a new truism: "Great organizations," he writes, "especially those that do well over the long haul, are masters of the obvious and the mundane."

Sutton ended his article with a call for readers' simple solutions. Floral Management magazine wants to hear yours. If you've figured out an easy way around a tough problem, e-mail your story to kpenn@safnow.org.

--Mary Westbrook
mwestbrook@safnow.org

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Mark Your Calendar

Looking for Fresh Promotion Ideas? Don't miss this session at SAF Palm Springs 2007.

What do blogs, mobile billboards, vase cards and pizza boxes have in common?  You and your business. They're all non-traditional ways to reach out to customers with your advertising message. Want to know how? Catch the session "Unique Ways to Promote Your Business and Increase Sales" at SAF Palm Springs 2007, September 26-29 at the La Quinta Resort and Club in Palm Springs, Calif.  You'll learn how other businesses are using new advertising media to increase sales, and which opportunities are right for you. Mark your calendars and plan to join your fellow SAF members at our 123rd annual convention. For more information contact Laura Weaver, CMP at lweaver@safnow.org.
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Regular Features

E-Poll Results: Florists Reach Out to Funeral Directors

About 68 percent of readers responding to last week's e-poll said they have had meetings with funeral directors to discuss how they can improve floral logistics. About 32 percent say they have not.
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Product Spotlight: FedEX

Need to send something in a hurry? Don't break the bank doing it! SAF members can save up to 21% on FedEx Express shipping and 15% on FedEx Ground service. And, the more you ship, the more you save. Last year, participating SAF members saved an average of $1,429.00! Click here and enter passcode CY9FU713 or for more information, call the FedEx Association Advantage Hotline at 800-475-6708.

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

 
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Average Spending for Mother's Day Tops $40

Spending for Mother's Day among adults who purchased flowers or plants for the holiday averaged $41.90, according to a nationwide SAF online eNation poll conducted by Synovate. The survey, administered the Monday to Wednesday following the holiday, found that half the respondents spent more and half less than $30 (median). Almost 8 percent spent more than $100.

Source: The results are based on an SAF online eNation survey of 1,000 adults by Synovate. Survey ran the week following Mother's Day.

--Ira Silvergleit
isilvergleit@safnow.org

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