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> Caroline Marshall-Foster's Web Diary
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Caroline Marshall-Foster, Editor
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What I feel about Florist Event ending
Read More.
New Interflora owners talk to me
Read More.
I'm being elitist ... are you?
Read More.
Why staff have to be bovvered!
Read More.
Is Fair Trade really that fair
Read More.
And finally ... the full story on why I chose Manuka joggers
Read More.
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The monthly, weekly and, depending on what's happening in this mad, mad industry of ours, sometimes daily views of Caroline Marshall - Foster, Managing Editor of Florist & Wholesale Buyer, the only independent trade magazine for the £2.1 billion retail flower industry in the UK.
Never known to hold back, she comments on what's happening, what's got her goat and even what's made her happy ... yes it does happen!
Have something of your own to say? Want to vent your feelings? Got an idea you want to share. Then let her know by e-mailing editorsletter@thewordhouse.co.uk
They all go straight to her computer so anything you say is strictly between you and her ... unless you want it made public!
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What I feel about Florist Event ending
A tough call
The news that Basing, organisers of Spring Florist Event, has suspended trading is another symptom of the times we are in. The industry needed an exhibition and Basing delivered Spring Florist Event for over 28 years, mostly very successfully but let’s be honest less so in the last couple of years.
On a personal level I am desperately sad for my brother Marcus who owned the Spring Florist Event. On a professional level, F&WB like the other creditors who are owed money, does not need the extra challenge to our cash flow. You see for those of you who were not aware, SFE and F&WB have always been completely separate businesses that happened to share an office address.
Now it’s onwards and upwards. Next June sees the start of F&WB’s 60th Anniversary Year celebrations. Who knows perhaps we can hold a florist event-conference-exhibition to energise florists all over the country?
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New Interflora owners talk to me Wordhouse and Interflora ... friends again I hope
I like Scott Matulis the PR man at United Online, who from September will be the new owners of Interflora. Sure we had a little hiccough in the middle of finalising the interview in this months F&WB, which meant I had to explain my position, and what Master Florist was and aimed to be.
But having got through it, I really, really hope that this is the start of closer dialogue with Interflora. It may have taken a new owner to get the doors re-opened between Wordhouse and Interflora but if that’s what it’s taken I’m delighted.
You see two and a bit year’s is quite long enough for the dust to have died down. Now is the time to move forward. I am pleased United saw it that way too and I hope that we can now run more stories about the good things Interflora is doing.
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I'm being elitist ... are you?
Why it's time to get picky
Doing my Top 250+ has been a phenomenally pleasing experience. Because while I know it is elitist/selective and will seriously cheese some florists off, the fact is it's got to the stage where I cannot, hand on heart, say the industry I serve is perfect and I am fed up of praising all florists when I know some of them are seriously rubbish and let the side down.
Now Master Florist shops will always take top position. Because they’ve not only been prepared to put their necks on the line by submitting a portfolio but been independently checked by other external experts as well.
But doing my Top 250+ means I’ve also been able to include some fabulous shops who either haven’t been allowed to apply to the Master Florist network or who are in areas where there already is a Master Florist. What’s more it means that anyone searching on Master Florist.com can find far more ‘approved’ florists that I am happy to put my name to than they could before which makes the site far more user friendly.
But if you’re not on it and think you should be don’t sit there seething. Let me know. Because while I probably know more florists than most I’m not going to claim I know everyone. Which is why I, and my team, need your input. Because at the end of the day, my Top 250+ is for the benefit of everyone.
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Why staff have to be bovvered! Why Catherine Tate impersonations don't work
Get me on a bad day and my sweetness and light will go out of the window. However it’s virtually guaranteed to go AWOL if I get grunted at by a shop assistant, especially if all I’ve done is dare ask if something is in stock or available in other colours.
Excuse me. Am I not the person paying their salary? Is it not due to my bothering to go into their shop that they have a job at all? But maybe that’s the problem. It isn’t their shop and so they don’t have the passion to treat every customer as King, they’ve been brought up in an era when manners are so un-cool that you’d rather die than say thank you and service is a non-existent thing in today’s world of retailing.
Now it all makes me sound like a rather ghastly Mrs Angry but actually I don’t think I’m the only one that feels this and probably why I increasingly favour small, local shops that may cost a bit more but are a heck of a lot more pleasant to buy from.
Like most busy working mums I don’t need a huge conversation, I’m not wanting to become the sales person new best friend but if I’m going to spend my hard earned dosh then I do want to think I have a slightly better position in life than a gnat.
Customers are precious commodities these days and need to be treated as well as they can be. If you’ve any doubts about your customer interactive skills then please do something about it. Once a customer has voted with their feet it’s bally hard to drag them back in again.
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Is Fair Trade really that fair Fair Trade or unfair marketing ploy
There is no doubt that it is right and proper than workers in other countries have as good a life as possible. However should the people at Fair Trade perhaps take a step back and look at what they are really achieving.
Because it strikes me that Fair Trade has now become nothing more than a social marketing tool to encourage increased foot flow on the ‘look how marvellous we are to poor people’ ticket. A thought that is not discouraged when you consider the new man heading it up is a marketing guru and they have won awards for their marketing skills.
And then there’s the fact that the programme can really only be used by the supermarkets because they are the only ones who can achieve the accreditation. Fine and dandy but given they are all price led doesn’t the whole thing becomes a bit of a contradiction in terms.
In fact, when you look at the numbers, Fair Trade does diddly squit compared to many other social programmes around the world, especially when it comes to flowers. For example in Colombia, they have Florverde, which despite being approved by Eurogap, isn’t yet considered acceptable by Fair Trade. However as a result of their ‘not quite as good programme’ they have managed to create an annual average worker salary of around $2,200.
Meanwhile in Kenya, where Fair Trade is dominant, the average salary is apparently only around $500. What’s more, in hard cash terms, while Fair Trade may have a 70% recognition rate amongst consumers, the actual money it generates for worker benefits in terms of housing, schooling and medical support is chicken feed compared to many other programmes.
I’m all for doing good by our fellow man but given the banana industry, one of the key Fair Trade products, is in turmoil as supermarkets enter a price war it seems to make a bit of a mockery of the whole project. I hope it doesn’t happen with flowers.
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And finally ... the full story on why I chose Manuka joggers How a tiny piece of paper made me buy.
Having exercised so hard that I ended up needing both new knee and new jogging pants I found myself surrounded by Lycra and hoodies the other day as I replenished my sporty wardrobe. Ye gads this sports kit malarkey is a minefield. Gone are the days when a pair of plimsolls and baggy shorts was sufficient.
Now I have to choose from a plethora of styles, cuts and colours and of course make sure everything co-ordinated as well so I can hold my head up high in the gym and avoid ridicule as I plod my way along the towpath.
In the end I ended up with a selection from Manuka. But given black joggers are black joggers are black joggers why choose them rather than Nike, Reebok etc.
Quite simply because of their branding and the very pretty finishing touches. Not just the pink and white stripes that fortuitously elongate my legs but the label attached to them.
Elegant without being scary, modern without alienating an aging gym goer like me but most of all the clever addition of a rice paper like tag bearing the Manuka mantra - My life is a creation of my mind.
Corny? Yes. OTT? A bit. Clever? Undoubtedly. Because that teeny tiny piece of paper seduced me into thinking that by just wearing the damn things I would feel better and so a sale was made.
The lesson for florists? Customers want to be seduced and courted into spending their money. They want to feel they are buying an experience as much as a bunch of flowers. They need to think that your bouquets will give them a greater pleasure experience than anyone else’s.
As Manuka have proved it didn’t take much in terms of additional expense to get my money. What it did take was a little thought and effort … something florists should have in bucket loads given we deal with nothing but emotions.
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