Flowers for ALL

IFPA partnered with Kantar to identify six growth opportunities for the floral industry.

6 GROWTH AREAS FOR FLORAL:

Blossoming Everywhere
Flower Power
Experience Ambassadors
Augmented Arrangements
Flowers for All
Sustainable Stems

Flowers for All:

The floral industry can leverage untapped consumer groups to bring the beauty of floral to a more diverse set of customers by making flowers more accessible and inclusive to all.

Flowers for All addresses the notion that for many people flowers are not a part of culture and everyday routines. They are a special occasion-driven purchase, primarily given as gifts—most often to women—at holidays and other occasions.

This notion provides an opportunity to change how flowers are viewed in culture and bring the beauty of flowers to a more diverse set of consumers. By doing so, flowers can play a strong role in the lives of more people and provide steady, year-round growth to the industry. In a poll by the Society of American Florists, over 60% of men say they would “love” to receive flowers. This opportunity is greatest for younger consumers. Kantar’s US MONITOR data indicates about 56% of Gen Z and Millennials say it’s extremely or very important to them to challenge traditional stereotypes for their age and gender.

Marketing to Men

Men and women demand equality in everything, from jobs to household duties; yet floral marketers still disregard men as a primary target for their product. There are many studies on the gender differences in marketing focusing on habits and preferences as well as gender stereotypes. While gender roles are blurred, society and cultural influence still come into play.

Direct messages: Men prefer direct messages, suggestive humor, and competitive activities. When using emotional marketing for men to purchase flowers for themselves, make sure you are tapping into the right emotion for the age group, i.e. mental wellbeing, pride, courage etc. When recommending flowers as a gift to men from women use visuals and emotional content connected to real-life activities.

The hunt: Men prefer to buy brands or well-known products without paying much attention to the cost because of the quality promise. Put your branded floral products front and center to grab men’s attention. Women prefer to compare various offers to get the same (or comparable) product for a lower price.

Information overload: Men prefer fewer details, fewer steps, and a clear description when purchasing. Online, men want to get to the desired destination through key elements and simple navigation. Emotions and tactile experience play a larger role in the decision-making process for women. Online navigation should be intuitive and filled with details. In general women aren’t as trusting of information on websites as men.

Surfing the Web: Men prefer to surf the web for a solution. Emails aren’t as effective in reaching men. This makes your social and web strategy extremely important to capture the male audience. Women value a personal approach and pay considerable attention to their inboxes. This means newsletters will perform better with a female audience than with a male audience.

orchid branch with blue flowers

Late adopters: It is hard to convince men to buy something new and unknown to them but not impossible. Just look at the male cosmetic industry! Once you capture the male consumer, they buy items more often. Women like to try out new products. This is an opportunity to market new floral product to women to buy for men.

Intuition and deduction: Men hate scrolling their news feeds and make decisions based on intuition and deduction. Your web strategy must be compelling and creative to quickly capture their attention. Females check out brands and companies’ accounts
more often.

Shopping experience: Men prefer good parking accessibility and store inventory. Merchandising is critical to the male shopper. Women prefer sales staffs that are courteous and knowledgeable.

Results: Men tend to think about the outcome first. While buying a product, they don’t think about the process but rather the result. Women like the process of choosing the product and using the product making the shopping experience very important to them.

Circle with border colored to represent 48%.

Forty-eight percent of male respondents would feel appreciated if they were given flowers, while 45% said they would feel loved

Flowers bring joy to everyone!

Men enjoy receiving flowers although stereotypical ideas about certain colors are still prevalent in today’s culture. Research shows guys tend to like: