As Michael LoBue indicates in his recent post Why do consumers buy flowers?,  CalFlowers commissioned a consumer marketing and research firm, Traction, to perform a study to help us understand not only why consumers buy flowers, but also why they don’t buy more flowers.

The study shows that lapsed (infrequent) flower buyers first think of flowers as romantic, while active (more frequent) flower buyers first think of them as exciting.

These results suggest that the infrequent, or lapsed, flower buyer’s view that flowers are romantic limits their flower purchases to prescribed holidays, ie. Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, anniversaries, etc.

Conversely, the active buyer has a broader view of the role flowers can play in their friends’, families’, and their own lives.

When asked “Why do you purchase flowers?”, active buyers indicate they buy to give to someone else, and their other responses point to the many personal benefits they derive from buying flowers for themselves, ie. “To feel happy”.

As we evaluated which group to select as the audience of an advertising campaign – lapsed buyers or active buyers – we decided on people who regularly buy flowers, whether for themselves or for others. These people are more likely to obtain flowers outside of the traditional flower holidays and enjoy their benefits throughout the year.

We don’t want to execute a “spray and pray” approach to our campaign. We’d like to focus in on a demographic and see if we can encourage more people to incorporate flowers into their lives more often.  

After consulting the results of the commissioned study, we selected a group within the Millennial generation. Pew Research defines Millennials as those born between 1981 and 1996, making them 22 to 38 years old today.*  For purposes of understanding and addressing the challenges of the group we want to reach, we’ve focused in on women between the ages 30 and 40. 

Why? Some of us are in the middle of or have already experienced our thirties. We understand how challenging (and rewarding) this stage of life can be, whether with young kids at home, kids in school while we’re working, taking or finishing college courses or degrees, caring for other family members, and often feeling as though there’s never enough time to do nice things for ourselves.  

Every now and then, a simple bouquet of flowers can help us pause, take a breath, and take pleasure in the beauty of a floral bouquet, whether for ourselves or for others.

 * https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins/