FlowerShopDeals Blog – Floral Mashup

Have you noticed! 1-800-flowers.com has revamped it’s website and logo. The new 1-800-flowers features not only a new brand image and redesign but the introduction of the newly intergrated brand of 1-800-baskets.com to complement the floral offerrings.

Martha Stewart was the most recent adjustment to 1-800-flowers.com about a year ago when they – 1-800-flowers and Martha Stewart floral – merged to create a co branded label for Ms. Stewarts designer floral arrangments.

As you can see here 1-800-flowers love to develop and connect consumers with a brand. In this case two recognizable brands.

Most online florist don’t rebrand their line of gift baskets from the floral bouquets but 1-800-flowers has taken the opportunity to actually distinguish its gift basket offerings to complement it’s ubiquitous brand name.  It’s perhaps an ingenious idea to get cutomers to start thinking gift baskets as a seperate entity.

Gifts and gifts baskets is a large consumer market and what better way to establish yourself in the market but by getting consumers to connect with a brand name for that market.  Walmart may sell toys but Toys R’ Us specializes in toys.

The redesign breaks down as many pieces of the total of what 1-800-flowers has to offer consumers. You still get the basic line up of floral bouquets with their steady price point. 

Check it out for yourself and tell me what you think?

K. Nuer Industry News 1-800-flowers, 1800 gift baskets, branding

Continuing its trend of opening new avenues to market, online florist 1-800-flowers.com has entered into the social media space by being the first business entity  to open shop on Facebook. They were one of the first floral retailers to venture into the Internet space in 1992 and in 1994 they were the first merchant of any kind to transact on AOL. 

Now Facebook!  

Advertising products and services to customers happens all day, everyday on Facebook.  But brands that see this social media space myopically, by focusing on the potential of reaching 250 million facebook users and surreptitiously going for the sale, could be a short sighted marketing strategy.  

If the goal is to sell flowers, how will they do it, without marketing to it’s Fan base. But isn’t this antithetical to what social media networks are and should be used for?

Perhaps this is a bad move on 1-800-Flowers.com part.  Maybe they haven’t studied the social media space in depth enough and are only looking at the potential gain from the most popular social network in the world.

There are social media experts who see brands entering into social media to build relationships with customers, improve customer service, generate leads, and build brand loyalty.  It’s also about listening to what’s being said about your business or brand to better understand your customers.

Judging by the already low ratings 1-800-Flowers has with many consumers on Epinions.com (rated 2 out of a possible 5 with 554 reviews)  they will have to contend and address these type of complaints in the public space. They have to, in order to survive and earn the trust of consumers.  It’s not the satisfied customers that make the most noise but the disappointed ones you are forced to address and respond to. 

With social media networks like Facebook, brands must committ to openness and transparency. They must be willing to not only be receptive to negative feedback, but also be their to respond to negative comments as well. At the time of writing, the negative comments have already started. One “Fan”, Shamit Khemka, has posted his bad experience with using 1-800-Flowers.com. 

If disgruntled consumers suddenly flock to their page and litter their Wall post with negative experiences they risk turning what could be a opportunity to reach millions of consumers with their products to turning their page into a consumer complaint board. Their Facebook flower shop would become a mute point.

With an already recognizable brand 1-800-flowers can continue to build on it’s brand prowess by using Facebook to increase customer satisfaction. If done consistently their exposure on Facebook will only lift their brand if Fans are truly Fans.

It will be interesting to watch how this works for 1-800-flowers.  Somehow this will mark a turning point for brands looking to do business on Facebook or become another case study of what not to do..

I still wonder where this will take Facebook? Will Facebook turn into Amazon.com? Are they getting a cut on the new 1-800-flowers.com revenue stream?

K. Nuer Industry News 1-800-flowers, online florists, Social Media

Who said you can’t have your cake and eat it too? Well 1-800-flowers says you certainly can.

They recently introduced a new floral arrangement to the mix that combines a dazzling bloom of carnations and the shape of a cupcake titled the Everything Cupcake™ collection.

When it comes to elegant and designer floral arrangements 1-800-flowers.com seems to have a knack for it. They have evidently found out that flowers need to be more than just a group of tightly bound blossoms stuffed into a vase. Now flowers can transend into another medium in the form of entertainment.  Arrangements like these can spark conversation and excitement. It’s no wonder 1-800-flowers acquired the Martha Stewart designer flowers collection to add more style to their mix.

The Everything Cupcake™ measures approximately 5″H x 6.5″D and comes with a candle and a “Celebrate!” flag.

With these two worlds colliding in the form of a cupcake shaped arrangement of fresh white canations set in a reusable cupcake cup that measures 2.75, this bouquet stands out like a mazaradi on the highway except the price tag is in this case is in everyones ball park starting at $24.99. To boot 1-800-flowers are also introducing real cupcakes to compliment this bouquet created by their sister brand Cheryl & Co.!

1-800-Flowers.com certainly has the cupcake lover in mind with this one.

K. Nuer Industry News 1-800-flowers, birthday flowers, new flowers, send flowers