Florist News: September 2007 Archives
Many small businesses are looking to search engine marketing firms (SEMs) to help position them in pay per click campaigns so they'll appear for relevant keywords in popular sites like Google and Yahoo. Local companies, like florists, often prefer to turn to professional firms rather than undergoing the steep learning curve (and ongoing monitoring) while trying to run their businesses.
Based on what I spotted today, I wonder if some these flower shops are making a wise investment.
While checking out a Google SERP, all I could think was 'huh?' Not because of the natural listings, but from seeing florists - some of them long-time friends - appearing in Adwords with our city name beneath their ads.
The funny thing is, none of the 5 flower shops are located in this town. In fact, the nearest one is 17 miles away and one would have a minimum 80 mile round trip to deliver flowers here. That's one heck of a delivery charge.
So I called a couple of the florists and asked if they were expanding their delivery areas. The universal response has 'no'.
'Do you know you are running ads giving your location as down here in Anaheim?'
'No, we don't deliver there. Why would we advertise there?'
Turns out the ads are being placed on their behalf by their own SEM firms.
One shop's campaign is being run by a Yellow Pages company and the florist expressed extreme dismay with the results they'd had so far. 'We get a lot of clicks but few orders.' No kidding. When your home page tells local searchers you're in a town 40 miles from the city where they need to send flowers, they can't hit the back button fast enough.
Another shop owner is trusting his PPC management to a program through a national florist wire service. His Adwords listing is at the bottom of page 2 for a set of fairly non-competitive keywords he doesn't even want and he's paying the SEM around a dollar a click for the privilege. He too expressed great displeasure with the ROI.
Most local florists focus on serving the geographic area within 12-15 miles of their stores. By placing Local ads (and including specific city names) in towns their clients don't directly deliver to, these SEMs have managed to get plenty of bouncing clicks but have failed to serve their customers.
Small business need SEMs and are willing to invest in online marketing - but they need advertising partners that spend their dollars wisely and craft their campaigns to appeal to their target customers.
I pointed my friends to one of my favorite blogs about search marketing for small businesses, Small Business SEM and hope they read up before renewing those campaigns.
In a comment last week in Mike Blumethal's blog about Yahoo Local Mapspam, I mention the frustration of a local Butler PA florist being challenged to prove his company was a real brick and mortar store while a national affiliate marketer had managed to place 'local' listings without addresses throughout Y Local.
The 1-800-Flowers remote call forwarded (RCF) 'local' numbers were appearing in city pages right along with brick and mortar flower shops:
- "Meanwhile, over the last few days Y Local (along with yellowpages.com, switchboard.com and AOL Yellow Pages) has added 1-800-Flowers’ listings (which feature local phone numbers that remote call forward to 1800Flowers.com’s call center) to cities all over the US. See Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston and St. Louis for examples. See any ‘physical locations’?"
1-800-Flowers' listings included tracking codes (in addition to the remote call forwarding numbers [RCFs]) and typically appeared in regular Local results looking like this:
A few member florists of FlowerChat contacted senior management at Bloomnet (1-800-Flowers' florist services division) and expressed concerns about the new marketing tactic.
As of last Friday, the 'local' campaign - banner ads and 'local listings' - were removed from yellowpages.com and its related sites (including Yahoo Local). One FlowerChat member reported 1-800-Flowers' management as being unaware of the RCF's.
"...they have taken down the (listings on the) sites that they had control of, and are communicating with their (hired) marketing company to remove anything that appears to be a "local" listing that is in fact not. They do not want to be part of listing local numbers that forward to their call centers, they use 800 numbers for corp. ads."
RCF's purchased by affiliate marketers of flowers to appear 'local' are not new, but their use, coupled with local-sounding names and/or phony addresses violates consumer protection laws in 24 states. Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum recently filed suit against a New Jersey flower telemarketer stating
"Consumers are entitled to know with whom they are doing business, and companies who deliberately attempt to conceal their true identity or location have no business operating in our state."
Kudos to the 1-800-Flowers leadership for pulling down a campaign that made them look like they are running local businesses when they weren't.
The questions still remains as to how Yahoo Local can provide an accurate data set when a partner like yellowpages.com appears to be able to place 'local' listings there for companies with no physical presence.
FTD member florists report receiving a mailing outlining the flower marketer and wire service company's new plan for mirror site Florist.com. After spending an estimated $6-$8M to purchase Florist.com late in 2004, and rebranding it as an FTD-owned site, the company has now decided to remove all references to FTD.
The old version (screen shot below) included the online retailer's name in both the products and descriptions.
Today's update shows many product categories removed, and 'FTD' omitted from product titles and descriptions.
Could FTD believe they'll sell more flowers with their brand removed from the site?
Based on early reports, FTD members must opt out of participation in the new plan for Florist.com, which includes agreeing that
Substitution of flowers or containers (with the exception of greens) is not permitted, price adjustments will not be accepted. SRPs include delivery.
Orders destined for an area with no FTD local florist participant will be offered drop-shipped products only.
FTD member florists must now 'take it or leave it' at a fixed price when it comes to order fulfillment. Based on early reports, many are saying 'leave it'.
Florist Rick King, AIFD, SCCPF, NCCPF penned the following letter to Weekend Today in response to their segment about ""What Your Florist Won't Tell You".
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As a professional retail florist, I have to say that you portrayed the local retail florist in a bad light. Yes, There are those unscrupulous people who do scam the customer and degrade our reputation as an industry whole. However, the vast majority of local, in-your-town retail florists are upstanding business persons and do not do the customer an injustice.
In future, when alerting the public to these scam artists, there are a few resources you should add to your files of research material.
All of these websites are for professional floral organizations that STRESS high quailty and ethical business practices.
First on the list is The American Institute of Floral Designers - aifd.org
This is an organization whose mission is to promote higher standards and artistry in the field of professional floral design. We have a quite strict ethics code that we members must adhere to or risk losing our membership status. This organization is composed of floral designers, some are business owners, some are involved with other aspects of our industry.
Second on the list is The Florist Detective - floristdetective.com
This is an organization that reports on those unscrupulous individuals and businesses that DO skim and scam the customer. The persons who are profiled on this site are the ones who give our industry the reason for the type of reporting that you showcased with your peice.
Third on the list is Flowerchat - flowerchat.com
This is a forum that is composed entirely of people within the floral industry who exchange information concerning those unscrupulous businesses and unethical person who you were trying to profile on your article, but ended up placing the local florists in a bad light. We also exchange information that helps us to build our businesses and new tips and techniques to enable us to render better service to our local customers.
Fourth on this list is the Wholesale Florist and Floral Supplier Association - wffsa.org
This is as association of reputable floral wholesalers and floral suppliers throughout the nation that are concerned and endeavor to help better our industry.
Fifth on the list is the Texas State Florists Association - tsfa.org
This is an association of professional florists throughout the state of Texas.
The last resource on this list is the National Alliance of Floral Associations - nafainfo.org
This is an associated alliance of State Florists Associations that have come together to help combat unethical procatices with our industry. Those same practices of which you profiled.
As a retail florist, I fully understand the underlying reason why you presented the piece, but the person who gave the report exhibited some poor journalistic integrity when she lumped all of us in the same basket with those persons who are deserving to be exposed for the reprehensible vermin that they truly are.
It is my sincere wish to not offend, but to eduate and to give you the resources that will better aid you in your future reporting on the floral industry as a whole.
Please, In the future, when you are planning a journalistic piece on the unethical facets of our industry that quite frankly, degrade and injure all of us, avail yourself of these and more resources that can be had for the contact and asking.
Rikc King is an accredited designer and professional florist in West Columbia, SC.
On NBC's Weekend Today this past Saturday, anchor Amy Robach and CNBC reporter Vera Gibbons featured a story about Tricks of the Trade - What Your Florist Won't Tell You. (video)
The consumer advice segment included a comparison of two arrangements - both costing $50 - with one being purchased from a local florist and the other being ordered through an online or 'virtual' florist.
The $50 local-florist-ordered bouquet is on the left, the 'virtual florist' design on the right.
Some would assert (mostly marketing firms and 'online only' florists) that there's no difference between purchasing direct from a flower shop located in the community where the flowers are to be delivered and a 'virtual florist'. Arguments typically run along the lines of comments made by Russell of InfoCommerce Group:
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"Florists have several elaborate national networks that allow them to accept orders for prompt delivery anywhere in the country. The customer doesn't know who fulfilled the order at the distant end, and the customer doesn't care."
- "What seems most important is not the actual physical location of the retailer, but whether or not they can deliver on the promises they make to their customers. The florist business can do this."
Perhaps Russell doesn't realize there are typically $12-$15 service charges when going through most 'online florists'. Sometimes the fees (called 'shipping charges' or 'service charges') are added above the price of the flowers and local deliver, and sometimes they're deducted from the total budget. On a $50 order, the consumer may only end up getting $30 in flowers after the service fee and local delivery charge are deducted.
We have no way of knowing if the fees reduced the overall value of the 'online florist' flowers in the Today Show comparison test, but we do know dollar-for-dollar that local florists provide more flowers for the budget. And as Vera Gibbons said, regardless of which ordering route a consumer goes, a local florist will be making and filling the order.
In discussing the Today Show segment, fellow florist Erlene LeBorgne of Rosemont Floral pointed out:
- We thought on the whole the report was very informative for consumers, but we are a bit confused as to the subtitle of the report. Any reputable florist is willing to share the same information with their customers and to educate their customers on care and handling of the flowers after purchase.
In other words we WANT you to know, and we're happy to share information with you!
Informed consumers are happier customers and happier customers are what any business wants. Perhaps a better subtitle would have been "Here's What Your Local Florist Wants You to Know".
She's right. Local florists do want you to know. There is a difference.
