FTD: December 2005 Archives

FTD's Research Flawed?

This is mostly commentary on my part, but if you are a member of SAF the Society of American Florists you can read the complete article online or in Floral Management Magazine.

Back in October, Mike Soenen FTD CEO explained FTD-sponsored research, where consumers ranked price first and service last. The second part of the FTD research found that florists rank service first, design second, and price last.

Mr. Soenens comments eluded to the theory that florists should offer more lower-priced boxed flowers (single stems) to consumers in lieu of high end floral designs.

A well respected Columbus Ohio research firm, Prince and Prince, also did their own study. Prince and Prince: "some observations we at Prince and Prince have made over the last decade support different conclusions". The P&P research showed that providing "value" was the top priority, followed closely by quality, and then sales assistance/courtesy. Price was the FOURTH most important.

The P&P research also found that since 1998, florists involvement with single stems has declined more than 25%, with the decline most pronounced among larger florists.

*************************Commentary

It seems that FTD's question format may have been somewhat responsible for the outcome of their research, since they appear to have asked the cost question directly, rahter than utalize research methods such as trade-off anaylisis and structural equation modeling, to generate more accurate resullts.

One can not help but wonder, if this was FTD's attempt to convince florists to lower their prices, and be willing to accept the lower price points offered by FTD on their own site. I assume this was part of their battle plan to try and take on Proflowers in a low price war. Again FTD's thinking is somewhat flawed, as I do not see them hurting Proflowers in any way.

All we Real Florists can say, is good luck FTD, you're going to need it.

BOSS