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industry
talk
we do weddings! |
Four supermarket florists share their strategies for
spreading the word about wedding work.
With peak wedding season on the horizon, now is the time
to promote yourself as the florist of choice for wedding
services. But for such important events, how can you compete
with traditional flower shops? These four floral leaders, in
different areas of the country, explained how they do it when
Senior Editor Shelley Urban asked:
How do you get the word out about your
wedding services?
Most of our wedding promotion is by word-of-mouth, but we
do attend the Portland Bridal Show in January, which was sold
out this year. Our booth includes floral, bakery and
catering, and this year, we geared our display to all ranges of
budgets. Our bookings have been excellent! We have about 20
weddings booked so far this year, most of which were from the
show although three were booked a year in advance. Surprisingly,
people don’t seem to be too concerned about budgets; of the
weddings booked, we haven’t seen any decrease in monies, and one
booked event has a floral bill of $8,000.
Mark K. Morrow, floral manager
Lamb’s Markets; Wilsonville, Ore.
 We
do 120 to 130 weddings per year, so we have strong relationships
with local photographers and managers at reception locations.
Often, when brides contact these vendors, which they usually do
before they contact florists, the photographers and managers
recommend us. In addition, we have good rapport with our nearby
churches and schools, so many of the church members and teachers
come to us when they’re planning their weddings. One advantage
of being in a grocery store is that so many people come through
here daily, and we show our wedding work as much as possible.
The photographers often give us their photos of our work, and at
our 13 registers, digital images of our bridal bouquets and
altar pieces are displayed on screen for customers to view while
they wait in line.
Christina Mayo, floral manager and bridal consultant
South Fayette Shop ‘N Save; Bridgeville, Pa.
 We
attend three bridal shows each year, which are in January and
March, with our bakery colleagues, and this is where we reach
the target audience of brides. Of our 76-store network, 15
stores have floral designers who are certified to do weddings,
which means they have completed our wedding design training.
Potential bridal customers are usually referred to one of these
stores. Brides choose Tops Market because of great one-on-one
service, quality, convenience and value, so we want to make sure
we have the best people designing the flowers and serving our
customers. Our certified florists also dedicate an entire wall
to wedding displays, including artificial bouquets, which is on
display year-round.
Shawn Oliver-Zobrist, floral technical specialist
Tops Markets; Buffalo, N.Y.
 Corporately,
we advertise in several suburban journals across the St. Louis
metro area, including our local lifestyle paper, the Ladue News,
and attend seven bridal shows per year. In addition, our
corporate office provides our stores with point-of-purchase
materials that we display by our departments’ registers. But in
this high-volume store, customers are convinced by the large
amounts of fresh, beautiful flowers they see day in and day out.
Our displays are always full, fresh and reasonably priced, and
customers know they will receive quality cut flowers.
Sue Ehret, floral manager
Schnucks Markets #188; St. Louis, Mo.
Reach Contributing Editor Shelley Urban at
surban@superfloralretailing.com
or (800) 355-8086. |
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Super Floral Retailing • Copyright 2009
Florists' Review Enterprises, Inc. | |
