Ellison Chair in International Floriculture
Ellison Chair in International FloricultureTeaching, Research, Extension and Service

Example of good marketing and entertaining as well!

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Commissioned by the California Cut Flower Commission, J Schwanke and the JTV crew traveled all over California filming an exclusive documentary on the flower farms in the Golden State. Making his way across the mountains of Southern California – all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge, J toured some of the largest and most prestigious flower farms in California. His interviews with the owners/managers of each farm are fascinating, and the JTV crew did an excellent job filming the indescribable beauty of the thousands of acres of flowers being grown…the sight of which is mind blowing! The video series provides a great overview of how California flowers are grown, picked, processed, packaged, and shipped.

HT: Mike Mellano

Spring Pack Trials Excursion for Greenhouse Growers

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A bus trip for greenhouse growers is being planned to next year’s California Spring Pack Trials from April 9 -13, 2010. Dr. Mark Bridgen of Cornell University, along with Dr. Brian Krug of the University of New Hampshire, Dr. Roberto Lopez of Purdue University, and Dr. Neil Mattson of Cornell University, have organized an intense, educational trip to several of the key Spring Trial locations. The trip is designed specifically for greenhouse growers and other horticulture professionals.

The trip itinerary is jam-packed; the days begin early and continue at a fast pace late into the evening. Attendees should plan to arrive on Friday, April 9 and will stay at a designated hotel near the San Jose Airport. The journey begins at 7 a.m. on Saturday, April 10, when the bus departs from the hotel. That first day, the group will visit Golden State Bulb Growers in Watsonville, Syngenta Flowers/Goldsmith Seeds in Gilroy, Speedling (along with exhibitors Thompson & Morgan, GreenNex USA, Hem Genetics, MasterTag, Plant Source International, and Schoneveld Twello) in San Juan Batista, and Sakata Seed in Salinas. Participants will stay in Salinas on Saturday night.

On Sunday, April 11, the day will begin with a 2 hour bus drive to San Luis Obispo, where the first stop will be Dummen USA. After a short drive to Arroyo Grande, the group will visit Greenheart Farms. The last stop of the day will be in Santa Barbara where the participants will visit Jiffy along with their exhibitors Northern Innovators, Skagit Gardens, and Florist de Kwakel.

Monday, April 12, will be a busy day beginning with the bus departing at 7 a.m. and driving for an hour to PlantHaven. Following this stop, the group will arrive at Ball Horticultural Co. in Santa Paula where displays of PanAmerican, Ball FloraPlant, Kieft Seeds, and Selecta varieties will be featured. Lunch will be hosted by Ball. In the afternoon, Green Fuse Botanicals in Oxnard will be visited along with GroLink. If time allows, the last stop of the day will be in Somis, CA to visit Suntory.

Participants will spend Monday night at a hotel in West Hollywood, CA. This hotel is conveniently located midway between the Los Angeles (LAX) airport and the Burbank Airport. There is a shuttle service and taxi service to both of these airports from the hotel.

This package trip includes the cost of first class hotel accommodations for four nights from April 9-12, bus transportation from San Jose on the first day to West Hollywood on the last day, lunches for 3 days, and experienced guides. Participants need to arrange their own transportation into San Jose on April 9 and out of West Hollywood on April 12, and cover their own dinner costs. A travel agency is available to assist with these reservations (go to the website listed below). The cost of the trip will be $450 per person in a double room or $720 per person for a single room. These rates are based on 47 participants and will be adjusted slightly if minimum capacity is not met. The trip is subject to change and may be canceled if minimum capacity is not met.

**Space is limited** Register by January 29, 2010 to reserve a seat on this trip. For on-line reservation, go to www.concepts.us.com and click on Event Registration at the bottom left of the site. Be sure to go to the site labeled: Greenhouse Growers Spring Trials 2010. If you have questions, contact Dr. Mark Bridgen at mpb27@cornell.edu or at 631-727-3595.

This group trip to the 2010 California Spring Pack Trials is a new, one-of-a-kind venture for growers! All greenhouse growers and floriculture professionals are invited to attend. It is an opportunity to meet fellow growers, breeders, and other plant company representatives to share ideas, update your understanding of what’s happening in our industry, and travel with trained professionals.

Trade shows are for building relationships

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Given that we are embarking on the trade show season, I thought this would be a timely post. Last November, I was asked at a regional nursery meeting “Are trade shows still a viable marketing tool?” As a good economist, I answered the question “It depends.” If you are seeking to generate large amounts of sales leads from going to a trade show, then the answer is no. Let me explain.

The nature of trade shows has changed dramatically over time. It used to be folks went to trade shows to book sales and to generate leads. Not anymore. Today, trade shows now are business marketing opportunities. They are a place to close hot leads and meet prospective buyers you’ve had contact with but haven’t met face-to-face. They’re a place to set yourself apart, to market yourselves as industry leaders, and to reward your best customers.

The main reason to attend a trade show is build better relationships with existing, major customers and ready-to-close hot prospects. And to make this happen, you need to rethink the way that you spend on trade shows. If you’re buying into the “lead generation” myth, you’ll buy a big booth and man it with plenty of marketing staff, and then wait for the leads to roll in. Wrong, wrong, wrong! There are plenty of more cost-effective, efficient and more accurate methods of generating leads.

Instead, consider putting the bulk of your trade show spending into footing the bill to send (extremely hot and near to closing) prospects and your best existing customers to the show. Limit your own personnel to your top guns and the reps handling those key prospective accounts.

Let me sum up. Trade shows are NOT the most effective mechanism for generating leads. They are, however very good tools for building relationships with existing customers. Remember, nothing beats eyeball-to-eyeball marketing. Nothing. Keep focusing on that, and you may be able to get a positive ROI out of the trade show season.

Effects of Flowering and Foliage Plants in Hospital Rooms

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According to a new study recently published in HortTechnology, plants and flower in hospital rooms have definite healing benefits, especially for anyone recovering from surgery.

Researchers studied ninety patients recovering from appendectomy, assigning them randomly to hospital rooms with or without plants. During recovery, the patients were able to see eight varieties of flowering plants or foliage.

Scientists measured recovery times, heart rate, temperature and blood pressure, perceived level of pain, fatigue and anxiety levels. The results showed that plants and flowers facilitated recovery from abdominal surgery, as evidenced by less pain medication use, lower heart rate and systolic blood pressure, and decreased anxiety levels in the hospital patients who were exposed to plants and flowers.

In addition, the patients indicated greater satisfaction with their hospital rooms, when compared to the control group. The study concluded that plants and flowers are good medicine when it comes to promoting recovery from surgery.

Hat tip to Stan for the link!

Promotional program impacts

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Several in the Green Industry have postulated regarding the impacts of generic promotion programs and there are rumblings (at least there were before the economy slowed) of another industry-wide generic promotional program surfacing. It behooves us to consider all of the case study experiences before embarking on such a task. To that end, the most recent HortScience contained an article analyzing the effectiveness of Texas citrus promotions that also has some interesting insights for other commodity promotion programs.

This study finds that Texas citrus promotion programs have effectively enhanced shipments of Texas grapefruit and that the benefits of the promotion efforts in terms of increased grapefruit industry revenues are greater than the costs. The study also finds that the promotion programs have had no statistically discernible effects on Texas orange shipments and, hence, have not generated returns to Texas orange growers. Although specific to the promotion program of Marketing Order 906, these results provide some important insights for the operation and management of other commodity promotion programs, particularly those at the state or regional level:

Growers in a particular state or region can successfully promote the demand for their products if they are sufficiently differentiated from those produced in other states or regions as in the case of Texas grapefruit. However, funds invested in promoting homogenous, undifferentiated commodities like Texas oranges are unlikely to stimulate a shift in consumer demand for those commodities.

Even for undifferentiated commodities like Texas oranges, however, advertising can enhance buyer loyalty by reducing their price responsiveness. As a result, a weather-induced run-up in price, for example, is less likely to drive buyers to alternative sources of the product.

The gains from promotion can dissipate quickly if the marketing order or other commodity promotion group fails to at least maintain its level of promotion funding from year to year.

How a marketing order or other commodity promotion group chooses to allocate its promotion funds among alternative promotion activities can influence the effectiveness of the funds in enhancing demand. In the case of Marketing Order 906, a shift in promotion strategy away from merchandising to public relations likely contributed to a decline in the effectiveness of promotion activities.