Seven florists reveal how they steer Gen Y to their

why
shop
Seven florists reveal how they
steer Gen Y to their front doors.
By Amanda Long
Try telling Stephanie Foster she’s a lot like the 70 million or so other members of
Generation Y, and the San Francisco artist will bristle at being pigeon-holed, labeled
and reduced to a marketing stereotype.
Yes, like so many in her generation, Foster has an iPhone. And sure, her friends
can contact her “14 different ways,” including Facebook and old-fashioned e-mail.
She shuns plastic bags and steers clear of Hummers. She seeks out organic produce
and cage-free poultry. She believes the more blurred the racial lines, the better. She
shops at vintage stores — and would hate to think of her own generation as a mass
production.
Foster has what many market researchers describe as Gen Y’s wariness of the
inauthentic, disdain for homogeneity and distrust of rules for rules’ sake. She also has
the split personality of a generation that was coddled and rewarded through childhood
yet still demands to do things its own way. They may mistrust corporate America, but
they haven’t stopped standing in line for the next iPod or Harry Potter movie.
“Indulge is my middle name,” Foster said. “I eat a lot. I drink a lot. I party a lot. I
buy a lot. I work a lot. It’s good for the economy. It’s good for my social life. It keeps
my life exciting. I’d rather not deprive myself.”
church street flowers Co-owners
Rachel Shinfeld, Stephanie Foster,
Brianna Foehr and designer Sarah Allison
pose for Church Street Flowers’ ad in The
Onion, a satire alternative weekly.
here
But that unapologetic description
of self-indulgence came in an e-mail in
which she emphasized that “doing good”
and volunteering are part of her socially
responsible life, not just things she “has
to do.”
Despite all she has in common with
her peers, there is one characteristic
that puts Foster at odds with some new
research on Gen Y: She is surrounded
by flowers everyday, fills her home with
them, sends them as ultra-personal gifts
and wouldn’t think of buying them from
a supermarket. Foster is one of the three
owners — all under-30 and all friends
— running Church Street Flowers in San
Francisco’s Castro neighborhood.
According to SAF’s Generations of
Flowers study, Generation Y is the one
that presents the biggest challenges to
florists. They’re less likely to have a high
appreciation of flowers, to differentiate
between a flower shop and other outlets
and to associate flowers with their emotional benefits. Those are just some of
conclusions researchers reached after
two focus groups of 57 flower buyers
and online interviews with 1,557 men
and women in the Baby Boom, X and Y
generations. The researchers also conducted in-depth interviews with gifting
and generational experts at GfK Roper
and Iconoculture.
As under-30-year-olds who value
flowers and florists, Foster and coowners Brianna Foehr, 26, and Rachel
Shinfeld, 27, are unlike many in their generation. And as florists who connect with
that age group and count Gen Y as their
most loyal customers, they’re also unlike
many in their profession.
We Get Y
Does Church Street Flowers’ young
owners make it more likely to connect?
It doesn’t hurt, but Cat Thomson, a
self-described “38-year-old stuck in the
mind of a 20-year-old,” swears a Gen
X-er can resonate with the Gen Ys just as
well. Her shop, Petal & Leaf in Jamaica
Plain, Mass., is filled with the under-30
crowd. “It’s funny (the research says)
that Generation Y presents the greatest
challenge, because these are the very
customers we’re having the most success with,” she said.
At Willow & Bloom in Seattle, owner
Miya Ferguson sells to plenty of young
employees of tech companies such as
Adobe and Google, which have offices
near the shop. “That age group has been
a huge part of our success,” Ferguson
said. She had about $300,000 in sales in
2008, the first year she moved out of a
studio and into a storefront. News articles
have heralded the shop’s perfect fit in the
funky Fremont neighborhood (Nirvana
recorded there), and Willow & Bloom
continues to hew to the hipster aesthetic.
Gen Y customers also demand
a shop that’s as environmentally responsible as they are. Boulder Blooms
in Boulder, Colo., fits that bill. The
shop was recently awarded a regional
EcoCycle business award, and co-owner
Who, What, When,
Where and Y?
Just who is Generation Y? Among its
diverse ranks are Miley Cyrus, the
founder of Facebook, the president’s
chief speechwriter and even one of the
Jonas Brothers.
But as different as one Gen Y-er may
be from the next, trend trackers agree on
key characteristics:
n Y-ers are the offspring of Boomer
parents. They were born between the
late 1970s and early 1990s and make
up about a quarter of all Americans.
n They have a penchant for instant
gratification and customizable products and demand socially responsible corporate policies, according
to a report by Packaged Facts.
n They feel personally obligated to
make a difference in the world,
and a full 78 percent believe that
companies have a responsibility to
join them in this effort, according to
a 2006 Cone Millennial Cause Study.
n Using the Internet is second nature, and they have a tendency
to trust friends and celebrity
endorsements in their purchasing choices. They want a say in
their purchases and experiences
and tend to blur the boundaries
between “retail” and “real life.”
n Oh, and their buying power is
estimated at a cool $1 trillion,
according to the Census Bureau.
Still wondering why you should you care
about Gen Y?
The magazine of the Society of American Florists (SAF)
23
> WHY SHOP HERE
Simmonds is inviting them to step
up to The Flower
Bar. The former
Wall Street marketing manager
opened the shop
last November
after a major renovation designed to
make it look like
a sleek, airy Soho
restaurant. “With
younger customers, you definitely
have to make them
want to be in your
space,” she said.
petal & leaf Whatever you do, don’t be smarmy or
“The stuffiness
talk down to Gen Y, said Cat Thomson, who practices that
has to go.”
at her funky shop in Jamaica Plain, Mass.
There’s no
trace
of
stuffy
at
Main
Street
Floral in
Jerrica Park said its philosophy appeals
Anoka, Minn., where the under-30 emto its young customers. “We eat, sleep,
ployees work in lime and hot pink design
and breathe green! It’s an extension of
rooms, blog about designs that make
personal beliefs first, community outtheir customers say “OMG,” describe
reach second, and a great marketing
the “Malibu Barbie” hues of arrangetactic third,” the 23-year-old said. “We
ments, and generally just have a good
aren’t just a Gen Y shop, but I know that
time with “mom,” a.k.a. shop manager
our green efforts make the difference
Dawn O’Bannon. “You just can’t afford
with that age group.”
Members of Gen Y came of age doing to be boring with this generation, there’s
their homework in Starbucks and hanging too much competition,” O’Bannon said.
These shops have connected with
out on comfy seats at Barnes & Noble.
Gen Y in ways that capitalize on the
They want their retail experience to feel
findings and recommendations of SAF’s
natural, and in Larchmont N.Y., so Ainslie
24 FLORAL MANAGEMENT | JULY 2009 | WWW.SAFNOW.ORG
Generations of Flowers study. They get
Y — and want you to know the promises
they make to keep them.
We’ll Never Bore You
Florists must fight to keep this overstimulated generation’s attention with
envelope-pushing acts.
“Flowers are sold everywhere, they can
get them everywhere and they are savvy
enough to know that,” said Mandy Majerik,
AIFD, PFCI. The 29-year-old owner of
HotHouse Design Studio in Birmingham,
Ala., is a third-generation florist, and has
seen the industry lose ground and fail to
make the case for why anyone should
buy flowers from a florist instead of from
Costco.
SAF’s Generations of Flowers research shows that only one-third of
Gen Y indicated they are very knowledgeable about the best places to buy
flowers, significantly lower than other
generations. (About 43 percent and 45
percent of Gen Xers and Boomers, respectively, say they’re keen to the best
sources for flowers.)
“Personalization is key, and you have
to make sure Gen Y knows you can customize,” said Majerik, who deviates from
the simple and the familiar with as much
gusto as fellow Gen Y-ers. “The big thing
is they want to look different.”
That echoes the marching orders
of the gift experts from Roper and
Iconoculture, who prescribed personalization as a way to reach Gen Y.
Majerik always has unusual flowers, such as zinnia and celosia, on hand
to surprise her not-so-easily impressed
customers and drive home what a supermarket can’t do.
“Don’t back away from a challenge,”
Majerik said. “I want to be known as the
florist who didn’t balk at their desire to
be different.”
She recently did an “Anthropologie
wedding” on the grounds of a historical furnace plant. The bridal party wore
dresses from the popular, vintage-inspired boutique chain and Majerik relied
on earthy collections of found objects
— sea glass, paper, buttons, etc. — to
complement the whimsical, antique (but
not dusty!) look. “I could immediately
interpret her Anthropologie vision, not
only because I shop there, but because
I pay attention to how my generation is
creating its own version of traditions,”
she said.
It helps to watch the same movies
as your customers, too. The “Twilight”
obsession that’s turned hordes of hipsters into vampire-romance film fans
has made its way to Main Street Floral
in Minnesota. The shop’s “Twilight
Garden” arrangement was promoted
on its blog with the headline: “Got a Girl
Who Loves Twilight?”
But, even the trendiest color or design
might not work for everyone. In fact, it
may backfire for those who resist anything “too popular.” Church Street’s Gen
Y owners make sure their product variety
is as eclectic as their customers. “Looking
around the shop, I see callas, seed pods,
scabiosa, giant kangaroo paws, anything
that grabs attention and lets them express themselves,” Foster said.
Park, of Boulder Blooms, said that
even the most conversation-starting
blooms need a spokesperson to get
through to Gen Y. “They really want to
know the story behind the flower (and)
connect with it,” she said. She makes a
habit of describing the best characteristics
of the bloom — the scent, the longevity,
the vibrant color — as she wraps them up.
At Petal & Leaf, Thomson looks for
product that gets the “What the hell is
that?” reaction: protea, giant alliums, all
boulder blooms
Outstanding in
their field for many
reasons, the staff at
Boulder Blooms earns
the respect of Gen
Y with their earthfriendly zeal and
community outreach,
said co-owner and
Gen Y-er Jerrica Park,
far right.
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The magazine of the Society of American Florists (SAF)
25
> WHY SHOP HERE
willow & bloom Designers Erika
Bush, (from left) Yumi Han, owner
Miya Ferguson and Rani Ban create
striking work that complements
the aesthetic of their artsy, eclectic
Seattle neighborhood.
26 FLORAL MANAGEMENT | JULY 2009 | WWW.SAFNOW.ORG
kinds of orchids and traditional flowers
in bright, powerful colors. You don’t have
to fill entire arrangements with expensive product, just use it as bait. “They’ll
spend that extra money so they can say
to their friends, ‘Check this out, I want
you to have it because it’s cool and no
one else has seen it,’” she said.
Thomson applies the same “keep ‘em
guessing” strategy to giftware, greenery and greeting cards. She continually
mixes up her gift lines and potted plants.
Though square containers have been a
hit with younger customers, Thomson
swaps out colors and suppliers of them
regularly. “I feel like everything has an
expiration date, and especially with this
generation,“ she said. “You have to get
stuff rotated out before it starts to sour.”
We Share Your Fear
of the Fussy
Since customization reigns supreme,
it’s difficult to generalize the kinds of
designs and flowers most popular with
Gen Y, but a common non-fussy theme
emerges. “Big and showy isn’t different,
it’s just attention-getting for attention-
getting’s sake,” said Miya Ferguson of
Willow & Bloom in Seattle.
Non-fussy translates into monochromatic, mono-botanic and free of traditional fillers, Majerik said. Foster sees
Gen Y customers gravitate to loosely
arranged bouquets but doesn’t try to anticipate what blooms they will choose —
she only does pre-made arrangements
for holidays. While that may seem to put
productivity at risk, Foster said she’s able
to profitably custom make each in-store
order by keeping designs uncomplicated.
At Boulder Blooms, single-type
exotics or other types of artistic, stylized arrangements “seem to really appeal to younger customers buying for
themselves,” Park said. For those buying gifts, she’s had success attaching
meaning to flower varieties to help customers to “connect and personalize.”
She recently did a vase arrangement
that included five types of flowers for a
five-year anniversary (a variety for each
year of their time together) and sent a
card explaining why the flowers were
chosen. “The significance of the flowers
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hothouse
design Never
without a new
way of looking
at things, owner
Mandy Majerik,
AIFD, rarely backs
away from a
challenge — a trait
that attracts Gen Y.
[email protected]
1.877.MAKEBID (625-3243)
The magazine of the Society of American Florists (SAF)
Florist Review – 2.1875” x 10”
27
> WHY SHOP HERE
seems to buy the sender a little more
confidence,” she said, a key to building
loyalty with young customers.
That confidence also comes in handy
for that 20-something on her way to a
knitting party, book club or fondue dinner. The Iconoculture interviews indicated a growing trend of hosting among
Gen Y-ers.
“This is really where those singletype arrangements shine,” Park said
about hostess gifts. “A vase full of fragrant lilies, or a single stem of cymbidiums, or even a tall vase filled with curly
willow works here. They seem to appreciate the simple splendor.”
We Totally Want to Hang
Out Together … and Party
the flower bar Ainslie
Simmonds left Manhattan
to open this airy shop in
Larchmont, where young
dads can check their
e-mail while lounging in
the “man chairs.”
Just What Do You Know about Flowers?
*percentage of each age group answering “extremely well” to each answer
TOTAL (n=1,557)
GEN Y (n=519)
GEN X (n=512)
BABY BOOMERS (n=526)
HOW TO BUY OR ORDER FLOWERS
50
48
50
51
BEST PLACES TO BUY FLOWERS
41
34
43
46
HOW TO PERSONALIZE A GIFT OF FLOWERS
36
36
36
36
THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF FLOWERS AVAILABLE
34
33
31
38
WHICH FLOWERS ARE APPROPRIATE FOR WHICH SITUATIONS
29
30
27
31
SOURCE: SAF Generations of Flowers Study, bases on 1,557 online interviews in January 2009 by Russell Research,
an independent research firm.
28 FLORAL MANAGEMENT | JULY 2009 | WWW.SAFNOW.ORG
Getting Gen Y in the shop is a considerable challenge, the research shows, as this
segment is significantly less likely than
other age groups to know the best place
to buy flowers. (See chart on the left.)
To get them through the doors,
shops must be inviting but not claustrophobic, personal but open to the masses
and, you know, fun.
“This shop is an extension of our
lives, there’s no wall between us and
them. We’re honest about who we are
and let our personalities shine through,”
Foster said. “If you were to walk in right
now, you’d feel like you were in a room
full of friends, hanging out, listening to
good music and having a drink toward
the end of a tough day.”
The Flower Bar reaches out with its
open-kitchen, family-friendly environment. “We have ‘man chairs’: cozy leather
chairs where dads can sit and check their
Blackberries,” Simmonds said.
She has also formalized her “get
in here” mantra with a robust schedule of parties and classes. Taught by
a designer trained at the New York
Botanical Gardens, the twice-weekly
classes give her commuter clients access to Manhattan designs without the
price tags.
The Flower Bar’s Girls Night Out
design parties appeal to the upper end
of Gen Y, the new moms who’ve traded
the bar scene for the playground and are
looking for way to get out of the house
and feel connected. The Flower Bar also
SAF Talks ‘Bout All
Generations
Boomers and Gen X-ers
count too. See the key
findings of the SAF
Generations of Flowers
study at www.safnow.
org/GenerationsStudy.
partners with local art galleries, musicians and restaurants that provide food
from catering overruns.
In Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood,
which calls itself the “Center of the
Universe,” Willow & Bloom has opened
its doors to local artists and musicians.
Ferguson often hosts trunk shows with
jewelry designers, most recently with one
who makes handmade, all-natural wedding pieces. “I’m lucky to be in such a rich,
creatively dense area,” Ferguson said.
While it may sound a little risqué,
the Valentine’s Day Stripper Party at
HotHouse Design in Birmingham is as
innocent as it is popular among customers who have clamored for it for the past
two years.
Majerik sends cheeky invites to a
select group of loyal fans and customers,
inviting them to come into the studio,
have some drinks and strip … roses.
For their effort, they get a head-turning
T-shirt that says “Stripper Party” and a
chance “to feel like an insider,” Majerik
said, about two key Gen Y-defining
traits: collaboration and connectivity. As
word spreads, more people want to risk
their manicured nails to strip roses.
“Once I get them in the studio,
they’re mine,” Majerik said.
And speaking of stripping, some customers at Main Floral may show a little
skin this summer. O’Bannon said she is
toying with the idea of hosting a temporary tattoo giveaway in the shop — with
images of flowers, of course.
We Don’t Take Ourselves
Too Seriously
Whether it’s by making cheeky comments on Facebook, hosting stripper
parties or dancing around the shop, florists who connect with younger customers aren’t afraid to unleash their inner
child at work.
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The magazine of the Society of American Florists (SAF)
29
> WHY SHOP HERE
main street floral
The staff, (from left)
Sara Christenson, Dawn
O’Bannon, Megan Swanson
and Melissa Riley, bring a
little sass to the Midwest.
“You have to let them in on the
joke,” said Foster, who often kids around
with male customers of Church Street
Flowers about the, ahem, rewards of
bringing home flowers.
When Foster, Shinfeld and Foehr
bought the shop from their former boss,
Michael Ritz, they wanted to assure
loyal customers that the shop was still
in trusted hands but also introduce a
younger demographic to the fresh new
faces behind the counter. So they did
a sophisticated full-color ad in a San
Francisco shelter magazine, focusing on
a high-end design. Then they grabbed a
photographer friend and, along with their
head designer, stuffed themselves into a
delivery vehicle for an ad in The Onion,
the mock newspaper known for its irreverent humor. The ad simply showed the
four young women hanging out of the
window with the copy: “We deliver.”
For Valentine’s Day and Mother’s
Day, Church Street ran three ads on
KPIG, a jam band station that targets the
male demographic. The ads featured two
guys trash-talking about whose mom
is more awesome. Another had a dude
suffering the consequences of buying his
sweetheart a Safeway bouquet.
30 “The guys loved it —
and I know this because
it seems like every one of
them who heard the ad had
to tell us, ‘Hey, I heard you
on KPIG,’” Foster said. The
shop’s Facebook updates
have the same “we’re serious about awesome flowers
and not much else” vibe.
Majerik also uses her
Web site and Facebook
page to put her out-sized
personality on full display.
In addition to showing off
her award-winning designs,
her posts reveal her bubbly
enthusiasm for working with flowers and brides. On the HotHouse
Web site, one section is devoted to
showing “behind the scenes” activity of
the staff.
Attendees at a recent bridal show
saw the shop’s playful side, when they
found sheets of bright red toilet paper
inside their promo bags. On one side, it
read, “Your wedding’s when? And you
haven’t booked with HotHouse Design
yet?” The other side read, “Oh sh*t.”
Main Street Floral’s blog, MySpace
page and Twitter feeds offer a colorful
peek into the shop’s cooler and personality. On the staff page of the blog,
20-something driver Megan candidly
writes: “I’m either really cranky or really
funny, there is no in-between.” Designer
Sara gushes about her newborn and admits to kissing pictures of him all day.
We Won’t Talk Down to You
Treat a Gen Y customer like she can’t
afford to indulge and you’ll be treated
to a vision of her walking out your door.
Many young professionals have the
money, but are choosy about where
to spend it, said both Ferguson and
Thomson, who both have a concentration of tech companies near their shops.
FLORAL MANAGEMENT | JULY 2009 | WWW.SAFNOW.ORG
“I tell my staff that when they’re talking to customers to forget all the rules,
because the only right way to design
something is the way that customer
wants it,” Thomson said.
They’ve also become skeptical
to what they think of as “Hallmark
holidays,” she noted, echoing the SAF
research about Gen Y’s indifference to
buying flowers for traditional holidays.
“They’re not suckers. They’re not
going to buy something just because
you or some marketing campaign tells
them to,” said Thomson. “It’s like ‘I
am a smart individual who knows that
roses cost more at Valentine’s Day so
I’ll just wait.’”
Florists must make it easy for this
generation to celebrate “life occasions,”
and make a case for turning every day
into a flower-worthy occasion, according to the consumer experts cited in the
Generations of Flowers study.
“Pink-slip” peony bouquets, “Sign a
Lease” lily bouquets, even “Get Well” flowers for a sick Mac — all are quirky ways to
resonate with the small, but meaningful
moments, in customers’ lives.
“You don’t want to be the one compartmentalizing flowers to certain roles
in their lives,” Foster said. “Our generation doesn’t like boundaries. At the
shop, we just become part of their lives,
so they’ll still be coming back to see us
when we all get old.“
Amanda Long is the managing editor of
Floral Management. She is a Gen X-er and
not a slacker. E-mail: [email protected]
Who, What, When,
Where and Y
See the people, places
and things that help
these shops connect
with Gen Y, including a
stylized ad campaign
at www.safnow.org/
photostogo.