Selling Emotional Solutions
Selling Emotional Solutions By Stan Pohmer

The reason we're a part of this industry and consumers love our product has something to do with that "warm and fuzzy" feeling. It's time to get our heads out of production and focus on function.

Many of you have heard me preach that, at least in our consumers’ minds, we’re not just selling plants, but rather intrinsic solutions to their various and numerous needs. And these needs run the complete gamut — decorating their yards, providing peace and serenity in the simple activity of gardening, re-grounding and reconnecting with Mother Nature and rekindling comfortable old values in a time of change, chaos and uncertainty.

Okay, so all of this psychobabble stuff about the benefits of plants “feels good.” But can we really quantify it — validate it so we are convinced that we can or should communicate the positive benefits plants provide and do so with confidence and conviction?

Confirming the psychobabble

The Society of American Florists (SAF) commissioned two consumer studies, conducted by Rutgers University in New Jersey, on the emotional benefits of flowers. The first was on the emotional impact on recipients of flowers as gifts compared to other non-floral categories such as candy and candles. Much to no one’s surprise, the consumers almost unanimously reacted extremely favorably to flowers. We all intuitively knew this, but it had never been validated before. The second study encompassed the benefits of flowers on seniors, showing that flowers, in controlled senior homes and communities, facilitated social interaction and raised spirits while reducing depression — again things we intuitively took for granted but had never had conclusive evidence of.

“Yeah, great,” you might be saying. These studies focus on cut flowers in a gifting environment; what application does this have to the annuals, perennials and ornamental plants that we deal with? Well, first I don’t believe that the consumer differentiates floriculture product categories the same way that we in the industry do; in their minds they don’t consciously divorce cut flowers from perennials. And secondly, for every flower gift receiver, there is a flower sender — someone who innately feels an emotional tie to the product strongly enough to believe that flowers can convey his or her intent to the recipient. Bottom line, these studies quantitatively demonstrate physiological, psychological, sociological and emotional benefits of flowers — all positive messages that SAF is communicating in a public relations campaign directed to the consumer through the media.

Closer to home at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Human-Environment Research Laboratory, researchers have created an interdisciplinary approach to conduct a series of scientific studies that draw some very powerful and compelling conclusions on the “people” and behavior benefits of plants and flowers. While the studies are focused on the physiological, sociological and psychological impacts in urban areas, the results are easily extrapolated to show the benefits in the home and to the consumer.

This current series of studies includes:

“Neighbors and Nature”: Gardens create opportunities for increased social interaction and stronger social relationships and social ties.

“Kids and Connections”: Children with symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are better able to concentrate, complete tasks and follow directions after playing in natural settings — and the greener the setting, the more the relief.

“Girls and Greenery”: Higher self-discipline can be achieved through increased exposure to nature, leading to higher self-esteem and better preparation for meeting the everyday challenges of growing up and making life decisions.

“Canopy and Crime”: People living in “greener” surroundings reported lower levels of fear, fewer incivilities and less violent behavior.

“Vegetation and Violence”: Contact with nature helps reduce the incidence of aggression and violence, mitigating the harmful effects of chronic mental fatigue.

“Plants and Poverty”: Green spaces were proven to help restore attention and focus, relieving the everyday pressures of living in challenging economic and social environments.

For more information on these studies, visit www.herl.uiuc.edu or contact the Human-Environment Research Laboratory at (217) 333-1965.

Focusing on the consumer

With the exception of studies such as these two and the American Floral Endowment’s “Consumer Tracking Study,” conducted by Ipsos-NPD, that monitors consumer purchasing behaviors (see the article “Consumer Buying Habits” in the June issue of Lawn & Garden Retailer), we’ve not spent much time, effort or money on identifying why consumers buy (or don’t buy) our products or on quantifying all of the benefits plants and flowers provide. We’ve put on the back burner the key fact that we all recognize, but are hesitant to acknowledge and address; the fact that, at the end of the day, success for all of us is dictated to us by the ultimate consumer. Part of this hesitancy is caused by the lack of concrete information and the reality that we are still a production-driven industry. However, in order to grow our business to meet the competitive needs and expectations of our ultimate customer, we must become more consumer-driven, incorporating this kind of research into what we grow, why we grow it and, just as important, how we market it.

We deal with a product the consumer genuinely likes and wants to buy. We need to start giving them compelling reasons to buy and use it. The Flower Promotion Organization’s (FPO) marketing theme is “Flowers. Alive With Possibilities.” If our industry embraced this way of thinking and consumer marketing, our possibilities would be boundless. Physiological, sociological, emotional and psychological benefits may seem like alien terms to you today, but get used to dealing with them. They are your future.

Stan Pohmer

Stan Pohmer is president of Pohmer Consulting Group in Minnetonka, Minn. He can be reached at [email protected] or 612.605.8799.