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September/October 2018

canadianfloristmag.com

Is Your Shop Decorated – Or Merchandised? 8 Hallmarks of a Good Display

Anatomy of a Logo

inside

• Twitter Tips • Going Green • Trend Scouting

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departments

features Is your store merchandised or is it decorated? A store that’s decorated is appealing to look at and enhances the shopping experience—but it’s not necessarily causing a behavioural shift in your customers. A store that’s merchandised does work for you by encouraging shoppers to become buyers. There’s a psychology to the manner in which you should arrange products and stage your shop to deliver the right experience at the right time in the customer journey. Michelle Brisebois

Best Practices for Visual Merchandising

Increasing Conversion with Merchandising Magic

How Our Logo Helped Us Move Up Market

In the Know: A Design Expert Dishes on Latest Trends

online Network with florists online

Have your say. Join the new Canadian Florist Facebook Group to share thoughts on florist life in Canada. http://cfmag.pub/fbgroup

Coast to Coast

Florist Spotlight

The Social Florist

By Design

Jennifer’s Journeys

How to With Heather

Grow with Joe

Ask the SEO

On the Level with Neville

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Visuals

By Katie Hendrick Vincent

FROM THE

EDITOR

Hi, my name is Katie and I am a shopaholic.

To put a finer point upon it, I have weak impulse control when it comes to attractive things. There are certain boutiques in town that are styled so well that I simply have to avoid them, because I know I will inevitably cave and wind up opening my wallet. When catalogues arrive in the mail, they go straight to my recycling bin. Emails from fashion companies? Deleted immediately. Lifestyle bloggers and Instagram influencers? I definitely can’t follow them. Yes, I really would “like to know” what they’re eating/drinking/ wearing/using in their homes, etc., but I’d also like to own a house one day and send my future kids to college. Alas, admiring their picture-perfect lives — and discovering how I can replicate them — makes following a budget about a thousand times tougher than it should be. I am hardly alone in my susceptibility to visual merchandising. There’s good reason why the world’s most renowned department stores invest months designing window displays — for the holiday shopping season, many start planning more than a year out — and thousands of dollars in supplies and manpower to create something spectacular. Or why designers and companies will handsomely pay people to hock their products in lifestyle Instagram posts. (Editorial aside: how does one get that job?!) Don’t take my word for it. Last year, CrowdRiff, a marketing company in Toronto, conducted a consumer study on visual decision making. It found that most people admit that visual cues really impact what they buy. A few excerpts from that study: • 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual • 63 percent of consumers said good visuals are more compelling than product descriptions • 75 percent of Instagram users take action, such as visiting a website after looking at a sponsored Instagram post • 88 percent of consumers have purchased something they pinned • Including a photo next to an item on a menu increases its orders by 30 percent In honour of the approaching holiday season, we’ve dedicated this issue to visual merchandising. Soon, shoppers will be out in droves, ready to spend. But the competition is steep. As I know all too well, there are literally thousands of things to spend money on — and the vast majority of us have to be picky. Want to entice people into your shop? You need an alluring window, interior displays, logo, website, and social media snapshots. Overwhelmed by that list? Stop, take a deep breath, and read on. Our writers spent the summer compiling best practices to help you improve your image and increase your sales. We hope you enjoy the content and that it brings you success.

Vol. 113 No. 5 Editor Katie Hendrick Vincent khendrick@CanadianFloristMag.com 800-314-8895 ext 106 Advertising Manager advertising@CanadianFloristMag.com Publisher Ryan Freeman ryan@CanadianFloristMag.com Media Designer Ruby Coles Publication Mail Agreement #42919543 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO Strider Media, 6-6150 Highway 7, Suite 400, Woodbridge, ON L4H 0R6 distribution@CanadianFloristMag.com Printed in Canada ISSN 1700-5043

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e-mail: distribution@CanadianFloristMag.com Tel: 800-314-8895 ext 2 Fax: 800-755-7032 Mail: 6-6150 Highway 7, Suite 400 Woodbridge, ON L4H 0R6

Subscription Rates Canada - $30/1 Yr, $48/2 Yrs, $65/3 Yrs + HST USA - $69/1 Yr, $111/2 Yrs, $163/3 Yrs International - $99/1 Yr, $160/2 Yrs, $233/3 Yrs Occasionally, Canadian Florist will mail information on behalf of industry-related groups whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive this information, please contact our circulation department in any of the four ways listed above. No part of the editorial content of this publication may be reprinted without the publisher’s written permission. ©2018 Strider Media. All rights reserved. Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher. No liability is assumed for errors or omissions. All advertising is subject to the publisher’s approval. Such approval does not imply any endorsement of the products or services advertised. Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising that does not meet the standards of the publication.

Dedicated to the memory of Bill Martin, and all those who gave of their time and resources to build up our industry.

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Have a topic you’d like us to cover? Drop us a line at khendrick@canadianfloristmag.com or in the Canadian Florist Community on Facebook.

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POWERFUL

a romantic backdrop

This is not your typical cake table arrangement. Creating a lovely, draping floral backdrop is actually a piece of cake when you use OASIS® RAQUETTES® holder to give the arrangement structure and nourishment. And this was the perfect “out of the box” design solution for the hot, dry climate where the wedding was set. It makes a beautiful statement that adds to the romantic sentiment and ceremony surrounding the cake. Let our featured designers inspire you at oasisfloralproducts.com/inspire

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ADRIANNA DURAN-LEON AIFD THE FLOWER COMPANY Albuquerque, NM MOST INSPIRATIONAL FLORAL DESIGN: Wedding

You too can be featured in the Inspire Design Showcase! Follow us on Facebook for the upcoming themes. September/October 2018 CANADIAN Florist 5

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Affair

ELEGANT

design

By Anne Leeson, CAFA, AIFD, CPD Photos by Timothy Muza

For her August 2017 wedding, Gillian Hewson envisioned décor that reflected her low-key personality. However, her florist father — the owner of Monte’s Place in Guelph, Ontario — (naturally) wanted the big day to look like a floral wonderland. “I think we found the perfect blend,” said lead designer Anne Leeson, CAFA, AIFD, CPF. “We followed the bride’s mandate of ‘simple, pretty, and elegant’ but made sure we didn’t skimp on the flowers.” Here, she discusses some of her favourite designs from that wedding, which took place at Cambridge Mill.

The bride adorned her hair with flowers. We used unusual greens, brunia berries and dusty miller in shades of grey and green to complement the peach roses in the bouquets. For the bride’s bouquet, we went for a soft combination of ‘Patience’ and ‘Juliet’ David Austin roses, white peonies, and dusty miller. For texture, we used brunia berries, various eucalyptus foliage and seeds, and tiny air plants. We accented it with trailing jasmine vine, supplied by the bride’s favourite uncle.

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We used a romantic combination of peach, blush and ivory flowers to soften the stone pillars and walls in the chapel.

Overlooking the river, the Cambridge Mill Chapel was a stunning setting for the ceremony. We didnâ€™t need to do much to accent the vista â€” just three tall glass vases with mixed foliage and white orchids. We placed about 30 Boston ferns around the entrance, seating, and stage area.

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In the Know:

Design Expert Dishes on Latest Trends By Jamie Birdwell-Branson | Photos courtesy of uBloom. com and Dallas Market Center

As a fourth-generation florist, J Schwanke, AAF, AIFD, PFCI, knows a thing or two (thousand) about flowers. But did you know that the CEO of uBloom.com and host of “Fun with Flowers and J” is also a certified design expert for the Dallas Market Center — one of the largest wholesale trade resources in the world? Here, he dishes about some of the latest trends and how florists can incorporate them to attract and delight customers. CANADIAN FLORIST: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A CERTIFIED DESIGN EXPERT FOR THE DALLAS MARKET CENTER? JS: At least three, sometimes four times a year, I go to the Dallas Market’s shows. One of the things that I do there is lead discovery tours of 20 to 100 people. One of the tours is about the best — and the worst — of visual display and merchandising. It’s about showing retailers examples of what they can do big or small in their shops to create visual stimulation for their customers. When I first started doing this 20 years ago, I focused pretty exclusively on floral ideas, but that has evolved over the years. At the last show, we had a program called “Style Eyes,” hosted by Adam Glassman, editor of O Magazine. The Market picked 12 design experts from all different fields. I represented floral and holiday, but there was somebody there for jewellery, interiors, floor coverings, and lighting. And we chose our favourite five things throughout the marketplace. Then we sat down for a round table discussion, where we gave our ideas of what trends we detected in the marketplace and what colours we were seeing that were hot. We had cards that we put in front of items that stood out to us in the marketplace. What that said to visitors was “this is something a Style Eyes person would pick for you to have in your stores.” Obviously, a lot of mine had to do with flowers, but we each tried to cross over to different categories.

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CF: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MAJOR THEMES YOU’VE BEEN SEEING AT GIFT SHOWS? WHAT ARE SOME OF THE FLOWERS THAT CORRESPOND WELL WITH THESE THEMES? JS: Number one, hands down, stronger than I’ve ever seen anything in 10 years, are monstera leaves. In the uBloom Trend Synthesis, released in January, we called monstera out as foliage of the year. It has done nothing but build in popularity in the ensuing months. We saw it all over the marketplace – in permanent botanicals, containers, embossed metal plates, clothing, upholstery, jewellery, paintings and other artwork, floor coverings, wall coverings, and more. Monstera lends itself well for displays and merchandising. For a theme, I’d say go for something all green, with lots of foliage. This look is huge. I think that’s because we’re so darned worried about our environment. Because of this, we’re seeing more natural looking materials, like kraft paper, unfinished wood, and rocks gaining popularity. Another new, upcoming thing that we’re going to see more of in display and merchandising is a Dutch Masters look with floral design. Those were the paintings that had one of every kind of flower in a big, glorious arrangement. That’s already popping up in artwork and upholstery. CF: WHY IS IT CRITICAL TO KNOW THE DOMINANT COLOURS, MOTIFS, AND TRENDS? JS: We have to visually tell a story about what it is that we do. A florist might be a bucket shop that is simply there to sell stems, or a company focused on weddings and events, corporate, or sympathy work, or a full-service store that’s very trendy — or very classic in nature. Displays help us tell our stories. Customers want to be a part of something — to have a personal experience when they shop. We want them to see unique and different things when they come into our stores. CF: WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR MAKING THE MOST OUT OF A GIFT SHOW VISIT? JS: The Dallas Market Center has more than 5 million square feet of product! And it can become overwhelming very quickly. If I were going to buy things for a flower shop, I would think about things I want before I left. I’d look through magazines. I’d tear out things. I’d write myself notes. “I wish I could carry a line of candles.” “I want to bring in a line of stationery.” “I want to bring in some candy.” Make yourself a list so that you have set goals because you can get distracted very easily! A lot of people wind up spending a lot of time shopping for jewellery — for themselves, not their shops! The Dallas Market Center, for one, offers several opportunities to help you navigate. There’s a thing called a first-timers tour. It takes 20 minutes. Also, people like me lead discovery tours to discuss new colours and new trends. The other thing that’s interesting is that vendors tend to put their new stuff in the back of their showroom, not their windows. Florists should go into a showroom and ask someone, “What do you have that’s new?” Also, when you see something you like, take a picture of it along with a picture of the sign in the store so you know where you saw it. Because, at the end of the day, you’re not going to be able to remember. I promise you! I also think it’s smart to have “a walking day,” when you cover as much of the market as you possibly can, making notes and making lists. Then you go back and buy. Also, wear comfortable shoes, for heaven’s sakes!

CF: WHAT ARE THE BEST WAYS TO BLEND NON-FLORAL MERCHANDISE IN WITH DISPLAYS? JS: It’s good to stick with a theme. For instance, if you’re following our Rainforest trend, which embodies all things green and tropical, then you’d want to pick a candle that’s tropical in nature — maybe something in a pineapple or plumeria scent rather than, say, white linen. Just try to tie your things together because, when something goes with something else, that’s a great reason to take pictures. That said, an eclectic mix looks much trendier and cooler than if you simply buy a complete collection styled by someone else. There are a couple of people out there who offer a package where you can get the vase, the balloon, and the teddy bear, etc., but to me that looks too homogenized. I think our consumers are smarter than that and they want to get something that’s unique. Scale is also really important when you’re building a display. If you have little things, remember they need to be with other little things. CF: CAN YOU DISCUSS YOUR RESEARCH PROCESS? WHAT GOES INTO CREATING YOUR UBLOOM TREND SYNTHESIS? JS: At uBloom, we’re not simply looking for new products—we’re looking for trends that have developed a real footing with consumers and have new, cool products that correspond with them. We want to showcase how a trend gets to the flower industry and what that means. So, when we go to market we look for things that are bubbling up. June is our scout time. We make extensive notes of what’s coming. In January, we check to make sure these trends “are stabilized” to move into our process of curating distinct themes. We want to make sure there is product in the marketplace — hard goods, ribbon, containers, things like that that support that trend — and also that there are flowers, foliage, and colours that are supportive of that trend. Our process is largely based on attending major markets. It isn’t just the Dallas Market. We also attend the International Floriculture Expo in Miami, Florida; Fun ‘n Sun in Carlsbad, California; and the World Flower Expo (which changes locations every year). We want to see how colours and types of flowers and foliage are shifting in the world. Additionally, I follow trend experts, including my long-time friend Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, and Michelle Lamb, editor of The Trend Curve (trendcurve.com). I also buy lots of magazines, watch television, scour the Internet, and follow growers, suppliers, and trendy designers in the floral industry. Jamie Birdwell-Branson is a freelance writer in Santa Barbara, California. She enjoys antiquing, biking, and binge watching HGTV.

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