Let’s make our environment greener and healthier together
IPM ESSEN MAGAZINE
WATERDRINKER
INDEX 04 05
Introduction
06 07 09 11 13
Entrance
Waterdrinker Photo Booth
Green Lifestyle Store
00
By FEEL Flowers & Plants
A view at the future
00
Growers’ platform
10 02
03
INTRODUCTION Welcome at IPM Essen, Stand 1B09 of Waterdrinker! This year we present you this: a refreshing and inspiring look at your future as an entrepreneur in the ornamental plant industry, the story behind the plants, marketing tips, consumer concepts and, of course, the beautiful products you have come to expect from us...and all that all under one roof. As a supply chain platform, Waterdrinker has been working with its growers for years to present a unique and unparalleled range. This year, the other side of the supply chain has also been involved in the development. Several florists will give their ‘e xpert’ views on the future and the roles social media, experience and health will play in it. Consequently, our stand did become a collective world of plants: somewhere for the entire supply chain to share knowledge and find inspiration. Plants make our environment greener and healthier and it is about to get time everybody is aware of these facts! This magazine shares all the information you can find in our stand with you, so you can easily read it back or share with interested colleagues. We wish you a lot of reading fun and inspiration. Thanks for visiting us, we hope to see you next year again!
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ENTRANCE The Waterdrinker entrance is a real eye-catcher thanks to the beautiful creation of The Wunderkammer. Ever thought of making something like this outside your shop window? Experience is not only important inside your store; especially from the outside you can get the attention of trespassers. With a creation like this flower no one can miss you!
Florian Seyd, Ueli Signer and their enthusiastic team are known as ‘The Wunderkammer ’. They haven’t actually got a shop because they simply don’t have time to run one. They’re carrying out commissions all over the world, week in week out. At Waterdrinker, we’re very proud of the fact that The Wunderkammer has been the artistic genius behind the flower and plant creations in our stand at IPM Essen this year. And they still come up with a new surprise for us and our visitors every year! www.thewunderkammer.eu
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Waterdrinker Photo Booth Do you know what a ‘selfie’ is? This is a real hype on the social media - and it’s also a great opportunity to generate publicity. Did you take a photo behind the flower cape and post it on Facebook with #owop? According to Tom Ebus, our expert at Nizza Bloembinders, this type of campaign goes down very well in flower shops too. The accessories are all DIY and they’re easy and inexpensive!
WATERDRINKER
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GREEN LIFESTYLE STORE Factors such as health, sustainability, interesting details and the story behind the flowers and plants you buy are becoming more and more important, and there’s a big demand for them too. Waterdrinker shows you how to ‘sell’ all this to consumers in the Green Lifestyle Store. Create experience by telling the story behind the plant!
Experience The customers of the future will be buying an ‘e xperience’ instead of products. How can you create an experience and increase your sales at the same time? The Green Lifestyle Store gives you a few hints. Why focus on workshops for adults in particular? Have you ever considered holding children’s parties or workshops? You can ask other local business people to work with you, and post the event on social media and tell the local press about it.
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Plant pharmacy Plants have always been used as natural medicines, and they were the only available kind of medication many centuries ago. Nowadays we have plants in our homes because they look nice, but did you know that a lot of popular plants have medicinal properties as well? This plant pharmacy tells you about some of these plants and how they can help us. The stories give plants a fascinating extra dimension. Wageningen University selected the plants for the pharmacy. This university is also doing research to find out whether plants can be commercially cultivated for use as natural medicines: the Greenhouse Pharmacy.
WHAT DO PL ANTS DO FOR US?
HAPPINESS Most people feel happier in a green environment. Vapour
CO 2
HEALTH Oxygen
Clean air and better humidity levels reduce allergies and absenteeism.
Volatile organic compound (VOC): Formaldehyde Xylene Toluene Benzene TCE Chloroform Ammonia Alcohol Acetone
CLEAN AIR Water
Plants actively degrade VOCs and produce our oxygen from CO 2.
PERFORMANCE Degraded VOC
WWW.INTOGREEN.NL
Into Green
ur make o r L e t ’s n g re e e nment o ir v n r e a l t h ie and he er! togeth
Improve performance by 20 to 40%. One plant per person is enough.
www.waterdrinker.nl
Did you know that we spend 90% of our time indoors (at home, at the office and at school), and the air inside is generally 5 to 10 times more heavily polluted than the air outside? And of course, the solution to this is indoor plants. Plants have a whole lot more to offer than beauty alone. Into Green tells this story and backs it up with scientific proof. And at Waterdrinker, we feel that this item is essential in a Green Lifestyle Store! You can read about all the research carried out on www.intogreen.nl.
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By FE EL fl ow er s & pl an ts As a flower specialist, you have more to offer than a flower shop with eye-catching products. Because flowers and plants have an extra dimension, you’re selling human emotions too. Flowers and plants can express your feelings at times when you have no words, when you’re happy or when you’re sad. As a flower specialist, you’ve got all it takes to give people that very special feeling. This starts with your customers, as they should experience a visit to the florist as a present in itself. And if they buy a gift for someone else at your shop, this gives the recipient that special feeling too. By FEEL Flowers & Plants shows you how you as a florist can master this skill.
pp Gift-wra
ing
You can create added value for your products and for yourself if you gift-wrap each product you sell, regardless of whether it’s intended as a present or not. Bouquets and plants will give twice as much pleasure wrapped.
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if
they’re
beautifully
on Personal attenti First of all, show some genuinely interest in your customers (this is much more than a polite greeting). It gives customers the feeling that you know them personally, which in turn results in satisfied customers - and in that special goodwill that’s so important for small businesses. Each time you sell a product, give your customer a compliment or a friendly message, or offer this option with gifts you sell. Remember that piece of sausage the butcher always gave you when you were a child? That’s the sort of thing that people remember with pleasure. And you can do this too by giving each child a flower when they come to your shop. Our expert Miriam Derikx includes this advice in the Black Box at Our World of Plants (see page 11).
ien r e p x e e Uniqu
ce
Of course, you’re an expert when it comes to using beautiful flowers and plants to create a unique experience. But you can do this with communication as well. Experience plus emotion is a fabulous combination. We found a fantastic example of this in the USA that florists can use too: a ‘suspended’ bouquet. How does this work? Well, when your customers buy a bouquet for themselves, they also pay a small sum to ‘buy’ a suspended bouquet. You collect all these extra amounts and donate the postponed bouquets to the food bank at regular intervals, say once a month, so that they can give them to less fortunate people. And our experts at Jasmijn Bloembinders have another good tip for you: give your customers a small present for each purchase they make during the festive season!
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A VIEW AT THE FUTURE Much has changed lately. What consequences does this have in the future? Our six experts share their views on the future for florists, and provide you with interesting tips and ideas for your own shop. They also tell you how they communicate with their customers and what kind of fun activities they set up for customer loyalty. Let them inspire you!
EXPERTS
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COMMUNICATION Communicating with your customers is absolutely essential. You’ve already seen how you can set this up in a personal sense at by FEEL Flowers & Plants. And it’s also important to communicate about all your activities, such as the workshops you’re taking part in. Hang a nice big calendar in your shop, use the social media and get your timing exactly right (do this well in advance) so that people know what’s going on, become intrigued and maybe want to join in! Use all the resources you’ve got in order to reach as many customers as possible!
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GROWERS’ PLATFORM At Waterdrinker, we focus on plants that are special, new, exclusive or forgotten in addition to our extensive basic range. We cooperate closely with growers and cultivators to develop unique plants with Waterdrinker and launch them on the market. As far as we’re concerned, the growers are the star performers here: we aim to be a growers’ platform, the perfect place for them to promote themselves and their products. An event like IPM Essen is the ultimate opportunity to combine all these special items. You can view the unique products already on the market in our novelty cases, as well as new products we’ll be launching during the next few months or even years.
Now available G re e n ’ C o ro k ia ‘M a o ri anza’ A n th u ri u m ‘L e g
s ta l Ic e c re a m ’ C h ry s a n t ‘C h ry C la s s W h it e ’ r ta ‘S m iu b ro d Den n ia ‘S u n s e t’ In c a re in a m ilt o if ic a ‘P ic c o lin i’ n g a m a ill in d e M adova’ P h a la e n o p s is ‘P a in b o w ’ P h a la e n o p s is ‘R ’ R o s a ‘M a ra c u ja en’ S a in tp a u lia ‘G re la ta ’ B e g o n ia ‘M a c u S ta p e liofo rm is
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Expected in 2015 Stachys ‘Bello Grigio’ Lime mos Anthurium ‘Royal Pink’ Anthurium ‘Main’ Billbergia Cyclaam’Petticoat’ Cymbidium ‘Kiwi Midnight’ Phalaenopsis ‘Wild orchid’
Excl usive Waterdr at inker
A n t h u r iu
m ‘M il l io n Flowe rs’ Chr ysa n t ‘R a in b o w P in k s e c re Kalanch t’ oe cala n d iv a S u b l im e ‘S t e f f a n Phalaen i’ o p s is ‘D avos’ T il l a n d s ia ‘C a p it ata’ C a l l is ia elegans
Lilium ‘Tiny Diamond’ Neoreglia Primula ‘Pricanto’ Aphelandra Cryptanthus ‘Eilien’ Peperomia ‘San Marino Passion’ Haworthia ‘West Coco’ Ficus benja ‘Green Kinky’ Tillandsia ‘A ndreas’ Spathiphyllum ‘Silver Cupido’ Monadenium
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