MARKETING OF WILDFLOWERS IN AUSTRALIA

Current Actions
CHLOE_MILLER.jpg

Over the last 10 years several projects funded by RIRDC (Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation) have addressed the subject of market development for the wildflower industry. The recommendations from each of these projects have been very similiar:

A. Education of florists and floral students is needed to that they know what wildflowers exist, when they are available and how to use them;

B. Promotion and marketing is needed to the consumer to increase demand for our diverse and unique wildflowers; 

C. Current market research is needed to identify how best to communicate with our buyers and consumers, to understand what they think about these products and to enourage them to buy more products; and

D. Basic media coverage is needed in magazines and other relevant publications and audio-visual media to get the word out.

Our current marketing strategy for the domestic market is to address the needs listed above -- not just more paper and publications recommending action, but actual targets achieved and the market built (with consequent increase in sales).

The first thing tackled has been the knowledge base of our Australian floral supply chain -- the majority of florists are unaware of what Wildflowers exist, how to care for them to get the best vase life, or how to use them in floral design. 

A project was run to rectify this situation and the new floristry training package, launched in 2010 by Service Skills Australia, now includes complete information on wildflowers as part of the compulsory section of the curriculum.

As a follow on, and to provide much needed information to established and already trained florists, an education campaign was launched in June 2009 and continued through till June 2011.  This was a RIRDC funded project.The campaign focussed on: 
a.       Posting key seasonal information on websites that are visited by florists.
b.      Publishing detailed listings of seasonal flowers as well as highlights on 6 – 8 products each Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter in the quarterly Interflora magazine ‘In Focus’. This received a great response from the Interflora members.
c.       Publishing seasonal listings in the Australian Flower Industry magazine.

d.      Getting articles on wildflowers in main stream glossy magazines.

The final stage of the project is the creation of a work manual for all florists to use. This will list what products are available, and when, and cover traditional flowers, tropicals, wildflowers, and foliages. The vision for this manual is that it will become the only work manual that contains all the information on flowers available to Australian florists. It will also be a great tool for purchasers, a great training tool for staff as well as a sales tool to show customers what flowers are available in any one month, the colours and the combinations possible. The final draft of the manual will be reviewed by industry members in early 2012.

 
The above actions aimed to educate members of the supply chain – thereby increasing the potential sales for flowers in general. Although wildflowers have been the focal point of this campaign, we are aiming to increase consumption of all flowers by the Australian domestic market, and the floristry work manual will create an important resource to support this goal.

 

 interflora Spring issue, cover.jpg
 interflora Spring issue, page 1.jpg
 interflora Spring issue, page 2.jpg
 interflora Spring issue, page 3.jpg
 interflora Summer ssue, cover.jpg
 interflora Summer ssue, page 1.jpg
 interflora Summer ssue, page 2.jpg
 interflora Summer ssue, page 3.jpg