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Sunday, July 15, 2007

Talking Flowers to the Men of Cork


Moved by the EarthScholars’ recent article on men’s taste in flowers (or lack thereof), Dara Burke of Cork, Ireland, headed out to do some man-in-the-mall interviews herself. We commend you, Dara, for going to the source. Many thanks for sharing your findings here at HFP!

imagePicking up flowers

at Douglas Court

in Cork, Ireland

Photo: Dara Burke

By .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Did you know that 7 out of 10 purchasers of cut flowers are women? Sound about right? Did you know also that men spend up to 16% more on flowers per purchase? That means that if only 1 out of 7 women sent their male friend or partner to the store to buy flowers instead of going themselves, the cut flower market earnings would jump almost 2%. That’s almost one year’s growth in the cut flower market overnight!



So the tough question that remains is why don’t more men buy flowers more often? Not finding any data on the flower purchasing patterns of men, I made my own unscientific survey. On Thursday, June 28, I went to my local supermarket, Douglas Court, to ask questions. Douglas is a fairly upper-middle class suburb of Ireland’s “second city,” Cork. With a population of around 300,000, Cork lies on Ireland’s southeast coast, at the world’s second largest natural harbor. 

I spoke with 30 male flower purchasers, most of them between the ages of 18 and 60. Here’s what we learned, with some thoughts as to what their answers could mean for the cut-flower industry as a whole.



* Men don’t purchase flowers regularly

Men really don’t buy flowers as often as they should. Almost 90% of respondents only purchased flowers once every six months to a year. That’s a lot of missed Valentine’s Days, Wedding Anniversaries, and Birthdays every year, we think!



* Men buy mostly for occasions

Asked when they do buy flowers, men seem to be mostly occasion-buyers. 64% listed birthdays as a flower-buying occasion, 50% listed Anniversaries, 23% listed National Holidays. 30% were impulse purchasers and only 12% said “other.” (We’re wondering whether 30% is what we like to call the guilty-conscience ratio….)



* Men prefer buying from florists but most don’t have a regular florist whom they frequent

87% of men said that they don’t have a regular florist yet the same number of men (87%) listed florist as their preferred place to buy flowers. 30% said that they purchase flowers in the supermarket also. 3% said they purchased flowers in a convenience store, 3% listed garden centres and 3% listed “other.”



Although men don’t purchase flowers very regularly, generally they seemed to like to ‘do it properly’ when it comes time to buy that special bouquet for their loved ones. Men will spend more, and they’ll go to a florist because they believe they will get better quality.



* Men don’t buy flowers more often because …

Asked to list two main reasons why they don’t buy more flowers, 77% of men responded that they prefer to buy other gifts, 47% said that flowers are too expensive, 40% listed forgetfulness as one of their reasons, and 14% said that they were too busy.



These figures seem to suggest that a reminder service may be a good way to connect with male flower-purchasers. Selling other items besides flowers may also have a positive effect, although it’s likely that men would buy these other gifts from a non-florist store. A delivery service could also be a boost for the 14% of men who are too busy.



* Men would like to be reminded of flower giving occasions

67% of men said that they’d respond positively to a flower reminder service offered by their florist. Of those who responded that they would like to get a reminder, 57% said they’d prefer an Email reminder, while 43% said they’d prefer a text message reminder to their mobile phone. 3% listed both.



* Flowers are an appropriate gift for a man (sort of…)

Asked whether they felt that flowers were an appropriate gift for a man – 47% of our men said “yes,” although many of them qualified that statement by saying that they’d pass the flowers on to their mum, wives or girlfriends.



imageMen at Douglas Court

said that they preferred

buying flowers from a florist

Photo: Dara Burke



The men who responded to our survey were a fairly diverse group—everyone from business professionals stopping off for a pint of milk on their way home from work to teenage custodial staff working on the shopping center floor. Since the days of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ and the buoyant Irish economy, Ireland’s inhabitants have become increasingly ethnically diverse, so there was a good cross-section of cultures there also – including at least one Indian, one Scottish respondent and one Nigerian.

It took me a little over 2 hours to gather the data from 30 men. There’s a broad cross-section of society at a shopping center between the hours of 4-6.30PM, so I’d expect the results to be the same anywhere in the country. Indeed, I’d expect the results to be similar anywhere in the UK also, with probably a degree of similarity the US as well.

I think maybe on continental Europe and in India, the results might differ slightly. I spoke with two guest workers from India and they generally seemed to be more enthusiastic about receiving flowers as a gift than most of the Irish males.

Overall there seems to be good growth potential in the flower market from and for males. Men are generally occasion-buyers and have a strong preference for florists when they do purchase, although most don’t seem to have do business regularly with any florist in particular. Reminder services and perhaps home deliveries are good ways to bridge the male flower gap, with a possibility that cross-selling gift items may yield good results.

Note: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) operates, FlowerHour.biz, based in Cork, Ireland, a florist marketing company that keeps florists in touch with their customers by email and text-message reminders for important events.

 

 



Posted by Julie on 07/15 at 12:43 PM
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