Silver Vase Markets Plants For Seasons, Not Holidays

Phalaenopsis 'Waterfall' accessorized for Christmas.

There are certain plants that are so strongly associated with a certain holiday that it’s nearly impossible to separate them — red roses for Valentine’s Day, poinsettias for Christmas, Easter lilies for, of course, Easter. But there are other, more peripheral plants that, while still connected with a holiday, can be positioned in other ways as well.

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Marcella Lucio-Chinchilla, director of marketing for Silver Vase Orchids and Bromeliads, says Silver Vase is getting away from marketing for specific holidays and taking a whole new approach, looking at colors, accessories and pot textures to evoke feelings.

“We’re playing with a lot of different materials and techniques, to come up with the right trend, the right movement, and not being so old school,” Lucio-Chinchilla says. “Instead of ‘here is my orchid for Valentine’s Day,’ it’s ‘here is my orchid for love.’ It’s a little on the artsy side, but that’s how we started developing our ideas for this year—getting away from the staple holiday and thinking a lot about what the holiday means to the end consumer and how our product represents what they are feeling at that time.”

Each season has a theme — for the spring it’s being together, for the summer, it’s dreams; for autumn it’s the idea of cocooning inside the home. For the latter part of the year it’s all about wishes. Colors, plant combinations, containers and accessories are chosen to carry out the themes. Seasonal accessories, such as a candy cane stake on a Phalaenopsis, can add to a plant’s holiday gift appeal, but can be exchanged later to extend salability. Or, in the case of Phalaenopsis ‘Victoria Falls,’ a trellis might be used instead of a stake to give it a cascading effect.

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“We’re using what we have to create new items,” Lucio-Chinchilla says. “We want to step away from the norm. The time for presenting an orchid or bromeliad or any other product just as its name – that’s long gone. We have to be able to introduce meaningful items.”

When asked if there is a name for Silver Vase’s marketing concept, Lucio-Chinchilla responds with the words “Enjoy It” and “Innovation.”

“We’re using those two words a lot,” she says. “Innovation comes through at the end with better sell-through because you have something new. Buyers come to us saying, ‘What do you have that’s new?’ So innovation is key.”

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