Industry Leaders Propose National Floral Marketing Promotion
Floral industry leaders have long wondered how they could convince consumers to buy flowers with as much regularity as milk and bread.
The COVID-19 pandemic may be a turning point, with sales skyrocketing as consumers began to see flowers as a way to connect with loved ones and brighten their homes.
“At this point we don’t have to change [consumer] mentality, we just have to keep the mentality in place,” says Michelle Castellano Keeler, Vice President at Mellano & Company and President of the Society of American Florists’ (SAF) board of directors, in an article on the SAF website.
The way to do that, Castellano Keeler and others say, is through an industry-funded, national floral marketing campaign. Keeler is one of 12 people on a drafting committee that has been working across industry segments to develop a proposal for a floral promotion order under the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. The AMS oversees many promotion orders for other industries, from cotton and eggs to avocados and Christmas trees, to help those industries leverage funds and create research and marketing opportunities.
The proposal for the floral promotion order will be the subject of a SAF virtual panel discussion on Nov. 16.
The most recent draft of the floral promotion order proposes a mandatory assessment on an estimated 700 domestic growers and 500 importers whose annual gross sales are more than $100,000. Domestic growers would be assessed half of a percent of their gross sales, and importers would be assessed 1% of their gross sales. The USDA would oversee the collection of assessments from domestic growers on a quarterly basis. Customs and Border Protection would collect the assessments from importers based on the value of the imported flowers and foliage at the time of entry.
A board of directors, consisting of six domestic growers and six importers and appointed by the USDA’s Secretary of Agriculture, would oversee the marketing campaign.
The proposal also stipulates that 2% to 3% of the funds would be set aside for one or more domestic organizations to use for local, regional, state or national promotion of cut flowers and foliage.
The proposal has been presented to domestic growers and importers in separate, virtual meetings, and was revised after feedback from those meetings. For instance, the original draft called for a board of six importers, five domestic growers and one at-large seat. It also proposed that both segments would be assessed 1% of gross sales.
After seeing the proposal, domestic growers felt that for the marketing order to be collaborative they should have an equal number of seats on the board, Castellano Keeler says. The growers also pointed out that the price of imported flowers is less expensive at the point of entry than the price of flowers sold by domestic growers. After consideration, the drafting committee lowered the assessment rate for domestic growers.
If the proposal has industry support, it will be submitted to the USDA, which may hold public meetings. Then, the USDA will conduct a referendum on the proposal. Each business subject to assessment would receive one vote. A majority of domestic growers and a majority of importers must vote in favor of the referendum for it to pass. The process could take a minimum of a year and a half to two years, Boldt says.
Click here to read frequently asked questions about the promotion order, and register for SAF’s Nov. 16 virtual panel discussion here.
Read the entire SAF article here.
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