Co-branding by the wire services

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Griff

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Oct 16, 2003
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I started this same conversation on the other board and so far most seem to be tongue-tied, so let's see if we have anymore success up north.

FTD just worked a deal with local McDonald's. If McDonald's customers purchase their new premium salad, the customer gets a coupon worth $10 off any flowers or gifts offered on FTD.com's website. The $10 off is obviously applied against the $9.99 sending fee, but to the customer, it is still $10 off.

Now, I well aware of co-branding, but this really is a hy-bred version because there are three parties.

I want to ask what your feelings are about this type of marketing program. Do you feel comfortable about it. Do you think it will benefit the florist or help the industry grow. I would also like to hear WHY you think it is good or bad.
 
I'm Neutral...right now

This should be a good debate...

First thing to keep in mind, it's all about generating more volume thru FTD, hopefully with flowers and not direct ship items. With that, the most often asked question I hear from "most" florists is "How can I get more INcoming orders?".

Now lets not rehash what we know with regard to inbound discounted orders, here, please.

That being the case, I think (and I have not talked to anyone in the office about this) that they are, 1) trying to add additional volume, 2) trying to reach a younger consumer, and 3) tying the FTD logo to another world-wide known entity.

I see the coupon as a discount on the $9.99 $ervice charge, so it's a break-even discount for FTD. Time will tell, as we'll have to wait and see if there is any effect on the per order dollar amount. I do not think there will be. I do not think they will be sending orders thru the system for $10.00 less than SRP. I think they will take the loss on the $ervice charge on the initial order, to gain the consumer data and hopefully a long term customer.

**on another note, McDonalds will have WIFI in 3000 (I think I read) stores by years end. Do people really stay there long enuf to take advantage of this ?? Maybe in some markets they do, I don;t know. IF so, maybe this too would be to FTD's benefit, as they can get a coupon, lunch, and place their flower order all at the same time, kind of a huge Kiosk.

I know it's all about trying to keep and grow market share, for FTD. Trying to take away from TF, and 800, and the likes of Proflowers... in the WS game, it's all about order volume, as "most" florists do want INcoming orders.
 
FTD is giving coupons to discount customers. I think you'll see a drop in the average order from .com. At least, the new customers gained will be ordering lower priced items.

Now, if they were to partner with people who ate at $50-$100 a plate restaurants ... then we'd be talking! Expect, FTD would still be retaining the customer, not the florist.
 
Don't know if this will be a good debate or not yet

As I don't belong to a WS, I'm just making some observations. I also am not comdemning FTD for this. In fact it is a very interesting marketing approach.

However, here is just a couple of things that might concern any florist.

In a traditional co-branding, there is two companies working together and they are generally splitting the costs to further both of their businesses. From the way this ad reads, McDonald's gets the opportunity to sell their product at full value and about their only investment is a shared cost of printing. FTD offers the coupon for $10 off and although florists know that the discount is really going to be used against the sending fee, the customer is most likely not going to know that until they get to the site. In reality, FTD really hasn't given up much because if no order is generated, then they too only have a shared printing cost.

The florist on the other hand stands to get the full burden of the discounted orders. Ordinally I would say that this is no worst than any holiday that a WS has provided some incentitive to buy THEIR containers. However, they are not promoting just those containers. They are trying to draw customers to their full line of items <floral and non-floral>. Discounting on websites is nothing new, but we now have large scale discounting <dollar amount not a percentage> to attempt to draw customers to THEIR site.

From this point of view, it really isn't really any different than some of the things that have been done in the past. However, for the florists that may have bought some of the containers for this holiday, it may be another problem. Florist bought the containers with the idea that they would sell some directly to THEIR local customers and hopefully get some incoming orders to help move some of the product. However, now there is a very good chance that the local customers will forget the local florist and go directly to the website because of the DISCOUNT. NO florist is going to be able to discount thier holiday arrangements $10 to everyone that wants to take them up on it. It does no good the the florist to try and get the customer to use that coupon to buy the arrangement locally because the amount of the discount makes even a local order into equal of an incoming wired order. Chances are the florist may experience a situation where all the containers he or she has done for the holiday will be used against incoming wire orders and we all know that florists make nothing or very little on this type of order at holidays.

And finally. if this program works, the other big 2 will be doing the same thing and this could become the start of a very large discount war. As I pointed out, the only one that loses anything in this type of program is the florist. Think if all these guys start to do it. Your local customer business will shrink even further and even on holidays when you need it most.
 
Before we left FTD they started putting a coupon in the diners club books for $5.00 AND $10.00 off if you ordered through the FTD.con site. Our customers started bringing in those coupons, at first we tried to explain to them that those coupons were good only for the .con site. Most customers would leave upset not understanding why we had that logo on our store but couldn't except that coupon. So, we started excepting the coupon so that we wouldn't be turning customers away when they would then look into our cooler they would then want to apply it to our house specials because they were nicer. Needless to say this little venture of FTD at the time was working against us, if we turned it down we loss the customer if we excepted it, we were discounting our work to much. It became a lose lose situation which hence after generations of being a member it set us on the course of leaving FTD.
We except all of teleflora coupons because they are 3.00, we get reimbursted because 99% of the time they like the product they can use it against and when they don't a $3.00 discount on the coupon out of our pocket is worth not losing the customer.

IMHO this venture on a larger scale like McDonalds will either wake more florist to the need to leave FTD or if they try to play the game for long they will be closing their doors before they know what hit them.
 
Before we left FTD they started putting a coupon in the diners club books for $5.00 AND $10.00 off if you ordered through the FTD.con site. Our customers started bringing in those coupons, at first we tried to explain to them that those coupons were good only for the .con site. Most customers would leave upset not understanding why we had that logo on our store but couldn't except that coupon. So, we started excepting the coupon so that we wouldn't be turning customers away when they would then look into our cooler they would then want to apply it to our house specials because they were nicer. Needless to say this little venture of FTD at the time was working against us, if we turned it down we loss the customer if we excepted it, we were discounting our work to much. It became a lose lose situation which hence after generations of being a member it set us on the course of leaving FTD.
We except all of teleflora coupons because they are 3.00, we get reimbursted because 99% of the time they like the product they can use it against and when they don't a $3.00 discount on the coupon out of our pocket is worth not losing the customer.

IMHO this venture on a larger scale like McDonalds will either wake more florist to the need to leave FTD or if they try to play the game for long they will be closing their doors before they know what hit them.


Knife's Wife
 
Wifi

Frank said:
BOSS, What is a "WIFI"?
Click to expand...
Wire-less access to the web...just turn on your laptop or PDA and presto you can connect...

Kinda like in my store, my system runs on WIFI (no wires needed)...
 
It will be interesting,

And like both Griff and Mrs.K said, it really is no different than what they have done prior, except to maybe boost the dollar value of the coupon.

I used to take in those $3.00 from BOTH FTD and TF, and allow my customer to use them, I will not with a $10.00 coupon...maybe they boosted the price to keep florists from doing just that....

OR we could all raise our $ervice charge on OUTbound orders to $9.99 and accept the coupon as well...

As I see it, the only difference is the amount of the coupon. Both of the BIG2 have them in magazines, credit card statements and such....the big difference here will be to see how the joint venture with Mac's effects the volume...

One thing mentioned above, about the monies spent in different restraunts...keep in mind, that the "kids" that eat at Mighty Mac's (14-20 yr olds) have the highest disposable income of any age group, however thay are not flower purchasers...could this bring flowers into the minds of a new generation ???
 
Has anyone heard from FTD as to how they will handle the coupon or is it designed specifically for dot.com? Now if they reimburse us full amount then bring them on! If not we have to explan to the consumer about their higher service fee............hmmm could backfire on them especially if we have a double coupon for them to replace the one in their hand........like 7 and 7 on two purchase not at the same time type of thing.......We take every opportunity to compare our prices and the savings we offer on our website vs dotcom so why not reverse this coupon crap to our advantage? Let's put our heads together....
Sher
 
From the consumers view

Mrs Knife brought up some points about the problems with accepting discount coupons and she is right. To a consumer, $10 off is $10 off, not just on some items. Besides the FTD.com ad says it is good for all items on the site and to the consumer, a flower arrangement is a flower arrangement, right?

Mrs C also indicated that she liked the $3 coupon from TF better because she got reimburst from TF if she honored the offer. Well, if you are a consumer, do you give preference to a coupon that gives $10 off on all products offered or $3 off on 2 or 3 specific arrangements? I think the customer goes for the $10. What do you think?

In addition, you can't offer to "buy up" these coupons from customers in exchange for your arrangements because you will go broke! If you refuse all .com orders, they find another florist who is willing and if there are no florists in the area that are willing, the ,com offers the customer a non-floral item. Afterall, the coupon is good for ALL products on the site.

If this idea of co-branding is sucessfull, can anyone show why the other WS will not follow. There is an endless number of companies that would be more than willing to sell their products at full value while someone else helps them do it with almost all the cost be placed on the third party.
 
Boss, Correct me if I'm Wrong, you stated that both Tel. and Ftd have those discount coupons in newprint, magazines etc. Difference is Teleflora coupons direct them to a florist to use them, FTD the last I was aware directed them to the .con site to be sent to the florist discounted. FTD never use to reimburse the coupon amount to the florist, Teleflora does. Do I have my facts wrong?

Thanks, Knife's Wife
 
My biggest issue with this is the devaluation of the brand. Not that I have any warm fuzzies for FTD to begin with but the more FTD connects itself with discount companies and merchandise, the more the public is going to associate FTD with "cheap" remember it is all percieved value.
The customers that walk into a Florist and plop down $100 or more for a custom arrangment or not likely to go into a Micky D's, buy a Big Mac, get a coupon and say "oh gee, I could use this coupon and save $10 off my next $100 arrangement" More likely it's going to be the chevy vega with a back seat full of screaming kids that are going to say, Hmm, with this coupon I can save $10 off the $25 worth of flowers that I was going to give the old lady for her b-day.
FTD may as well just put a cooler in Micky D's and then they could have the counter people say "would you like flowers with those fries?"
 
Agree with you on several points but question whether it is percieved by the consumedr as "cheap"or rather as being a "bargain". What I have noticed is that even our Bridfes manage to bring in our postcard that in the smallest of fine print offers them a 10% discount if they have the card. Seems like folks today want that special "discount" or bargain.Has anyone actually seen the coupon....this is the first I have heard about it.
 
I don't object so much to the coupon idea as the venue. I think a discount coupon in lets say Better Homes, is going to be percieved differently than a coupon in Micky D's.
 
The coupon

In response to Sher, the coupon says, "FLOWERS FOR MOM! Buy any Premium Salad and receive $10 OFF any Mother's Day flowers or gifts from FTD.com. There is no mention of you local florist. And before anyone says that is is a horrible thing and says that is why I'm now with another WS, I ask again. If this works with FTD to get people to order flowers from THEIR site, what stops other WS from doing the same thing? If TF passed out a similiar coupon at Burger King and 1-800 did the same thing at Taco Bell and the discount was only good by ordering your flowers through THEIR website, would any WS be any different?
 
Griff said:
In response to Sher, the coupon says, "FLOWERS FOR MOM! Buy any Premium Salad and receive $10 OFF any Mother's Day flowers or gifts from FTD.com. There is no mention of you local florist. And before anyone says that is is a horrible thing and says that is why I'm now with another WS, I ask again. If this works with FTD to get people to order flowers from THEIR site, what stops other WS from doing the same thing? If TF passed out a similiar coupon at Burger King and 1-800 did the same thing at Taco Bell and the discount was only good by ordering your flowers through THEIR website, would any WS be any different?
Click to expand...
Big difference would still be IF TF ever copied this idea, and I have seen no indication they are planning to, orders through TF.com still go to the florist @ 100%, not like FTD.com that keeps 27% + service charge, plus the customer data. TF also still refuses to sell non-floral product.
 
A follow-up to my last post, I want to state again as I did earlier in this thread that I think a partnership with McD's is only going to lure the budget-minded customers in search of a deal on low-priced items. This further diminishes the FTD brand that used to stand for quality.
 
Harry and David

Ads on the Radio TODAY, offering sizable discounts on FLOWERS, when you sign up with them...and not ONE but THREE seperate orders allowed for "gifts (read: FLOWERS)" when you do, usable anytime...

Far as I know, FTD is not associated with H&D...are the other guys ?
 
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