FTD Good Neighbor Day 2008?

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CHR

CHR

Design matters
Nov 28, 2002
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My Google Alerts and RSS reader are FULL of junk posts about 'FTD's' Good Neighbor Day. Most headlines in the posts imply that FTD is giving away FREE FLOWERS. A few sites link to a list of participating florists, which shows no florists ATM, but had less than 100 shops when I saw it last night.

How in the heck can FTD send out a press release about free flowers when less than .1% of members are participating nationally?

I realize a few capitalize on the event, and promote the heck out of it. But to imply that FTD does anything beyond sending out the press releases (and taking credit for the B&M florists who make this happen) has got to hit a nerve with local florists. It sure does me.

Better to send a Traveling Kindness Bouquet in your town than to be exploited for freebies to benefit you-know-who on your good name and hard work.

JMO
 
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CHR said:
But to imply that FTD does anything beyond sending out the press releases (and taking credit for the B&M florists who make this happen) has got to hit a nerve with local florists. It sure does me.
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You forgot, FTD sells the roses to the florists.
 
Maybe FTD should make good on their word and really give away FREE ROSES to the FLORIST who give them away!!!

Oh no, it's the florist who are to BUY the roses and give them away FREE and FTD to take the credit for it!! What was I thinking :hammer:
 
Joe Mioux said:
You forgot, FTD sells the roses to the florists.
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To all the participants?

I think you know by saying 'anything', I meant that FTD wants the goodwill generated from GND without the costs. Selling the flowers to participants means they profit from the shops who are actually giving away the products.
 
CHR said:
To all the participants?

I think you know by saying 'anything', I meant that FTD wants the goodwill generated from GND without the costs. Selling the flowers to participants means they profit from the shops who are actually giving away the products.
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yea i know
 
Makes me wonder.........How would FTD respond if a florist who was no longer a member of FTD decided to capitolize on the GND promotion?
 
We used to do GND, and get some nice press out of it! I remember coming into the shop one morning at 7:30am to deliver some funeral work (about 4 years ago), not remembering it was GND, and TWO news vans were outside the shop - one with reporter and camera ready to go!

YIKES!!!! We were on the 5 & 6 pm news hours, nice press!!!! But, we stopped about 2 years ago, since the novelty of giving away Free Roses died off. Maybe we'll try again, but unless you're willing to put $$$ and PR into it, forget it. Getting a sponsor is one idea we used, and THAT did work.
- H.
 
RWK said:
Makes me wonder.........How would FTD respond if a florist who was no longer a member of FTD decided to capitolize on the GND promotion?
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Much of my marketing material says "We honor all floral network promotions" . I am careful not to name ftd, teleflora, 1800, etc. I have only had 3 people take me up on this, but 2 of them ended up being new customers. I will take that.
 
Nothing worse than being a COATTAILER!

Amazing when an entity can RIDE THE WAVE without ROWING THE BOAT!

I despise COATTAILERS in whatever form they manifest themselves, but especially dOGs, OGs, and the companies which enable them.

Fact is that, this is really Brook Jacobs' GOOD NEIGHBOR DAY!

It was HIS IDEA which he shared with FTDI when he started it in 1994.

Like most GREAT REAL FLORIST MARKETING TIPS and IDEAS, they were concepted by GREAT FLORISTS, and lovingly given over to the entity in the spirit of sharing, thus enabling ALL OTHER FLORISTS to benefit.

So, we need to thank Brook for sharing, while advertising your own shop and without any freeloader trying to COATTAIL on your dollars!
 
we've never done that - I'm not sure out of simple laziness or the odor of a rat.

It does seem to have FTD written all over it, obviously to increase their branding using florists.

They had a program a few years back called something like adsense - where they paid you up to $2500 in advertising expenses for featuring their logo only. Yeah we took that.

Today's version, more diabolical yet - is America's Favorite Mom. That one proved they not only think florists are dumb - they know it. Expect one every holiday now - I'm sure it was a smash hit. Brilliant.

That's a bit like sending florists out with free roses (they paid for) and collecting names to send back to the Mother Ship.
 
We do a great Good Neighbor Day. We are on live TV 3 times in the am programming. A live remote by radio. We have our Hospital Blood Bank, set a record for 27 pints, last year! the largest remote they had for one day. We have starbucks, the donut shop, our gourmet food shop, and a food vendor giving away food for lunch! WE give away the roses away in sixes, and they bring can/non-perishable food for the Ronald McDonald House, one of their biggest pantry projects. We get lots more than it costs us for the PR! We love it!
 
And so, what do you call it NORMAN?

Norman Northen said:
We do a great Good Neighbor Day. We are on live TV 3 times in the am programming. A live remote by radio. We have our Hospital Blood Bank, set a record for 27 pints, last year! the largest remote they had for one day. We have starbucks, the donut shop, our gourmet food shop, and a food vendor giving away food for lunch! WE give away the roses away in sixes, and they bring can/non-perishable food for the Ronald McDonald House, one of their biggest pantry projects. We get lots more than it costs us for the PR! We love it!
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Just wondering what you call it Norman? Do you market the promo as Precious Memories' Good Neighbor Day or do you CO-BRAND with the COAT-TAILER, while allowing them to catch a FREE RIDE despite all of YOUR efforts?
 
CHR said:
I realize a few capitalize on the event, and promote the heck out of it. But to imply that FTD does anything beyond sending out the press releases (and taking credit for the B&M florists who make this happen) has got to hit a nerve with local florists. It sure does me.
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Here's how you do GND - http://gosanangelo.com/news/2008/aug/10/volunteers-bloom-for-good-neighbor-day/

Notice they have volunteers for assembly, multiple sponsors (which most need with 20,000 roses), and NO MENTION of FTD in the article.
 
Thanks, Rene'!

I've mostly seen florists leaving FTD off the GND in their local publicity. Why would anyone want to hand out free flowers to reinforce calling FTD instead of themselves?

Don't forget that FTD has trademarked 'Good Neighbor Day' and could enforce their rights to the name, if they are so inclined.

Norman, I know the program has been successful for some shops, which is why those stores continue to promote it. FTD has re-posted the list of participants and I see less than 100 stores.

As I said in the opening post, a national press release from FTD is touting the give-away, but less than .1% of FTD's florist members are participating.
 
CHR said:
FTD has re-posted the list of participants and I see less than 100 stores.

.
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I am on this list (I had sent an enquirery email response to their mass email on getting more information about the Good Neighbor Day) and I am not participating.....so you can not assume that all of the shops on that list are actually doing it.
 
CHR said:
Don't forget that FTD has trademarked 'Good Neighbor Day' and could enforce their rights to the name,
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Just another example of *them* taking control of the industry, attempting to take away another piece of the floral pie...

Time for the florists to think up a new name, trademark it and kick GND to the curb...
 
BOSS said:
Time for the florists to think up a new name, trademark it and kick GND to the curb...
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I'd go for that......also change the date, as it always falls the Wednesday after labour day making it difficult to get flowers in and ready for that day since Monday is a holiday..
 
In looking at that listing......I find it interesting that the list DID NOT include Brooks Jacobs shop.....the founder of GND. Hmmmmmm - Does give one pause to think does'nt it?
 
CHR said:
I realize a few capitalize on the event, and promote the heck out of it. But to imply that FTD does anything beyond sending out the press releases (and taking credit for the B&M florists who make this happen) has got to hit a nerve with local florists. It sure does me.

JMO
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My store participated in GND for the last 12 years and we received a significant amount of press coverage. In 2007, we gave away 10,000 roses and had coverage on the four local TV stations from Saturday through Wednesday, a free live radio station remote on the actual day and three stories in the local newspapers one week prior and two days afterwards. However, WE did the promotion...FTD did nothing. My wife is a media director and has contacts in all broadcast/print media markets, and she did all the media contacts, wrote all the Press Releases and arranged all the live interviews (in studio and on site.) All the media events were free to me and it was fantastic advertisement.

As for flower costs, don't let FTD fool you...they don't help with the flower cost...they SELL the flowers to you basically at market price...and I got them cheaper from a local supplier! After the fact, the FTD flower supply guy said that he was disappointed that he didn't get the business...he would have matched the local supplier's price. (Thanks a lot, FTD. I needed the price before the event...not afterwards.) So, basically, FTD did nothing to help promote the day. You woulda thought that since we were holding one of the largest GND giveaways in the country that FTD would be pleased to participate, but noooooo! Nothing, zip, nada. Oh, wait, I begged the local FTD rep to be there for one hour and he showed up. But just stood around and left after an hour. So, basically, nothing from FTD.

We withdrew from FTD in January 2008, so fast forward to today... Since FTD owns the rights to GND, I can no longer participate as a "Good Neighbor." I think that FTD would sue the pants off of me if I used the name or if I changed the name but used the same day. We are fielding numerous calls this month about the upcoming day and our customers remember well last year's event. But, since GND was wildly successful for my store, we are pursuing other avenues for a giveaway...perhaps a "random acts of neighborliness" day or something. The media loves it...especially on a slow news day!

Safeguy
:ned

BTW: While we miss the opportunity to participate in GND, we don't miss the FTD crap!
 
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