Letter from Teleflora, Lot of bull....

[CHR]

Millie - this thread was from 2004. Maybe that's why you didn't get the letter.

 

[goldfish]

Dear Teleflora Member,

<snip>

* Teleflora.com is our consumer shopping site that uses a retail
florist for every purchase. As the industry leader, we are going
against industry convention by giving the retail florist 80% instead
of 73% on every incoming order.

Sounds like TF took a big gamble with this one. I wonder how they plan to compensate the 7% dip in wireout revenue.

* Teleflora's findaflorist.com is our new online directory of all
Teleflora neighborhood florists, including the 11,000 members of our
eFlorist programâ„¢. Through findaflorist.com, customers will come to
you directly and transact with you just as they do with eFlorist
today.

I think this is a very bad move. Too late. I don't see how any consumer these days would use findaflorist.com to look for a local florist, when Google/Yahoo can provide a better and more objective search function. Perhaps well-intended in the beginning, findaflorist.com is already a dead project. Once a business starts spending money on a dead project just because it's a shame to give up, you are putting money into a black hole.

To assure the success of these two powerful online marketing tools, we are investing heavily in online advertising for both teleflora.com and
findaflorist.com. This is in addition to the more than $50 million we
spend annually on national advertising to drive consumers directly to
your shop.

The problem is that any increase of ad expense would have to be paid for by member florists. I don't know how many florists can afford that.

<snip>

It is essential for the long-term survival of retail florists as well as our own company.

Did you notice that he just slipped his tongue? Lucky for TF that it is a private company. If TF was a public company, a comment like that from a CEO would induce a significant drop in the share price.

Sounds like a tough tiem ahead for TF.

 

[bloomz]

That 80% stuff was a very short lived carrot. It wilted a long time ago.

 

[goldfish]

That 80% stuff was a very short lived carrot. It wilted a long time ago.

OMG, I didn't realize the letter was written in 2004. But then, it surprises me that TF is still alive three years after making such a bad business move. On the other hand, I actually liked the letter. Whoever wrote that letter... he must be a good man.

Still, his mistake was he was trying to implement a strategy that "should" be the way for philosophical reasons, rather than a strategy that was more economically sound. Someone told me a long time ago... if you want to be a hero, business isn't a good place to be.

 

[MANORVILLE]

Interesting thread from 2004, reactivated in 2007, and here we are in 2008.
Things are just so much better now !

ManorMan <<<<-----State of Mind------>>>>>Monday/January/Sucks !