WHY was FTD's C1 so bad??...has anyone actually....

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

been able to identify, what it REALLY WAS, that turned both florists AND consumers OFF, to THAT particular Christmas gift??
The harder we tried to sell C1, in our OWN shop, the harder and quicker, our customers turned away from it to other choices!
No one could actually explain what it was that made them shy away from it!!
It WAS a little ingenius, it WAS a high quality ornament, the ornament holder, was almost transparent to view, someone described it as a "silver pimple" growing out of a red face!!
I KNOW some shops reported good results, I KNOW that the FTD design advisory team worked pretty hard on new"innovations" and I KNOW, that sometimes the end result, requires a merciless euthanasia, BUT, have you REALLY thought about why MOST of us hated that arrangement??
Mike

 

[jbarb]

In my opinion and from the feed back from my customers here are my thoughts. The first problem is the fact that the ornament looks cheap. I know, I know, it's Waterford. BUT it has a made in china lable on it and it looks cheap.. more than one customer made the comment that "you can buy these at 2 for $1.99 at Wal mart. Secondly, the Waterford/FTD ribbon. Who wants to buy advertsing for their Christmas center piece? Third, what would you actually do with this thing? It is not really a centerpiece, it is not really a table arrangement, it is actually a one sided arrangement if you make it exactly as the recipe calls for. Where would you put this thing? I knew it last year in FTD hq when I saw the thing that it would be a dog and for some reason I still bought the darn thing. Lastly is percieved value. The arrangement did not look like a $50 piece. No two ways around it, it just did not look worth the money. The only one that I sold out of my cooler was dressed way up with lots of bling bling and it looked about as good as it could and I still had to mark it down to $35 to get rid of it.
My walk in customers loved the TF holly bowl. Why? because it was big and gaudy. It looked like a $50 arrangement.

My one personal biggest gripe about the thing was the FTD advertsing on it.....

 

[CHR]

My one personal biggest gripe about the thing was the FTD advertsing on it.....

I made a prediction that the Waterford arangement would be a huge seller this past holiday.....boy was I wrong!

If the quality of the ornament was poor, that would certainly account for the lack of walk-in sales although my experience suggests that most of these items are sold via phone or web anyway.

IN a nutshell, FTD fails to MARKET their codified products to the consumer. (This is not new as they've done a consistently lousy job of it for a long time.)

They mainly focus on selling the 'brand' (which has gone downhill fast) and not promoting florist-delivered 'products.' Most of the time, the 'specials' are so-so anyway but this time I thought they had a good shot.

Don't forget - they have a problem promoting these specials at FTD.com because the prices shown need to be padded by at least $5.00 for delivery (otherwise the 'service charge' would be $14.95.) Their retail price does not compare favorably with those offered by local members, in most cases.

Just my .02.

 

[BOSS]

EXCUSE ME....BUTT....

Waterford is a CRYSTAL company...

Should have been a CRYSTAL Star, Tree, or Wreath, Santa Head, Deer, Holly Leaf....

Anything but a piece that looked like a foil wrap'd piece of chocolate !

And the ribbon.... don;t even get me started on the ribbon.....

What I don't get, is the other company can have a HUGE chunk of something, and at the same price point THAT SELLS ITSELF !

I have very low hopes for C-1 Y2K4... anyone seen it yet ?

 

[Audra]

Re: EXCUSE ME....BUTT....

Originally posted by BOSS
Waterford is a CRYSTAL company.../B]

EXACTLY! People heard Waterford - they wanted crystal - not some overpriced ornament they could find the twin of at Walmart/Zellers. And the arrangement - argh, don't go there.

Sure, we didn't have to use that goddawful ribbon (we didn't) but the design was sparce given the recipe. For a scant $5 more, you could get the holly bowl which had a keepsake element and a candle.

If the ornament had been like Boss said - a crystal star or some such, it would have sold.

Audra

 

[sunny]

How come the florists who participated on the advisory board didn't come up with some of these comments before this went into production?? This is why they were invited to lend their opinions, being "FLORISTS" they would be able to point out flaws before they became calamities like the C1 was.

 

[BOSS]

Don't blame

Originally posted by sunny
How come the florists who participated on the advisory board didn't come up with some of these comments before this went into production?? This is why they were invited to lend their opinions, being "FLORISTS" they would be able to point out flaws before they became calamities like the C1 was.

the florists too much... for the most part THEY did a great job... I have spoken to some on the "Product Advisory Board" and ya can only do what you are "allowed" to do....

Maybe the reason I feel so strongly that it should have been a piece of CRYSTAL is cuz I was a Waterford dealer for 30 years... that is until they sent their cutting operation to JAPAN in the 80's and all their Irish cutters QUIT and started their own company in Dublin....

A piece of CRYSTAL would have created its own demand like the Kin(ky)cade stuff does for that other company.

 

[Victoria]

We didn't put it in here because we thought it was tacky looking. I'm not very good as selling something I don't believe in I'm afraid. I agree with the crystal concept...far classier looking. The ribbon, well, sucked. The arrangement, was unimpressive compared to others.

The advertising obviously wasn't well thought out...it didn't target much of anything really...far too frenetic an ad with no point to it.

I appreciate the efforts of people on any advisory board...a thankless job by spells...however, this one arrangement was a serious miscalculation.

V

 

[CHR]

Originally posted by sunny
How come the florists who participated on the advisory board didn't come up with some of these comments before this went into production??

Don't know about this case but having had the opportunity to sit on similar boards for several companies...

Sometimes, but by no means always, the higher-ups have already decided to go with the product and are simply looking for a 'seal of approval' or an advanced 'positive buzz.' Questions and comments can be met with 'well, everyone else likes it.'

If an advisory board consists of folks overwhelmed with the excitement of 'just being asked to participate' and 'thrilled by being wined and dined' then the feedback given is basically useless.

 

[theRKF]

I first saw the WaterTHUD at one of our dinners last year. An FTD rep was proudly showing off her wares, and several of us were quite shocked. I asked a non-floral spouse about his opinion and he replied, "How much does Walmart sell them for?"

It looked like cheap dimpled plastic. Felt like it, too. I couldn't believe FTD actually thought it was a good idea.

 

[Luc]

I agree with Ryan. When I saw it in the FTd magazine and then in person at the conference I didnt like it at all. What got me going was the hype of it and not knowing anythig about waterford.
FTD is good a creating hype. I for one will not touch it again if my guts says no and if C1 is waterford, no sales here. In fact i will be looking at the trade show this jan for something different.
Duddddddddddddddddddddddd Big time
Luc

 

[Audra]

Originally posted by Infinite
I first saw the WaterTHUD at one of our dinners last year. An FTD rep was proudly showing off her wares, and several of us were quite shocked. I asked a non-floral spouse about his opinion and he replied, "How much does Walmart sell them for?"

Yea, I think you asked Dan. BBJ and I were both very vocal at that supper about how much we thought they sucked. Poor Caroline, she was trying hard to support it and we bashed that ornament like crazy.

I still believe that FTD is missing what it's customers (and ours) tell them. Candy Cane lane was really popular again this year - red and white long lasting arrangements with Christmas accents in the $45 CDN price point. IMNSHO, FTD hasn't made this C1 because there'd be nothing to sell us - no fancy container, no specialty candles, etc - so no way to make more money off us.

Audra

 

[sunny]

Sorry Boss , I didn't mean to make it seem like the florists on the advisory board were the blame , but I do remember seeing a couple of posts on the FTD from at least one saying just how great the C1 was going to be. If by being wined and dined dimishes your ability to be objective they why bother with the charade of asking the people who are stuck with this junk for their opinions in the first place. And if anyone of the florists on the board didn't like or think that it was a good product , where were their opinions , didn't see any from them. Some questions were asked on FTD's board before Christmas , directly to a couple on the board ( Heroman & Carol Byce) if I'm not mistaken , but the board was shut down before I saw any responses.

 

[BOSS]

Far as I could tell...

Originally posted by Victoria
The advertising obviously wasn't well thought out...it didn't target much of anything really...far too frenetic an ad with no point to it. V

the ad was the same ad from two years ago with the images cut and pasted ?!!????!?!

Not for sure, but it was the impression I got...

And "Wild THing" is GREAT, but a holiday commercial should have holiday music ????

 

[Victoria]

A two year old ad, and even older song...it really is time for a change all the way around. I am sick of the "Wild thing" bent...there was NOTHING festive or redeeming about the ad at all.

V

 

[Victoria]

Some questions were asked on FTD's board before Christmas , directly to a couple on the board ( Heroman & Carol Byce) if I'm not mistaken , but the board was shut down before I saw any responses. [/B][/QUOTE]

Mr. Heroman, and others like him made me think of the Stepford wives ...only one thought and one mind where FTD is concerned. There was never any real opportunity for discussion with him. The last time I read a post of his, he belittled those who were having difficulty selling C1...not nice.

V

 

[Audra]

*sighs* One of the things I don't miss about that board.

I'm a firm believer that specials sell because we sell them. That being said, that doesn't excuse the Wire Service from supporting their product.

I don't like the 'Wild Thing' ad campaign - I particularly don't like it for Christmas. We can be modern 364 days but most people are pretty d*mn traditional on Christmas. You'd think you'd try to trigger that association but hey, I'm a techie not an ad exec.

Audra

 

[Peter1]

Its like those Gobbel little things you see year after year, you usually see stores with dozens of them left over every year. It's overpriced, as Mark said it should been something crystal (to show the value to the consumer)

 

[Missy]

I agree with the masses. We became an FTD shop this year, despite the fact we were already a long time Teleflora shop(New Owner wanted two wire services) I thought the FTD specials were lousy and cheap looking as well. Teleflora specials were by far better quality, and sold better too. Why is it when dealing with Mercury orders, 90% of the time you do not know the sending shop. Teleflora orders always have the shop name on the bottom and this makes for a much faster way of dealing with any questions or problems. I spent too much time on the phone with FTD trying to locate original sending shops( most of the time I did not get to talk to them, only the 1-800 clerk) most of the time just needing card info or something that should be simple and fast. I dont think the waterford special was as elegant as the name would lead you to believe and the overall design was worse!

 

[jbarb]

Missy, If you get an FTD order that does not identify the shop that is because you are getting an FTD.com order or an order from one of the order gatherers that uses FTD as their service.
One of the reasons that we dropped FTD is that nearly all of our incoming orders from them were FTD.com rarely did we ever get an incoming order from a real FTD florist.