Florist Ireland :: Latest News, Trends, Courses and Jobs for Florist & Flower Sector :: www.HortiTrends.com :: http://florists.posterous.com Floristry Ireland :: Horticulture Trends Latest News, Trends, Courses, Services, Products, Suppliers & Jobs for Floristry Sector in Ireland: Garden Centre, Landscape, Architecture, Nurseries, Arboriculture, Sports Turf, Greenkeepers & Fresh Produce Sectors posterous.com Thu, 11 Nov 2010 10:23:38 -0800 Breaking News! Development Plan for Horticulture In Ireland to be Released within days http://florists.posterous.com/breaking-news-development-plan-for-horticultu-0 http://florists.posterous.com/breaking-news-development-plan-for-horticultu-0
Director of Horticulture at Teagasc Jim O’Mahony is making ready the plan for the public domain and all interested industry sectors. Stay tuned to HortiTrends for this and other latest news updates!

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Thu, 11 Nov 2010 10:12:33 -0800 Breaking News! Development Plan for Horticulture In Ireland to be Released within days http://florists.posterous.com/breaking-news-development-plan-for-horticultu http://florists.posterous.com/breaking-news-development-plan-for-horticultu

Director of Horticulture at Teagasc Jim O’Mahony is making ready for the public domain and all interested industry sectors. Stay tuned to HortiTrends for this and other latest news updates!

Joseph Blair
www.HortiTrends.com
HorticultureTrends


News . Advertising . Sales . Marketing . Business Development & Support. 
Expertise, Practical Know-how, Passion for the Horticulture Fresh Produce & Lifestyle Sectors...

Address:#20 The Cutlers . 33/34 Parliament Street . Dublin 2 . Ireland . Location: Map
    
Mobile: 353 (0)87.9212044  

Email: jblair@hortitrends.com     

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1291753/HortItrendsLogoCloseupV2__1_.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5fdyqRZ9dYid Horticulture Trends HortiTrends Horticulture Trends
Thu, 11 Nov 2010 10:00:29 -0800 HortiTrends to Give Industry Talk to ITB Horticulture Entrepreneurship Programme 2010 http://florists.posterous.com/hortitrends-to-give-industry-talk-to-itb-hort http://florists.posterous.com/hortitrends-to-give-industry-talk-to-itb-hort Joseph Blair of www.HortiTrends.com and Director of Horticulture Network Ireland will be speaking to students and entrepreneurs in the Institute of Technology's Horticulture Department tomorrow. He will be discussing a range of issues that are effecting existing businesses and new entrants into the horticulture sector in Ireland and Europe. He will be also showing students the benefits of joining the HortiTrends Business2Business Horticulture Directory and Sourcebook that will help them to Grow their Trade in Horticulture in Ireland now and into the future. 
It is a free online directory that unlike paper catalogue directories will not be gathering dust on any shelf and are not out of date as soon as they are published. He will be also be revealing some trick of the trade and the benefits of a Social Media for Business campaign that will make the Directory outshine any new or existing entrants to the market. he will also talk about getting Free Money! from the likes of Bord Bia through the MAP programme among others. Check back over the weekend for an update on the talk and also how your company too can benefit by getting its business profile on Hortitrends now! Stay tuned for an important link up with and online consumer gardening website. Sign up to day at www.HortTrends.com

Keep Yourself updated! Click Here to Subscribe to our News Letter and Alerts for the Horticulture & Fresh Produce Sectors In Ireland. 


News . Advertising . Sales . Marketing . Business Development & Support. 
Expertise, Practical Know-how, Passion for the Horticulture Fresh Produce & Lifestyle Sectors...

Mobile: 353 (0)87.9212044  

Email: jblair@hortitrends.com     

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Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:02:08 -0800 The Marketing Secret for 2011 http://florists.posterous.com/the-marketing-secret-for-2011 http://florists.posterous.com/the-marketing-secret-for-2011

The Marketing Secret for 2011

John Stanley

Marketing has gone through a revolution over the last few years and month

. It seems like every month a new idea hits the market place. Gone are the days when it was as simple as writing a newspaper advert and the job was done. The retailer of today has to consider the social media, conventional promotions, word of mouth marketing, loyalty schemes and a host of other ideas to develop their business.

All these new ways of developing and growing your business have been proven to work by retailers and small business, but the real challenge is implementationin your own business.

The down turn and uncertainty in the market place due to the financial meltdown in 2008 has resulted in most small businesses considering  downsizing and either shedding staff or not recruiting more staff.

In 2010 many economies around the world are still “soft” with governments bringing in stricter governing regulations and as a result retailers are still nervous about growth in the economy. This really came home to me when I had a conversation with my local travel agent. We were having a conversation about marketing and she mentioned that the challenge was not developing new ideas, but having the time to implement those ideas. She was confident that if she had the time she could develop her business and spread the message about how good her service was helping her customers.

She is aware of the marketing secret for 2011...it is TIME .Those businesses that can find time to develop their marketing strategy are those that will prosper in 2011.

I was recently working with a client and his reaction was very similar. His comment was “I am too busy to do marketing, I need all my time to just keep the business afloat, when the business is going well I will give myself more time to do the marketing”.

The extra pressure that retailers and small business are feeling at present is resulting in less people doing more work and as a result they are not having time to develop their business. This strategy will work in the short term, but in the long term it will result in a reduction in customers as other businesses gear up to develop their marketing strategies and attract customers away from your business.

TIME SAVERS

The key to developing your business in the next few months is going back to the basics of management and looking at how you can use time more effectively to allow you and your team to develop marketing strategies for the business in 2011.

My top 7 Tips are as follows

1 Write down your goals as far as marketing is concerned. What do you want to achieve and by when. I think the key is to write them down rather than just think about them and to put a date to the time you will have achieved these goals.

2 When travelling give yourself a target to achieve. I am a typical “Road Warrior” and use the time at airports and on flights to achieve work goals, you may not be an air traveller, but travel time can still be a valuable time to catch up and research what marketing you need to develop.

Do not procrastinate. Set a deadline, write it down and do it. Tell work colleagues and family members what you are doing so they can help you develop your goals.

4 Balance your time between traditional marketing and social media marketing. It is easy to get engrossed in one at the expense of the other. You will need both techniques in your tool kit for 2011.

5 Is there something that you can delegate to allow you to invest more time in the things that will make a difference in your business? For some of us it may be worth delegating the marketing, for others it may mean delegating other areas of work.

6 Measure the success of marketing. Measure how you are achieving more customers and the increase in the average sale per customer. This will give you the motivation and confidence to develop your marketing skills

7 Reward yourself when you have achieved your goals in marketing.

I am confident that 2011 will result in more unique marketing ideas being presented to all of us and it will be easy to feel swamped by all these ideas. My advice is to keep it as simple as you can, set some goals and make sure you achieve them.

John Stanley (CSP) is one of the top 10% of speakers in the world today, an acclaimed retail consultant and WA Entrepreneur of the Year 2009.  The author of several marketing, customer service and retail books including the best seller “Just About Everything a Retail Manager Needs to Know”, his company is WA Small Business Champion 2009 – Educational Services and WA Small Business of the Year 2010 for Export Services.  John was voted one of the “Power 100” in 2010 by the UK Horticultural Press.  Visit his websitewww.johnstanley.com.au or email linda@johnstanley.com.au to see how he can help you grow your business. 

 

  

 

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Tue, 05 Oct 2010 03:22:14 -0700 Value or Premium, let the customer make a Choice http://florists.posterous.com/value-or-premium-let-the-customer-make-a-choi http://florists.posterous.com/value-or-premium-let-the-customer-make-a-choi

Value or Premium, let the customer make a Choice

John Stanley

The last few years have been tough for many retailers. Many have relied on discounting to get them through a difficult retailing period, but the discount formula was always a short term measure and the winning retailers had to find a new strategy to ensure they could grow their business.

The global recession has lasted longer than many predicted and as a result retailers have had to change tactics to grow their businesses.

I first observed a strategic change coming from the fast food sector and I talk about this in the October edition of Retail World Report on my members site. As countries went into the recession many fast food companies benefited as consumers downgraded from more expensive restaurants and graduated towards cheaper food offers. In the USA, for example, the fast food retailers have trained their consumers into thinking about a hamburger as a known value product and as a result they have been forced to keep the product below the five dollar price barrier to ensure they generated traffic to their stores. This policy can only last so long before increasing costs and the need to improve the bottom line means a new strategy has to be developed.

The fast food retailers had a dilemma; they could not destroy the loyalty they had built with the $4.99 customer market, but at the same time they needed to attract new customers whom they wanted to spend more plus they wanted existing customers to spend more too.

The answer was to keep their existing range and price structure, but create a new category in store that was more profitable and market this to their consumer base.

Value and Premium

The solution was to develop the existing product range as a Value range and to introduce a new range at a Premium level. This strategy resulted in deluxe hamburgers and ribs being introduced into the menu at a much higher price point.

In the UK it has resulted in MacDonald’s developing an upmarket coffee strategy and in 2009 that meant they moved over 84 million cups of coffee. According to an article in the Daily Mail [Sept 23, 2010] the next stage is to develop espresso coffee as a premium product.

The Premium and Value approach is not confined to fast food; supermarkets are also going down the same avenue. In the same newspaper it was reported the Sainsbury’s have launched a “Taste the Difference“ range which will be promoted by Jamie Oliver the celebrity chef. Sainsbury’s have launched a Premium range that contains 1,100 different S.K.U’s and one billion pounds worth of sales last year. Research carried out by Kantar Worldpanel [Daily Mail 23 Sept 2010] highlighted that the supermarkets that have seen the fastest growth in the last twelve months have developed a value and a premium strategy. One reason for the growth is that consumers are shifting from restaurants to home cooking using premium products in a tight economy.

How Does this Apply to You?

 

How does this apply to you? The changes taking place in the food industry in developing a value and premium range are just as important for any retailer. The market is changing and many would argue that the middle price point products are disappearing. Some buying decisions are being made on value, whilst on the same shopping trip other decisions are being made based on premium buying decisions, products positioned in the middle range are today often overlooked by consumers.

This means that every retailer needs to stand back and relook at the category range they are stocking and ask themselves:

1.       

 Do we have a value range and are we promoting it as such?

2.        Is there a premium range and is this being promoted as a premium range?

3.        What products do we have in the middle of the range and should they be on the shelf?

And what about the Discounting?

Discounting strategies will continue and are needed to ensure products stay fresh in the customers eyes. The most successful large retailer, Tesco, has a very successful discount policy and use it as a customer draw. The company has a policy of graduated discounting, which is something all retailers need to adopt. It is based on product life cycles and set time limits, all stock is monitored. The discount starts at 25%, then moves to 50% and then to75%.  Once a product passes a certain time date in the UK it is sold for a penny as it goes through the till.  According to the website moneysavingexperts.com they recently monitored 50 items at one time that were being managed in this way.

The key is to manage the stock and to ensure stock turn is profitable.

John Stanley conducts monthly training on his Members site that helps all retailers keep up with current changes in the marketplace.  Visit his website for details www.johnstanley.com.au

John Stanley is WA Entrepreneur of the Year 2009 and his business JSA is WA Small Business Champion – Education 2009. He is an acclaimed conference speaker, retail consultant and author.  For more information on how he can help your business grow, visit his website www.johnstanley.com.au, or his resources site www.johnstanleyretailguru.com.au

If you have a story or event to promote please email: news@HortiTrends.com 

Latest Company News, Trends, Courses, Products Services, Suppliers & Jobs in Horticulture & Fresh Produce, Nurseries, Fruit & Vegetable Growers, Landscape, Architecture, Garden Centre, Florists, Sports Turf, Green Keeping & Forestry Sectors.

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Thu, 09 Sep 2010 08:59:47 -0700 5 days to Garden Centre Association Ireland Autumn Seminar - Book Now! http://florists.posterous.com/5-days-to-garden-centre-association-ireland-a http://florists.posterous.com/5-days-to-garden-centre-association-ireland-a

Latest Horticulture & Fresh Produce News for Ireland

5 days to GCAI Autumn Seminar

 

The GCAI is proud to welcome Andrew Maxted, Director of Marketing at The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) 
UK
 as one of the speakers at the GCAI’s Autumn Seminar on Tuesday, 14th September next.

 

As the HTA’s Director of Marketing Andrew leads the association’s marketing and communications activities. Andrew has recently relaunched the HTA’s Garden Industry Monitor (GIM) market information service. He places a strong emphasis on forward looking research and is also responsible for the National Garden Gift Voucher programme and other promotional initiatives such as the HTA/EU co-funded PlantforLife campaign. Andrew has been with the HTA since 2004 having previously gained substantial experience of management and marketing within membership organisations including ten years at the 
Cumbria
 and English Tourist Boards. Andrew was elected a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing in 2007.

 

Andrew will guide seminar delegates through the findings of some of the HTAs most recent consumer trends research.

 

Also speaking on the 14th;

Eimert de Graaff, Director QV Web Services – online services for business

Martin O Donnell, Director, O’Donnell Property Consultants - commercial rates

Phil Squance, MD, Container Centralen 
UK
 - changes to trolley system

James Lawless, owner, Kudos Consulting - social media for business

 

To reserve a seat or to find out more please contact Anne at the GCAI

Email anne@gio.ie or phone 087 2888 250

 

If you have a story or event to promote please email: news@HortiTrends.com 

Latest Company News, Trends, Courses, Products Services, Suppliers & Jobs in Horticulture & Fresh Produce, Nurseries, Fruit & Vegetable Growers, Landscape, Architecture, Garden Centre, Florists, Sports Turf, Green Keeping & Forestry Sectors.

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Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:49:00 -0700 HortiNews - European Union to Promote Agriculture Products, Including Flowers - www.Hortitrends.com http://florists.posterous.com/hortinews-european-union-to-promote-agricultu-0 http://florists.posterous.com/hortinews-european-union-to-promote-agricultu-0

European Union to promote ag products, including flowers

Over 60 million euros will be spent on 19 promotional programs



The European Commission has approved 19 programs in 14 member states (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom) to provide information on and to promote agricultural products in the European Union. The selected programs cover numerous products including flowers, vegetables, fruit and organic products.
The total budget of the programs running between one and three years is 60.6 million euros. The European Union will contribute half of the budget.
“In an open global market, merely producing excellent food and drink is not enough,” said Dacian Ciolos, commissioner for agriculture and rural development. “We need to increase our efforts to explain to consumers the standards and the quality of what EU agriculture puts on the table. EU programs of this sort can really help our producers in an increasingly competitive world.”
European Union to promote ag products, including flowers - Image
 

 

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