Flowers…uncut

Posted by: Guest Editor - Pascale Perry on May 6th, 2008

Many established online businesses still rely heavily on the Internet’s gatekeeper, Google, for traffic. So much so, that whole industries have sprung up to help business mangers optimise their site to suit the world’s leading search engine. Search engine optimisation throws up some interesting new challenges and opportunities. But rather than give away all our secrets (such as they are!), we invited friend of Arena and search engine optimisation expert Pascale Perry to write a guest post about how to manage your brand in this brave new world.

Search engine optimisation involves maximising the visibility of a website to draw-in relevant visitors. Consider it a spot on the high-street. If someone goes out wanting to buy some shoes, you want your shop to be the first shoe shop they see on the high street (or first on the Google search results page for the term ‘shoes’).

But grabbing the attention of the willing but brand neutral consumer is not the only reason to be visible. Some people go to the high-street with a specific brand in mind. They come intentionally to you, expecting a good brand experience, to reinforce their loyalty (or cement it if they have doubts about you).

A similar effect is seen online. Google’s search box has become fairly synonymous with the browser address bar. You want to visit a site, you want to experience its brand or products, but can’t remember the exact URL – “hmmm…was it ShoeLand.co.uk or .com? Google will know…I’ll just type in ‘ShoeLand’ and see what I get.”. 76% of UK searches are exactly this: navigational (source: Hitwise, April 2008). And how a website appears in the search space is the first message these potential consumers see.

The message shown below the title, called the page meta description, is a nice attractive, “beautiful, fresh flowers” all over the UK on Arena Flowers’ search result.

The ‘UK’s leading online florists shop’ makes a consumer feel confident.

This is a relatively simple tag to insert into a webpage – and although doesn’t affect the visibility or ranking of a site, it does play a role in click-through to a site, since it presents a message about your brand and the page being linked to.

For some brands, this message gives an opportunity to combat negative press reports that rank alongside the brand itself in a brand search (result 4):

A similar example of negative news ranking highly for a brand name famously happened in the flower business not so long ago (result 3):

Such unfortunate situations have lead to the emergence of a new theme in search engine optimisation, known as “brand reputation management SEO”. This involves careful consideration of the results pages for brand searches and attempts to ensure that as many as possible of the results in the first page are controlled by the brand and present a positive message.

Here, Nestlé has used a specially-created sub-domain which appears amongst negative content for the search term ‘nestle baby milk’ (result 3).

This is a clever tactic to make sure that Nestlé has a chance to get its message across about a particular issue.

For brands not facing controversy or negative results in the listings, it is still important to get the messaging right in the results listings. The search landscape is part of the brand experience and most sites get the lion’s share of their search traffic from brand terms. Whether on a conscious or subconscious level, research indicates that the meta description is part of the consideration set of a consumer when deciding which search result to click on and it is an easy opportunity to give consumers a good experience even before they walk through the virtual door. Savvy brands use this space to try and increase click-through to their site: Read more »

Filed under: Guest Posts, Marketing, Matters Webby on May 6th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Posted by: Adarsh – Search engine battler on May 2nd, 2008

Yes, that really is a full size elephant made of flowers!

The Haarlem Annual Flower Parade or the Bloemen Corso as it is known locally is a spectacular display of floral wizardry. With a cavalcade of twenty elaborate floats and thirty attractively decorated luxury cars, the event is replete with the vibrant splendour of superskilled floristry. Every year hundreds of thousands of flower enthusiasts from around the world flock to the 40 kilometre route from Noordwijk to Haarlem, just to experience this sensational event and to be treated to a stunning exhibition of flower craft, bands and costumed participants. Each year a different theme is adopted for the parade and florists recreate these themes by carefully arranging the fresh blooms to reflect those themes.

This year’s procession, which passes through the flower bulb regions of Voorhout, Sassenheim, Lisse, Hillegom and Bennebroek, was last week. As with every year, the procession was preceded by an illuminated display of beautifully decorated floats in Noordwijk and remained on view after the parade in Haarlem until 7.00 PM the following day. Interestingly, the theme for this years parade was “holiday”. Merel & Marion, the senior florists of our Dutch sister site, Arena Bloemen, participated in this year’s event and won two awards for the incredible floral elephant float pictured below.

Merel and Marion won the second prize for flower arrangements and the overall Public Award. Marion is pictured receiving the award. Visit the Bloemen Corso website for more pictures of the parade.  Congratulations to Merel and Marion.  Truly amazing work!

Filed under: Floristry, Flowers, General on May 2nd, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Posted by: Guest Editor - Andrea Caldecourt on April 29th, 2008

The Flowers & Plants Association is the UK’s promotional organisation for all commercially grown cut flowers and indoor plants. The FPA offers expert, unbiased advice on fresh flowers and indoor plants to consumers, press and trade. So we invited Andrea Caldecourt, who runs the Flowers & Plants Association, to write a guest post for us and we’re delighted to say that she accepted! Without further ado, here’s a friendly “Hello” from the head of our industry body, with some questions and thoughts on the flower market. Please comment or reply by email if you wish!

Hello,

I’m Andrea and I run the Flowers & Plants Association. We’re the UK’s promotional organisation for all cut flowers and indoor plants.

We don’t advertise ourselves, but we do give inspiration, ideas and advice to members of the public like you. We do this in a wide range of ways – through websites and TV programmes, radio interviews and billboard ads, magazine features and newspaper articles, emails and workshops, events and exhibitions. So you’ve probably seen our promotional work, even if you didn’t know it was us behind it!

I am always interested in finding out more about why you buy flowers, because that helps me give you the right information and advice. So I want to ask you a question - When you are in the florist or supermarket, or online at websites like Arena Flowers, what makes you decide to buy a particular bunch of flowers?

Is it the colour, which perfectly matches your curtains? Is it a flower with a short season, such as daffodils, to remind you that spring is finally here? Does an unusual flower you’ve never seen before catch your eye - or do you stick with familiar ones you know you’ve had success with? Do you look for long-lasting flowers; or would you rather have a few short but spectacular days of exuberant flamboyance? Maybe you don’t care what the flower is, or how long it lasts, so long as it’s at a bargain price!

If you want ideas on what to choose next time you’re shopping, or how to look after what you’ve bought, take a look at our website flowers.org.uk. If you want to drop me a line to let me know what makes you choose one bunch over another, feel free. You can reach me at andrea@flowers.org.uk.

Filed under: Customers, Flowers, Guest Posts on April 29th, 2008 | No Comments »

Posted by: Will – Priority juggler on April 25th, 2008

There have been three winners with Arena Flowers this month, in various ways. So, in ascending order of importance, we have:

1. £50 Bouquet Newsletter Winner

Every time we send our main newsletter (once a month), someone wins a free order of value up to £50. This month’s lucky winner was Mark S from Worcestershire. He sent his fiancée a Lovely in Lilac bouquet and a half bottle of champagne - absolutely free!

You don’t have to order to enter. All subscribers to our free newsletter are automatically entered. You can sign up to the newsletter here.

2. £1000 PayPal Winner

£50 bouquet not good enough? In which case, PayPal’s £1000 per day promo could be for you. Just pay with PayPal in our checkout and you’ll be automatically entered into that day’s £1000 draw. (You’ll speed up your checkout too, as PayPal is very quick and easy to pay with (we haven’t been bribed to say that, by the way. PayPal’s great.).) An Arena customer has won already - Stephen from Preston bought a Freesias Cube for £37.99 recently and won £1000. Not bad! The PayPal offer ends at midnight on 30th April 2008.

3. BHF Raises One Million Pounds In Valentine’s Appeal

Earlier this year we supported the British Heart Foundation’s Valentine’s Appeal, raising £576 for the British Heart Foundation. After Valentine’s we also gave away flowers for free, each with a BHF leaflet and a request to donate. We were a little “Johnny Come Lately” in terms of joining the appeal and next year we hope to be more organised and to raise a lot more for the campaign. Thanks to all our customers who helped us contribute to this great cause. We’re very pleased to report that the BHF hit its target of raising over £1m in the campaign and Ellen Midwood, the BHF’s National Campaigns Manager, had this to say:

“We are delighted to confirm that the British Heart Foundation Valentine Appeal has succeeded in raising its £1 million target. The funds will go towards our vital care services of BHF Heart Nurses and the Heart HelpLine. We are extremely grateful to Arena Flowers for their support of the appeal and look forward to working with them again in 2009.”

So who’s the biggest winner here? The British Heart Foundation, of course, and those that they help every day. Thanks again to all who contributed.

Filed under: Customers, Ethics & Environment, General on April 25th, 2008 | No Comments »

Posted by: Interview - Regina Dinkla, Project Manager, FFP on April 21st, 2008

As consumer demand for sustainable and ethical living grows, people are increasingly buying products that boast strong ethical credentials. This trend is equally true in the flowers industry, but consumers can be confused by the numerous different “ethical” standards for flowers, “Fairtrade” and “Fair Flowers Fair Plants” (FFP) being the two most widespread. In the 2.5 years since its inception, the FFP standard has grown tremendously but is still new and not fully understood. So, we arranged an interview with Regina Dinkla, Project Manager for the FFP organisation, to ask her all the questions we thought our readers might have about FFP (and how it differs from Fairtrade).

ArenaFlowers.com: Let’s get this one out of the way straight away! Shouldn’t “Fair Flowers Fair Plants” shorten to FFFP rather than FFP?
Regina: Everyone always asks that! Originally our name was supposed to be Fair Flowers & Plants (so FFP) but that was already registered. Then becoming Fair Flowers Fair Plants, the acronym was FFFP but that was a bit of a mouthful so we cut one of the ‘Fairs’ from the acronym.

ArenaFlowers.com: What is the FFP?
Regina: Fair Flowers Fair Plants is an international initiative developed to create a uniform, global standard for the floristry industry. FFP is a non-profit organisation set up at the end of 2005 and it is the first truly international consumer label for sustainably cultivated flowers and plants. FFP is a broad network of trade unions, non-governmental organisations and international flower trade and production organisations adhering to an International Code of Conduct and a high environmental standard (MPS-A) for the production of fresh flowers and plants. In essence, FFP controls the florist supply chain in its entirety in order to regulate the use of pesticides, land energy and the working environment. Under the FFP initiative, participants in the florist supply chain, be they growers, traders or retailers, must guarantee that FFP requirements are met. This ensures that FFP products path through the supply chain is traceable at all times.

ArenaFlowers.com: Why was the FFP setup?
Regina: FFP was set up in response to a number of needs in the flowers and plants market. Until FFP, there was no clearly identifiable consumer label for sustainably and ethically produced flowers and plants from around the globe. To fulfil this brief, FFP had to unify a diverse set of existing global standards under a single standard. In addition, the FFP standard had to encompass not only ethical standards, but also environmental standards. FFP is the first truly global flowers programme as it is not limited to specific economic or geographic regions. FFP is flexible and transparent system and affords florists the opportunity to source flowers directly from FFP growers should they wish to (in the way that Arena Flowers does). This approach ensures fresher floral produce and reduced wastage resulting in fresher flowers for consumers while keeping a check on wider environmental aspects. Since it is a non-profit organisation, there is no automatic premium on FFP flowers, so the consumer doesn’t pay more for the privilege of buying FFP flowers.

Read more »

Filed under: Ethics & Environment, Flowers, Guest Posts on April 21st, 2008 | No Comments »

Posted by: Will – Priority juggler on April 18th, 2008

They all begin with an R! Our red roses are typically sent to woo loved ones (sometimes in truly spectacular fashion). Occasionally, however, they get put to a different use. For instance, Rachel, friend of Arena and occasional adviser on matters ethical, had a leaving party not long ago. Everyone came as something beginning with R (for Rachel), hence the great outfits pictured. And the prizes for the best? They all began with R, including first place for Amy, in the Rubik’s Cube, who won one of our red roses giftwraps.

We’re not quite sure how she got them home though!

Filed under: Customers, Flowers, General on April 18th, 2008 | No Comments »

Posted by: Jackie – Voice at the end of the phone on April 11th, 2008

When out for stroll last weekend, Georgi spotted this lovers’ embrace between two beautiful spring flowers - the eternal favourite the daffodil (aka the narcissus) and some purple tulips. A beautiful image of nature at work. Click to enlarge.

Have a great weekend!

Filed under: Flowers, General on April 11th, 2008 | No Comments »

Posted by: Guest Editor - Emma Cake on April 8th, 2008

We invited Emma Cake from “The Big Bouquet Wedding Photographer” to write a guest post for us. Here is her very helpful post on how to hire a great wedding photographer. Thanks, Emma.

Type in ‘Wedding Photographer’ and your location into Google and take a look at how many results come up on your screen. It’s a daunting challenge picking out a photographer isn’t it? Especially if you are easily confused by all the photographic jargon some like to rant and rave about. Being absolutely certain that you have picked the right one for your wedding is essential.

With so many different packages, prices, styles and approaches how do you go about finding a photographer that’s right for you quickly and easily?

Well, here’s a Top 5 ‘Tip List’ to help you along your way:

Read more »

Filed under: General, Guest Posts, Weddings on April 8th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Posted by: Jackie – Voice at the end of the phone on April 4th, 2008

We get a lot of compliments about our orchids and they really are the most beautiful, elegant plants. Actually, they are not ordinary plants, they are epiphytic plants; an epiphyte is a plant that grows on another plant without taking food from it and our orchids are grown on pieces of bark with the aerial roots hanging out.

Despite the apparent fragility of their beautiful flowers, they are remarkably tough. The photograph here is of our ‘Pink Orchids in a Planter’; they were potted up in September to have the photograph taken for the website. After that, the planter was put in our tiny kitchen where the orchids have received almost no attention and have thrived up until mid- January on this healthy neglect. And probably will for at least another couple of months.

These long-lasting orchids reminded me of an email we received in late November which amused us:

‘Dear Arena Team,

I spoke with my mother in law this evening who lives in the UK, I am in Australia. Last July I sent her a white orchid and tonight she asked me if the flower she had received was actually artificial as it has not changed since it was delivered. She commented back then that the bloom was beautiful, it still is, and she had become worried that she had been watering something that wasn’t real. My M-I-L and her friends have been amazed at the quality of what you have provided.’

At least we knew our orchids were real but I can understand this lady’s doubts.

So, for a really long-lasting, beautiful and reasonably priced gift – think Arena orchids!

Filed under: Customers, Flowers on April 4th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Posted by: Adarsh – Search engine battler on April 1st, 2008

Every year we celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, commemorate religious events, honour individuals, and other equally important occasions such as the Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas etc. However, April 1st stands out as a truly bizarre celebration of foolishness and stupidity. While some unsuspecting individuals go about their day in a regular manner and fall to tricks of others, a few others go on an overdrive to dupe their friends and acquaintances. But the best ones often come from least suspected sources - businesses and media. Read more »

Filed under: General, Matters Webby, Uncategorized on April 1st, 2008 | No Comments »

Posted by: Will – Priority juggler on March 26th, 2008

Question: What should you expect from a blog post on a flowers blog on a flowers website?

Answer: A post about blog libel, of course!

Why?!: Arena started blogging about a year ago (to understand why we blog, please see this post). One of the great things about blogging is that it’s a two way communication process; we’ve learnt a lot from our readers in the last 12 months.

For instance, take Sarah - a ridiculously well-qualified legal eagle. On learning that Arena had started blogging, Sarah very kindly sent us her legal firm’s top tips on how to blog “safely”. Whilst we’re pretty uncontroversial in our blogging topics, generally liking to talk about flowers and gifts and sometimes web-related things or ethics, we found the guidance very interesting reading. We then thought our more webby readers might also find this of interest. Sarah happily said we could publish it, on condition that we anonymised it (to spare her inbox).

In blogging, there are some risks, but they’re easily manageable with a few simple rules. If you don’t know the rules, you could cause yourself significant trouble, as demonstrated by this recent (and admittedly plain stupid) example of blog self-destruction. So what are those rules… Read more »

Filed under: Big Mistakes, Ethics & Environment, Matters Webby, Setting up on March 26th, 2008 | No Comments »

Posted by: Will – Priority juggler on March 19th, 2008

After a trip to the Alps for some skiing, the obvious choice of chocolate to bring back for the team was Toblerone. So I dutifully returned on Monday bearing a giant pack, boasting no less than 150 mini Toblerones. The only question - which poor unfortunate to force to pose for a picture with said chocolate! Having previously collared Ruth, Vanessa and Damian, the next victim to select was easy. Ronald, our Dutch masterpiece, is over this week, so the natural choice was to snap him and his team. Read more »

Filed under: General, Matters Webby, Operations on March 19th, 2008 | No Comments »

Posted by: Will – Priority juggler on March 6th, 2008

Answer? It was taken at 0410 in Harwich ferry port, on the East coast of the UK when Ronald and myself should have been sound asleep in our beds in Noordwijkerhout, NL and London, UK respectively.

Why? A consignment of box lids that was due to come over during Mother’s Day week didn’t materialise and we were going to run out. Given half our orders go out in boxes, to run out of lids during a peak period like Mother’s Day would have been nothing short of a disaster. So Ronald picked up a consignment, jumped in his van and hot footed it to The Hook of Holland, making it just in time to catch the last ferry.

Hooray! I was the lucky one that got the task of driving the 90 miles to the coast to meet him. So, having gone to bed at 11pm I was then back up again at 0215 (with the aid of no less than 6 alarms to wake me!), in the slightly surreal position of driving through late night London revellers, rubbing sleep from my eyes. I made it to Harwich at 0400 to find a virtually deserted port.

Trouble at the border: Read more »

Filed under: Big Mistakes, Distribution, Mega Days, Mother's Day, Operations on March 6th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Posted by: Will – Priority juggler on February 27th, 2008

It’s this Sunday! If you’ve forgotten, best dash off to our Mother’s Day flowers category and buy your beloved Mother some flowers and gifts while you still have time. We promise this post will still be here when you get back and you can then discover at your leisure the arcane way in which the UK chooses to decide the date of Mother’s Day every year.

Read more »

Filed under: General, Mega Days, Mother's Day on February 27th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Posted by: Will – Priority juggler on February 21st, 2008

This year, we elected to make a donation to the British Heart Foundation’s Valentine’s Campaign for every one of our Tulips Bouquets and our Heart of Chocolates products sold for Valentine’s Day. We’re happy to report that in this way we raised several hundred pounds for the BHF (exact figure and cheque to the BHF to follow tomorrow!). BUT - we found out a way to do more. We always try to buy slightly too many flowers for Valentine’s, to ensure we don’t run out. That gives the obvious problem of what we do with the leftovers afterwards. We can’t sell them as they’ll be a couple of days old and we pride ourselves on selling only the freshest product. So, we sold them, with proceeds to go to the the BHF. (Click to enlarge.)

Well, actually, we didn’t. That’s what we wanted to do but then, when we checked with the Police, we found that, without the correct licence, we might get arrested for “street peddling” if we went ahead with our plan. Woops! Since we had no time to get such a licence, we decided to simply give the flowers away, BHF Valentine’s Appeal flyer and a request to make a donation included with every bouquet. We had some lovely stories and caused quite a crowd scene on London’s King’s Road. So here are some pictures of what we got up to.

Unsuprisingly, it was really good fun to spend a few hours making people happy, and helping charity to boot. Read more »