Seeley Conference to focus on consumer mindshare and floriculture

The 26th annual Seeley Conference, June 27-29, at Cornell Univ. in Ithaca., N.Y., will address Floriculture’s Biggest Opportunity: Creating Consumer MindShare. In today’s post-recession marketplace, the “reborn consumer” is asking tougher questions. She is making more critical decisions as to what is really important and what she really needs.
Most floral products have been sold on their aesthetics. Some have been marketed for certain holidays or for the settings they will be placed in. For landscapes, plants have been typically identified as the right one for sun or shade and sold as annuals and perennials based on color, number of flowers, flower size or some other physical characteristic.
Marketers can no longer assume consumers will return to buy what they’ve bought before. Consumers are spending differently, buying more in some categories and less in others.
The conference will look at why people are blind to the plants and flowers that surround them in everyday life. It will also examine how the industry can overcome this plant blindness and ways to increase mindshare in consumers by understanding and communicating that floral products are necessities in people's lives and not just luxuries.