Sex helps selling Chrysanthemums

In its own right the picture was iconic. A girl bathing in a Chrysanthemum covered bath. It wasn’t interesting because of the naked girl – sex had been selling for ages – but because it was the first effort to make a dull flower hip again. Chrysanthemums were considered to be old-fashioned and boring. Varieties were chosen because of their production rate, not to surprise consumers. Mums had become grandmum flowers.

 At the turn of the century, Dutch Chrysanthemum growers and breeders took action. They didn’t want their product to end up in the gutter so they started promoting it and still do today. Of course there were lots of USPs to promote. Chrysanthemums are durable and for sale in numerous shapes and colours. The JustChrys campaign proved that mums could be hip. Improving the assortment helped confirm this belief. Recently we visited a JustChrys event. Dutch bloggers, writing about living and interior decorating, were introduced to mums’ numerous possibilities.

Bloggers are important stakeholders. Consumers are influenced by what they write and follow their advice. Bloggers can help you spread the word about your flower or plant.

The JustChrys event focussed on one particular trend, Rebel. Rebel is a reaction to today’s troubles and intensity. It’s loose, colourful and averse to conventions. Designer and florist Geert Maas showed his audience how the many shaped and coloured Chrysanthemums can work within this trend. The arrangements he showed were impressive, yet simple to make. And Geert showed the bloggers how.

Chrysanthemums are easy to work with and they make a great impression. That was the simple, yet powerful message to the bloggers. Today’s floristry is full of contrasts. With mums you can make any contrast you like because there are so many varieties, shapes and colours (disbudded, spray, santini). The stems are lengthy enough to create height differences within a bouquet. If you take care of Chrysanthemums, by removing the leaves and cutting the stems diagonally, you will be  rewarded with a long vase life. On top of that it’s not difficult to make your own bouquet with Chrysanthemums, which today’s consumers like to do. The bloggers did so too, experiencing the joy of flowers.

JustChrys spreads the message that mums are fun and easy to work with by partnering with traditional and social media. This leads to TV coverage, articles in lifestyle and home decor magazines and blogs with a renewed interest in Chrysanthemums. These steps are the ABCs to make mums hip again.