Ruckers for Flowers and Gifts

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Ruckers for Flowers and Gifts

• Christina Berkich
• Josh Habersetzer
• Nikki Kent

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Company Background

• Has been serving Tacoma for over 40 years
• Rachel Carlson has been owner for the past 2
  years
• Specializes in fresh floral design for many
  occasions
• The store is located at the corner of Pacific
  Avenue and South 46th St.

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Industry Information

• Very competitive market
• Very few entry barriers
• New stores enter all the time and leave just as
  quickly
• Average sales for a florist are around 290,000

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Top 10 Florists in Tacoma
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Industry Information (Cont.)

• Flowers are considered an affordable luxury item
• People buy flowers when they have discretionary
  income
• During tough economic times, flowers (and other
  such luxuries) are the first things to go
• Average household income of Tacoma is 39,540
• Average income of area around Ruckers is 38,030

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Area Codes and Average Income
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Objectives

• Customer awareness
• Is the company well-known in its surrounding
  communities?
• How people decide where to buy flowers
• What factors do people find to be most important
  when purchasing flowers?
• Price, Location, Friendly Staff, Product Quality,
  Product Variety
• What does Ruckers do well
• How do past customers feel about Ruckers in
  regards to these factors?
• Price, Location, Friendly Staff, Product Quality,
  Product Variety

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General Population Survey

• Objective 1 Discover which factors people find
  to be most important when purchasing flowers
• Objective 2 Find out how well-known Ruckers is
  in the community
• Method
• Face-to-face paper survey
• Surveys on campus with faculty and staff and the
  local library
• Done in the mornings and afternoons in the period
  prior to Thanksgiving break
• Due to limitations, had to switch to a
  convenience sample

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General Population Survey (Cont.)

• Limitations
• Could not get enough surveys during Chapel Break
• Could not email surveys to faculty and staff as
  an alternative
• Few local meeting places
• Not being allowed to hand out surveys outside of
  businesses
• Had to switch to a convenience sample
• Interviewed people we knew
• Limited locations

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Current Customer Survey

• Objective 1 Discover which factors people find
  to be most important when purchasing flowers
• Objective 2 Discover what Ruckers is doing
  well, and what they can improve on according to
  their customers
• Method
• Telephone survey
• Planned on using Ruckers customer database

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Current Customer Survey (Cont.)

• Limitations
• Lack of response rates faced by any team that
  attempts phone surveys
• We were not given access to the database before
  the survey cutoff time
• We did not get to conduct this survey

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Results and Key Findings

• Customer Awareness
• Out of the 43 respondents eligible to answer this
  question, 8 (18.6) had heard of Ruckers before
  taking this survey
• In addition to this question, 0/8 had shopped at
  Ruckers

Q7 Have you ever heard of Rucker's for Flower
and Gifts?
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Results and Key Findings (Cont.1)

• How people decide where to buy flowers
• Survey respondents confused rate with rank
• However, we could interpret results for answers
  of 1 very important and 5 not at all
  important
• Price and Product Quality were most important

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Results and Key Findings (Cont.2)

• Other Findings
• Occasions
• The majority of respondents said they purchase
  flowers mainly for special occasions,
  anniversaries, and holidays

Respondents
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Results and Key Findings (Cont. 3)

• Purchase Location
• The majority of respondents purchase their
  flowers from the grocery store

Respondents
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Recommendations

• Create an incentives program for current
  customers
• Way to keep existing customers even in bad times
• Work with surrounding community
• Local colleges and high schools
• Also good way to reach younger clientele
• Drop business cards at strategic locations
• Funeral homes, hospitals, schools
• Partnership with other companies
• Catering services, party rentals
• Work on website
• Very few people learned of Ruckers through
  online research
• Lack of detail when purchasing items
• Diversify
• Add more extras to purchase
• Chocolate, stuffed animals, balloons, etc

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Questions?