Saturday, February 28, 2009

Flowers - Brand Ranking & Geographically Devalued

As has been recently observed across all industries, Google is now favoring well-known brands in their search results for popular phrases related to that industry. Fortunately for the floral industry, we only have 4 brands (Proflowers, FTD, 1800flowers, Teleflora) to contend with which is far less than most industries. Yes, I know the dynamics are quite different in our industry as most florists have to deal daily with these brands, but speaking from a search perspective there are still 10 slots allotted to 1st page ranking.  

Unlike the electronics business where there are dozens of brands and no room for the little guy on the 1st page, real brick and mortar flower shops can still compete for primary key-phrases because of the lack of brands in our industry. Proflowers/FTD/1800flowers/Teleflora may NOW dominate primary search phrases like “flowers,” “flower delivery,” “send flowers,” “funeral flowers,” “birthday flowers,” etc… but there is still room to rank for the brick and mortar flower shop. The same can not be said for most other industries.

Regarding geographical florist search phrases, since the time of Google’s new brand emphasized algorithm (January 18th), I have observed that the Proflowers brand which used to dominate geographical searches for florists is no longer dominating. While it is difficult to prove my observation by way of fact for every zip code in the US, all the cities & towns that I monitor on daily basis lack the dominate presence that Proflowers once had.

It just may be that Google is also now devaluing geographical brand ranking thinking that brands need only be dominate for general searches.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What a scam! I live in WI and called a (520) area code which I assumed I was talking to someone in Tubac, AZ (as described on google) and thought perfect that I was talking to someone local and not some #800. Boy, was I wrong!!! I placed my order on Wednesday 5/5, to have an arrangement delivered to my Mom in AZ on Friday 5/7 for Mother's Day. Much to my surprise when I called her on Mother's Day, I find out that she didn't receive her flowers. I called the same 520 phone number immediately and was asked to leave a voicemail, but couldn't because the voicemail box was full. Now I am mad and feel like I was scammed! I called on Monday 5/10 and was advised that the 2 florists in the area were unable to fill the order, so my order was cancelled!!! They didn't even have the consideration to call. I wish I would have been smarter and checked them out more thoroughly. DO NOT USE THE FLORIST CONCIERGE!! You will be disappointed for sure.