Will Downers grove become FTD's grave?
The days of FTD are akin to those of the yellow pages - over. Once a behemothic institution - one that was an essential intermediary between flower buyers and their recipients - is no longer relevant. A disastrous 4th quarter of 2016, the failure and subsequent dismissal of CEO Robert Apatoff and then a dismal 1st quarter performance during 2017 saw shares plummet. Indeed, the stock dropped 25% in one day, leaving the ‘men of mercury’ [sic] wilting like a wet weekend. Moreover, an investigation into some ‘questionable’ accounting has further tarnished, what is left of the company's shimmer.
It’s not that brand FTD has ‘gone bad’, or that it has worsened; simply it’s 'had its day' - the need for its services is clearly over and will, in a short time, see itself in those painful annals of corporate history. FTD has not moved with the times. Ask the average millennial what 'FTD' is and they’ll probably tell you it’s an 'abbreviation used when texting'.
Apatoff's ‘nail-in-the-coffin’ mistake was that he did not invest in evolving FTD’s products, both technical and floral; ironic for a former CEO of Net Zero. Possibly entrenched in a quagmire of old-time bureaucracy and small-picture-thinking, he did not move the brand into the millennial epoch. The main FTD website is a cacophony of colorful messes. The arrangements are ‘nice’ but the apparent audience is middle-aged with pictures of nice sofa and 'staged' generic home interiors. We’ve seen the flowers before - they’re nice, but then so was Mr.Rogers and his neighbors. This is not what's wanted, though, and the results are painfully obvious.
For the member florists, those FTD-supplied websites are even worse in terms of aesthetic, almost suggesting that the local member florist is second-division; amateurs. Technical support is based on a different continent, where a foreigner would attempt to throw up a Facebook logo for a website, against a black background. This 'support', resulting in something that looks like the tech' had yet to master Microsoft paint, let alone a web platform. Back in the USA, their technical support superiors do not have the modern tools to make much of an aesthetic difference to the overall look and feel of a site; the proverbial sow’s ear comes to mind. For all of that, in intrinsic and essential part of FTD - that of processing orders and sending them from shop-to-shop is now as dead as the Dodo. Like any intermediary, they’re fine as long as they play a role in traversing a complicated, challenging or legal path to what the customer ultimately wants. If it’s not too difficult to achieve results without the use of an intermediary, then the market will ultimately correct the problem and rid the world of the middle-men.
Sending a flower order from LA to New York, via FTD, is akin to the purchaser of a shirt in Miami, using a paid middleman in D.C, to ensure they’d be delivered to his kid in Boston; the process is about as arduous as this sentence - the concept ridiculous. However, that’s the premise of the FTD’s work, for which they charge their ‘members’ and their ‘customers’ many dollars.
I allege that Apatoff’s team also let him down. Where many local florists are truly ‘going green’ and using recyclable materials in which to present their wares, they’re also launching websites that blow those of FTD out of the floral waters. These young ‘disruptors’ are cutting web inventory to a manageable size, reducing choices and then assessing every aspect of their work - from product performance to SEO. From choosing modern backgrounds to utilizing cloths, cards and recycled glassware, their's is the genuine work of the local artisan - more flowers, less ‘fees’. The work of the modern, young florists, such a that of Kevin and Julianna McCarthy (of the eponymous McCarthy Group) has a new, youthful feel about it. Descriptions are clean, add-ons minimal and the designs chic -some are even sassy and audacious. Moreover, with the choices our millennial floral technologists are making, their sites are more user-friendly, have a cleaner branding, easy navigation and feature real ‘home-grown work’. Customers who need service are not directed to an 800 number somewhere south of the equator but are speaking to the florist themselves - sometimes to the designer who made the arrangement. Cool accents stimulate the senses and add value - branding stamps and even hand-written cards are being offered. Raffia ties, burlap bows and bouquets and exquisite fillers such as dusty miller may have been influenced by pictures of the Pinterest populous, but guess what - THESE are the consumers. FTD simply failed to 'catch on and catch up'.
Apertoff, for all of his attempts at making the mercury man fly, never got him off the ground. Mr.Mercury is tired, alright - I believe he’s 103 years old this year, which is time for anyone to retire. However, in the case of this icon, the sadness is that, like the milkman, within a couple of generations, he’ll be a forgotten servant, but then mercury is not supposed to rust. Perhaps there’s hope.
It’s not that brand FTD has ‘gone bad’, or that it has worsened; simply it’s 'had its day' - the need for its services is clearly over and will, in a short time, see itself in those painful annals of corporate history. FTD has not moved with the times. Ask the average millennial what 'FTD' is and they’ll probably tell you it’s an 'abbreviation used when texting'.
Apatoff's ‘nail-in-the-coffin’ mistake was that he did not invest in evolving FTD’s products, both technical and floral; ironic for a former CEO of Net Zero. Possibly entrenched in a quagmire of old-time bureaucracy and small-picture-thinking, he did not move the brand into the millennial epoch. The main FTD website is a cacophony of colorful messes. The arrangements are ‘nice’ but the apparent audience is middle-aged with pictures of nice sofa and 'staged' generic home interiors. We’ve seen the flowers before - they’re nice, but then so was Mr.Rogers and his neighbors. This is not what's wanted, though, and the results are painfully obvious.
For the member florists, those FTD-supplied websites are even worse in terms of aesthetic, almost suggesting that the local member florist is second-division; amateurs. Technical support is based on a different continent, where a foreigner would attempt to throw up a Facebook logo for a website, against a black background. This 'support', resulting in something that looks like the tech' had yet to master Microsoft paint, let alone a web platform. Back in the USA, their technical support superiors do not have the modern tools to make much of an aesthetic difference to the overall look and feel of a site; the proverbial sow’s ear comes to mind. For all of that, in intrinsic and essential part of FTD - that of processing orders and sending them from shop-to-shop is now as dead as the Dodo. Like any intermediary, they’re fine as long as they play a role in traversing a complicated, challenging or legal path to what the customer ultimately wants. If it’s not too difficult to achieve results without the use of an intermediary, then the market will ultimately correct the problem and rid the world of the middle-men.
Sending a flower order from LA to New York, via FTD, is akin to the purchaser of a shirt in Miami, using a paid middleman in D.C, to ensure they’d be delivered to his kid in Boston; the process is about as arduous as this sentence - the concept ridiculous. However, that’s the premise of the FTD’s work, for which they charge their ‘members’ and their ‘customers’ many dollars.
I allege that Apatoff’s team also let him down. Where many local florists are truly ‘going green’ and using recyclable materials in which to present their wares, they’re also launching websites that blow those of FTD out of the floral waters. These young ‘disruptors’ are cutting web inventory to a manageable size, reducing choices and then assessing every aspect of their work - from product performance to SEO. From choosing modern backgrounds to utilizing cloths, cards and recycled glassware, their's is the genuine work of the local artisan - more flowers, less ‘fees’. The work of the modern, young florists, such a that of Kevin and Julianna McCarthy (of the eponymous McCarthy Group) has a new, youthful feel about it. Descriptions are clean, add-ons minimal and the designs chic -some are even sassy and audacious. Moreover, with the choices our millennial floral technologists are making, their sites are more user-friendly, have a cleaner branding, easy navigation and feature real ‘home-grown work’. Customers who need service are not directed to an 800 number somewhere south of the equator but are speaking to the florist themselves - sometimes to the designer who made the arrangement. Cool accents stimulate the senses and add value - branding stamps and even hand-written cards are being offered. Raffia ties, burlap bows and bouquets and exquisite fillers such as dusty miller may have been influenced by pictures of the Pinterest populous, but guess what - THESE are the consumers. FTD simply failed to 'catch on and catch up'.
Apertoff, for all of his attempts at making the mercury man fly, never got him off the ground. Mr.Mercury is tired, alright - I believe he’s 103 years old this year, which is time for anyone to retire. However, in the case of this icon, the sadness is that, like the milkman, within a couple of generations, he’ll be a forgotten servant, but then mercury is not supposed to rust. Perhaps there’s hope.