In September of 2003 the Vermont Teddy Bear Company sought to expand on its current service offerings by acquiring the flower deliver service company Calyx and Corolla. A few years later, in 2007, the company was renamed to Calyx Flowers and in its time of operation has served as a healthy profit center for the Vermont Teddy Bear Company. However, while experiencing gross margins near 50%, the company does not believe that Calyx is performing to its full financial performance potential. The marketing problem lies in how Calyx maximizes/ sales revenue while being limited by a lack of resources to pursue multiple marketing approaches. To date the company has primarily focused its marketing efforts around catalogs mailed to existing customers, previous flower recipients, and other non-customers fitting the demographic of current customers. The Calyx marketing team identified increasing the catalogs mailed, increasing mass-media advertising (i.e. radio and television), and increased internet advertising as three potential avenues for future growth. The following is an argument for increased use of internet marketing to bolster the company’s exposure and sales revenue.
The most important goal of Calyx Flowers is to maximize sales revenue while under the impediment of limited resources and marketing budget. To obtain increased sales revenues the company must be focused around increasing and retaining customers. At the present, the floral industry is fragmented meaning no single enterprise has large enough market share to influence the industry’s direction. Calyx Flowers, however, has pioneered the concept of shipping flowers directly from the grower to the recipient. Currently, Calyx Flower’s customer demographic tends to be 30-55 year old females with middle to upper level salaries and higher than average levels of disposable income. The typical customer expects the freshest flowers, most unique arrangements, longest lasting and largest...