Sweet Smell of Success\' From:

¶ … Sweet smell of success'

From: The Australian Financial Review, November 24, 2009

Copyright, 2009, Fairfax Media Group

Thomas Hagerty's Ready Flowers is a great example of a technological-based company. Its' service uses technology to locate local florists in Australia, New Zealand and, in the near future, Hong Kong to fulfill online orders.

In the introduction of The New Positioning: The Latest on the World's #1 Business Strategy, Jack Trout defines positioning "not what you do to the product, but what you do to the mind." After analyzing data from Google Analytics, Ready Flowers learned that most consumers start their search with local florists. From this information, they have used technology to position themselves as "your local florist." This positioning statement focuses on perception and works for both Ready Flowers' consumer base and its' network of floral suppliers. The consumer is unaware that they are dealing with a central marketing company because a neighborhood florist fulfills their purchase. Ready Flowers' network of 2000 florists benefit from having a new marketing channel which is increasing their sales at low cost.

Using information from the online ordering process, Ready Flowers has been able to target its' customers on a suburb by suburb basis. Targeting you customer is a combination of selecting which consumers are best served by your product/service and the use of information on what type of consumers maximize you profit potential. (Interview with G. Piccirlli, marketing consultant, March 21, 2010). Targeting has helped the company select its florists and to create customized web-landing pages. By embedding location specific terms in Google AdWords, it has been able to attract customers from the geographies in which they have floral suppliers. This ability to attract geographic specific customers has allowed the company to create localized website landing pages which further reinforces its' brand positioning of "your local florist."