‘Innovations pay for themselves’
by Peter van Leth
pvanleth@hortipoint.nl
The organisers of the Home Garden Conference 2017 of Fleuroselect visited several companies, including Selecta One, horticultural breeder and young plant nursery in Stuttgart. And since the theme was ‘consumer marketing’, the company shared their experience in that particular field with us.
The conversation mainly focused on petunia Night Sky and garden carnation Pink Kisses. Pink Kisses is actually the company’s very first brand. It was so successful that they wanted more.
Petunia Night Sky
Innovations are of enormous importance to Selecta One: in general, they all pay for themselves. That’s at least what Nils Klemm, one of their directors, thinks. It’s definitely true for petunia Night Sky. The breed is successful, both in competitions and commercially. It won the Fleurostar Award in 2015.
The company knew pretty quickly that Night Sky had the potential to become a hit. Although, says Klemm: ,,In the beginning, we would be worried about the stability of the breed, if we saw a plain purple flower without any white spots.
But consumers are enthusiastic about the variation in the sense that they feel that the white spots may occur later on in the season. Goes to show how important it is to have an understanding of consumer preferences.”
Petunia Night Sky has been doing well in northern Europe. In southern Europe the flower sometimes stays too blue, because of the high night-temperatures or excessive light. The number of cuttings for the northern European market will be doubled to two million next year.
,,Growers in particular, had their doubts but are starting to see the potential of this petunia. Not as something to mix with, but as a solo product”, says salesperson René Olsthoorn.
If possible, Selecta One will try to protect its innovations, either by name, by breed, or by launching something completely new such as the double osteospermum or double calibrachoa.
They also conduct research into how the spots in Night Sky occur genetically. That might help protect this mechanism. The spots can be reproduced in other colours too, so a serie is not out of the question.
Pink Kisses
Potted carnations generally don’t have a large wow factor, but Selecta One thought that Pink Kisses was quite charming. However, the crop wasn’t considered to be anything more than just a garden carnation. A perennial plant for the garden.
Everyone said Nils Klemm was crazy when he wanted to turn it into a brand. Especially since the company had never communicated directly with consumers before.
,,It wasn’t easy to make the transition from a rational product to an emotional product, which consumers will specifically ask for. Especially when you’re talking about a garden carnation as a gift”, says Richard Petri, marketing director. But his boss was right.
This season (2016/2017), Selecta One expects to sell about ten million Pink Kisses, two million more than in 2015/2016 and six million more than in 2014/2015.
With a slick promotional campaign and a well managed advertising budget, they got the German building market chain OBI and the Dutch garden centre chain Intratuin to offer Pink Kisses as a brand, something which those stores usually restrict to their own brands.
Potted carnations generally don’t have a large wow factor, but Selecta One thought that Pink Kisses was quite charming.
