2024 Trend Predictions and Product Development Insight with Ellie

Episode 208: Vonda and Lori welcome back  Ellie LaFever, PFCI. 
Ellie shares her invaluable insights and expertise on the process of creating fresh flower designs for the Flower Clique library of images for member websites. With a focus on the importance of having an open mind, Ellie discusses the key factors to consider when developing new floral products that capture the attention and imagination of customers.

As we look toward the future, Ellie also provides intriguing predictions for the floral industry in 2024. Discover what trends she foresees emerging in the coming years and gain a competitive edge in staying ahead of the curve.

Whether you are an aspiring florist, a seasoned professional, or simply have a love for beautiful blooms, this podcast episode is packed with inspiration and practical advice. Join Vonda, Lori, and Ellie as they explore the world of fresh flower product development and share their excitement for the future of floral design.

Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

That's what kind of scares us about this industry with shops closing and stuff, is because it's you either adapt or die.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Welcome to the business and pleasure of flowers. We're your hosts, Vonda LaFever.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

And Lori Wilson. And we believe that business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Vonda. Hello, Vonda LaFever and Ellie LaFever. Hey, Miss Lori. Hello, girls. How are y'all doing? Hanging on by a thread. How about yourself? Hanging on by a thread. What is it you said earlier before Vonda got on that we were laughing? Your internet said what?

SPEAKER_01 0:51

I don't know. Something like internet is struggling to work is struggling. Network is struggling. And I was like, God, that is just the theme of my life. Our internal networks are struggling.

SPEAKER_03 1:05

Internal network struggling. That's what it is. I was like, ain't it the truth? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

Well, the other favorite is the app is not focused.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

App is not focused either. Thanks for tuning in today, despite all that, everybody. That's all. That is I got we all got all of those going on right now. Maybe between the three of us. It makes like one solid brain.

SPEAKER_03 1:30

Yes, yes. You know, speaking of app not focused and struggling network, I was working on some of our members' emails last night. And you know that is always a red flag, Vonda. You know, if I'm working on their emails after 4 p.m. at any point, that's a bad idea. But here's what I've learned about myself. I keep them in draft. I never feel them to go out because I know myself. And so I had about six of them. They were all some custom type ones. And so I had them all in draft. And I went in this morning to check them because they were to go out this morning. Every single one of them had an error of some sort. And I was like, this is why. This is why anything after, I mean, I was working on them at like seven o'clock, you know. This wasn't even after three.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

You and I, our brains are not as this is not good. Quickly functioning, yes, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 2:36

But I know myself to know uh well enough to know, put them in draft, do the best you can, put them in draft, and refine them at 7 a.m. Not 7 p.m.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

For sure. Speaking of creativity, we had a shop talk last week that we had a little bit of challenge, would we call it?

SPEAKER_03 3:02

Pushback. Pushback. We had some honest conversation and we did. And it was good. It was open dialogue. That's what I'm gonna call it, because I believe open dialogue, open discussion is always good. And you know what I love for people that are listening that don't know what Shop Talk is, is for our Flower Click members, and we have it once a month, and we have two sessions: an afternoon session and an evening session. This was one of those sessions, and we were talking about our new Christmas product. I anyway, some of our new products that are on the websites, and some of our members were expressing their their concerns about some of them based on I I wasn't quite sure there the being able to get those flowers, some of them were painted, was that the the biggest painted or color-enhanced, right? Or things like that, and they were really concerned because they didn't understand, or some of them don't do that, and so the thing was none of this was said out of anger, they were just expressing their concern and what I what I loved at first. We all were like, oh no, where's this dialogue gonna go? But what the overall feeling that I got out of the whole thing was I love that this is such a safe community that they know they can speak up and speak the their truth in love, right? And we receive it and we can speak back in love and say we're listening, we understand, here's what we were thinking. Let's talk through this together and work through it. So we kind of wanted to talk about it today because we listened, you Ellie and I, and Cammy and Audrey, all of us on there, and we've been thinking about it a lot, and we wanted to kind of have a little discussion about it.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

Yeah, I think what we want to really want to do is bring Ellie in with this and say, what is the process that we use for product development? It's not like we kind of said, oh, well, let's just spray some flowers and put them in, right? Right. That wasn't the idea. It is really researched. And Ellie, why don't you share with us the process you go through when we start working on new products for the website or for Flower Click?

SPEAKER_01 5:39

For sure. I will. But before that, I did want to say, like, I think the beautiful thing about the relationship between us and our members is that this is all we do, right? So we have an exorbitant amount of energy that goes into this. But at the same time, our members are in the trenches, and so they're testing, they're seeing, you know, what works, what doesn't work in terms of implementation, right? Or in terms of the physicality of things. So what I love is that, like you said, we can have that open dialogue. And because we're a small company, because we do it all ourselves internally, we're able to be agile to adjust the thermostat. Yeah. Anyway, just wanted to say that. I think it's a nice special relationship that a lot of times with your web host seems like they're so far away and they're so out of touch, or you don't feel like your voice is heard. I feel like that is one positive, among others, within our membership is that we're right here, we're attainable. You know, Vonda and I can shoot something tomorrow if we have to.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

Well, like you said, we listen and we do four to six photo shoots a year. So it's not like we're just like, oh, that's it till next year. Right. So yeah, it's it really does make a huge difference.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Yep. So for product development, I think it's pretty cool because I also wanted to mention that Vonda in her past life worked in product development in China. And since I was little, I always thought it was just such a cool concept. And then when I was in college, I one of my cousin's friends designed jewelry for like anthropology and some of those brands, and she would go to flea markets and find vintage items and kind of like recreate or build on that. Anyways, just fascinating. So I feel very lucky to be in the position that I am with you guys in helping in product development. So there's three main things that we look at within product development. The first is research, the second is the development, and the third is the test, the testing. So within the research, going back to these painted flowers, for instance, um, specifically a hydrangea or uh maybe a smaller accent bloom, it starts with the inspiration. So we're not just pulling that out of nowhere. We're looking at online sources like Instagram, Pinterest, looking at the trends. We're looking at tastemakers within those spaces that have a larger following that are introducing a new concept. We are looking at physical markets such as Proflora and Bogota, such as Alsmere in Amsterdam or Maison d'Abjet in Paris. Those kind of places really set the tone for what the trends are going to be in the upcoming years. And then zooming in on specific colors like our Pantone color of the year peach fuzz, which we can table and talk about towards the end here. Different textures, different materials, different vessels, even when it comes down to the different photography styles, the lighting and the background and things like that. So we're gathering information on inspiration. And this is also helpful. Like if you want to develop your own products for your website, this is our process. Feel free to steal it. So the inspiration is one part, but then you have to mix it with practicality. So, what are the price points that you need? What are the retail prices? What are the wholesale prices? What are the current cost of flowers as the market fluctuates? Then we go into what our data is showing. What are the best sellers on our members' websites? What are the most searched recipes on our portal? Looking at all of those and aggregating that data to make calculated decisions for the future. And I think I mentioned the concept of a thermostat. So it has to be set just right for retail. So it's not too out there as a new trend. It's still able to be replicated in a retail format, but still introducing a new element that is trend forward, whether that's a color, whether that's a new flower or texture or the vessel, etc. So we gather all that. So the inspiration and the practicality. That's the research. Then we create our concepts. Vonda puts together the list of flowers that are needed and the mood boards and the colors and the styles, and we get to work. And Lori gets to come and help us. And it's super fun, but it is stressful, right? You're in the weeds of it all. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 10:48

You're actually doing the snacks during this time. There are seismic things.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

There is wine at night, those things.

SPEAKER_03 10:56

Wine at night and snacks during the day.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Yep. And space heaters if it's cold. Space heaters, yes, because it is very cold.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

Running back and forth to the cooler. Yes. Okay. But we are also during that time, I will say, we're always looking on like Instagram, Pinterest. We're constantly looking at photographs and other things to see what are other people looking at, what's inspiring other people to make sure we are on the right track.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

For sure. And what I thought you were gonna say there is during the photo shoots, you're sending photos to members. Well, I am, and getting their feedback, and then they're like, wait, I need this, I need this design. And so we're there, we're there for the week or however long, and yep, or maybe a couple days even, and we're doing it.

SPEAKER_03 11:50

Yep, there's a handful of them that I will send that I know will speak truth, right? And some of them are like, eh, I don't know about that one. And we will take a deep breath and go, okay, what do you think needs to be changed?

SPEAKER_01 12:05

You know, we have those people. And we do have two people on staff as our creative consultants, Julie Potler and Abby Chick, that also um both have retail shops and help us a lot.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

But it's not as easy as that, right? So we have our ideas, we have our flowers, we come in, we start putting it together, yeah, we send it back and forth. But sometimes we get it there and we get it in front of the camera and we go, nope, that's not gonna work.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

That's a good point. So not only just the planning phase and then implementing the planning, you have to adjust and pivot in the development.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Oftentimes, yeah. I think some of the color combinations that we came up with within the last couple of years that we thought were gonna be so cool. Once we got them there, got them in front of the camera, we want this gonna work. Yeah, yeah, it's so surprising.

SPEAKER_03 12:56

It really is. I want to say something. You were talking about painted flowers and throughout this whole thing, and we're gonna continue, but I want to make sure people understand you're not talking about like tie dye flowers or some sort of fluorescent, crazy right. The painted flowers you're referring to that we have in our bouquets. I have to be honest, from from my point of view as a buyer of flowers to send to people, I had no idea they were painted. Like someone mentioned in Shop Talk about the hydrangea, the painted hydrangea. They're like, that's not a natural color. My mind was blown. I did not know that that burgundy hydrangea wasn't a real color because it's a normal, quote unquote, normal color in real world, right? It's not like some funky color that I would walk into a Kroger. No offense to Kroger. I shop at Kroger grocery store. I just don't buy flowers. But if I was to walk in like uh, that's what when I think of painted flowers, so I just wanted to make that clear to our listeners. We're not talking about that kind of painted flower.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

So, Lori, I want to circle back to that after I do my last thing on testing because I think that just having you on the team as the consumer is also super valuable. So let me get back to that. But testing. Testing is the third part of the product development. So once, you know, we've shot them, we've edited, we've added them to the e-commerce site, how did it compare to your inspiration? Did it hit the mark? What's it missing? What did the data show that people like to purchase? Was it a flop or did it work? So then after that, like for instance, the cherry bouquet, cherry bundle, that is what these burgundy sprayed hydrangeas. At first, they were white, right? It was a cherry bouquet. And we had shot it many different ways for the past two years. And in our minds at that time, how can we make this better? How can we make this a little bit different, a different look without changing up the inventory of 250, 300 shops, etc.? So that's where that that adjusting comes in, I guess. Speaking like from what just happened in the past in then the testing. And speaking to that, painted flowers are not for everybody, especially if you're not getting the bouquets from us. You don't want to spray when it's winter and you don't have a spray booth. That's fine. That's fine. I think the bigger picture here is you don't have to follow every market trend. You don't you need to know what sells in your market, what your competition's doing, what your customers want, and just being open to that because that's what kind of scares us about this industry with shops closing and stuff, is because it's you either adapt or die, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

And that's kind of where we come in as that consultant to say you don't have to follow everything we say, but just be open to these things.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

Right. And I think that's the key is many times as a business owner, and I can speak as a former business owner, it's like we buy or we put on our website things that we like, right? It's like, oh, this is this is our look, this is what we like, this is what flowers, et cetera, was all about. But when we open our mind and say, you know, maybe if I do something a little different, painted flowers or brighter colors, I might bring in a different market that isn't my normal customer, but it's gonna increase my sales because now I have a new consumer also shopping front with me instead of just the same consumer that I continued to service. But I do think oftentimes, and I will have to say I was totally guilty of this, right? People would come in, they'd say, I want to spray rose. I want a blue rose. Well, you know what? God didn't make a blue rose, so we're not gonna make one either. Kind of is what we said. Well, that was the deal, right? You did not spray flowers back then. Now, my gosh, they come that way from the farms when they get all the different mixed colors of roses or hydrangea that are available from the farm level, and you don't necessarily have to do that in the store. So I hear what you're saying, Ellie, you know, is yes, I need to make sure I'm mindful of what my audience or my consumers are used to purchasing, but how are they gonna know that I can even do anything other than that if I don't at least step outside the circle a little and try something?

SPEAKER_01 18:12

So for a lot of retail shops who say they have a very traditional customer base and their customer likes this and only this, and therefore they only offer this product, these kind of products, to them, I would say those customers are not going to be your customers forever, right? Existentially, they're just not. And so we have to try to be open to the fact that millennials and Gen Z are liking something that is completely different in so many ways. So I think that that's just important to be able to adapt to those new trends and dip your toes. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. It's about offering something for everybody, which I think is uh absolutely uh attainable.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

And that's what we have to do if we're gonna continue to thrive, uh you know, definitely. So we were talking about the painted flowers, we're talking about that being somewhat of a trend, but what kind of trends, Ellie, are you seeing for 2024? What would we want to maybe put out there beside, of course, the new Pantone color of the year for 2024?

SPEAKER_01 19:33

Yes, so uh Peach Buzz is Pantone's color of the year, soft pinkish orange hue. First of all, what do you guys think of it? I love it. I I think it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 19:46

I'm not a big peach girl. I am pink. I am pink, I like coral, but I am, you know, I like the pink family more.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

But I don't hate it. Yeah, I think it's very safe. I think it's very safe.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Yes, yes, so it was a safe color for them to choose. That's my opinion. I don't hate it, I don't love it.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

No doubt.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:13

I think it's gonna show up in a lot of weddings. It's gonna show up in a lot of weddings this summer, I bet.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

Yeah. So Pinterest came out with their 2024 trends based on what people are pinning, which I think is just amazing. So they had like a whole pop-up about it in person that people could go to. I also looked at some articles by companies or publications for commentary from different people, and so I aggregated some of those trends, and these are just soft predictions. I'm just gonna go through them quickly. And also the thing that I want to do that I'm not gonna do today is apply it in real life because these are very abstract concepts, and so I think especially for us, it's helpful to get like examples, but I don't have those today for you. So you're just gonna have to do the abstract. The first one is maximalism, so more is more and more. Gone are the minimalist whites and sad beige and extreme minimalism. The wholesome, natural, beige, quiet, wobby-sabby look is gonna fade. And in that, in their place, patterns, textures, prints, mixing all of those, that lived-in worldly feel is all about is is the maximalism.

SPEAKER_03 21:46

You know who's gonna struggle, Ellie, in twenty twenty four is Kim Kardashian.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

Yes, their entire house. It's sad beige, Robbie Savvy. Yeah. Oh my goodness, how can Kimford? No, she's I think she can afford it.

SPEAKER_03 22:03

So she'll throw up some wallpaper. Maximalism and the color, the color of some of the stuff.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

So color is another one. People want in overall, like the vibe of like positivity is gonna be a trend and relationships and happy and vibrant, and with that, vibrant colors, happy graphics, those are gonna come into play. Side note about the maximalism with like the textures and the prints. I was watching Home Alone uh this past weekend. I think every wall, every wall in that house is wallpapered. And every couch, and I mean, I just couldn't believe it. As I was staring at my walls and they're all like white and blank, and it was just crazy.

SPEAKER_03 22:53

So that was our world, Vonda, growing up.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Somebody said that, yeah, somebody said that they should do like a wallpaper collection, like based on Home Alone's wallpapers.

SPEAKER_03 23:08

My mom was a wallpaper queen. Was she? Oh yes. We just I had so many different wallpapers in my bedroom. I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

Did you just slap a new one on top? You didn't have peeling stick back in the day.

SPEAKER_03 23:21

She'd peel them out. Oh no, you would did the paste, it was the whole thing. But the Laura Ashley prints, oh my gosh, that was a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Googling that right now.

SPEAKER_03 23:36

Or the Waverly. Laura Ashley or Waverly prints. Those were the big deals.

SPEAKER_02 23:41

I love Laura Ashley had bridal dresses, didn't they? Laura Ashley.

SPEAKER_03 23:46

They had maternity dresses. They had the big floral prints. They had they had everything.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

It's interesting, Ellie, that you talk about the happy graphics, positivity, because Thursday, you know, Thursday the publication, their 2024 theme is the sky's the limit, which is interesting. And it's sky blue and bright white, because it's all about representing boundless aspirations. Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

Interesting. Yeah, everybody's using the cloud graphic everywhere, like a background of like a sky with a cloud, and yeah. So makes sense. Um okay, the next one is retro revival. So I saw 60s and 70s. Pinterest, you know, was talking about eclectic grandpa. So yeah, it's retro hues, so it's bringing in those colors and a lot of the retro hues. And what I kind of interpreted, I think in the past couple years, nostalgia has been a huge thing, whether it's in marketing campaigns or reproducing products from the past. This next year, I think we'll be more serious about nostalgia, like actually implementing it rather than it being like, oh, it's nostalgia, it's like satire, it's like funny, it's cute. I think now it'll be like, for instance, for instance, this is a perfect example of something personally. I have been scouring Facebook Marketplace for a small roll top secretary desk.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

No.

SPEAKER_01 25:31

I never in my life growing up with one, I never in my life would have thought that I would want that in my own home. Never.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

But I do. And it's it's not only nostalgia, but it's like the appreciation for it. So it's not just like an ironic thing. It's I think just more and more. And I think this just happens. People have an appreciation for the past. Thrifting has gone up like a huge percent, huge percent from past years. So that's gonna be a huge thing with that retro revival, is thrifting and the idea that I saw something that said rare is forever. Things from the past that aren't necessarily super trendy, but they're just well designed.

SPEAKER_03 26:12

My daughter, almost every single thing in her apartment is thrifted, like she will not buy anything.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

She's younger than me. What? She's 25, 26, 26, 27.

SPEAKER_03 26:24

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. 27. So she thrifts, and or it's from one of her grandmothers. Like that's all she wants, are things that have a story behind them.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

Yeah. I love that.

SPEAKER_03 26:37

So when you think about our industry, what Vonda and Ellie, we've talked about this a hundred times. You know, it's the experience walking into a flower shop. People want that experience. They want to know if you have cool planters, if you have cool stuff, they want to know what the product is, kind of the story behind it, the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 26:59

That's what people want to know.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Meaning and relationship with that.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

Relationship with it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 27:05

They want meaning, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

So those are the big ones. Three other things are curved shapes. So just soft lines, playful waves, cozy and homey. So a lot of people in like TikTok ads are making the feeling of cozy and homey. Because think of how many people work from home now versus 2019. Your space really is just that much more important. And so people are investing in their space and specifically cozy, homey. And then bows, bows everywhere. Bower back everywhere. Yeah. And I think that one could be, I mean, we're not talking the the big, the big bows, but you could definitely do stuff with that um within floral. And like multiple bows on things. Yep. Lots of bows. Tiny bows. Bows with long streamers. Interesting. Very interesting. That's the short list of overall concepts. Um we'll follow up with you in January, February to see what we see playing out.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

Well, and we plan on having uh our special guest, Sarah Batrick from Pioneer Imports and Wholesales. She always comes in January, gives us some of her um predictions on trends coming in 2024. So we will get more colors basically and textures in that. So this is great, Ellie. This was this was fun. I didn't know all of this. So it's really good. Who knows what our new photo shoot will be coming up in January and again in March.

SPEAKER_01 28:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:42

This is I have a bunch of bows on it.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

We promise we won't do that. Maybe one bow. Okay. One bow. That's all I've got.

SPEAKER_02 28:54

So I think the takeaway is um to be open-minded and be willing to try something in the future.

SPEAKER_03 29:01

For me, the takeaway, if I was a shop owner, uh, like you were saying, you don't have to jump in on every trend, but you do need to be aware of them. Be aware of what the trends are and maybe pick one or two to showcase just so whoever does go to your website or your social media can see. Oh wow, they're pretty talented. They can they can do a plethora of things, right? Like I want I want them to make my stuff just to be able to showcase that you guys are multifaceted.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

Definitely. And forward thinking. Nobody wants to be stuck in the past.

SPEAKER_03 29:45

Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoyed spending time with us because we enjoy spending time with you. If you did, make sure you hit that subscribe button or add the business and pleasure of flowers to your Google morning routine or your flash briefing on Alexa. We look forward to seeing you next week.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

So please come back and join us knowledge and change in your mindset and take you to new levels in your life and business.