In the journey from that first retail flower shop founded in Manhattan by Jim McCann in 1976 to the gift-giving resource giant known as 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc., the trajectory of the company has been one of growth. From that first location and over the next ten years, McCann went on to open 13 more stores. In 1986, the company secured the toll-free phone number 1-800-Flowers and adopted it as its name. An exciting opportunity to become the first merchant provider to appear on AOL opened up in 1994. The company’s own website went live in 1995, and in 1999, the company was renamed 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. in conjunction with its IPO.
The 2000s were one of expansion as the company began to offer more products. Multiple digital and voice platforms were developed in the 2010s, giving customers more ways to shop. Today, gift-givers are presented with a broad variety of choices as 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. offers products through more than a dozen different brands encompassing gourmet food, personalized products, and, of course, bouquets of flowers. With such a wide selection of offerings, the company can serve a diverse customer base that seeks to celebrate important moments, give messages of comfort in difficult times, and improve relationships with friends and family members through the act of sending a meaningful gift.
Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty360, spoke with Jason John, CMO at 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc., about the brand’s Celebrations Passport loyalty program, how communications reflect enterprise values at the brand level, and how the company’s focus on helping customers develop better relationships builds better loyalty.
Read the full article on Loyalty360 here: https://loyalty360.org/content-gallery/in-depth-exclusives/1-800-flowers-helping-customers-build-meaningful-relationships-builds-better-customer-loyalty
In the journey from that first retail flower shop founded in Manhattan by Jim McCann in 1976 to the gift-giving resource giant known as 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc., the trajectory of the company has been one of growth. From that first location and over the next ten years, McCann went on to open 13 more stores. In 1986, the company secured the toll-free phone number 1-800-Flowers and adopted it as its name. An exciting opportunity to become the first merchant provider to appear on AOL opened up in 1994. The company’s own website went live in 1995, and in 1999, the company was renamed 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. in conjunction with its IPO.
The 2000s were one of expansion as the company began to offer more products. Multiple digital and voice platforms were developed in the 2010s, giving customers more ways to shop. Today, gift-givers are presented with a broad variety of choices as 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. offers products through more than a dozen different brands encompassing gourmet food, personalized products, and, of course, bouquets of flowers. With such a wide selection of offerings, the company can serve a diverse customer base that seeks to celebrate important moments, give messages of comfort in difficult times, and improve relationships with friends and family members through the act of sending a meaningful gift.
Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty360, spoke with Jason John, CMO at 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc., about the brand’s Celebrations Passport loyalty program, how communications reflect enterprise values at the brand level, and how the company’s focus on helping customers develop better relationships builds better loyalty.
Read the full article on Loyalty360 here: https://loyalty360.org/content-gallery/in-depth-exclusives/1-800-flowers-helping-customers-build-meaningful-relationships-builds-better-customer-loyalty
Good afternoon, good morning. It's Mark Johnson from Loyalty 360. Everyone's happy, safe and well Wanted to welcome you to another episode of our Leaders in Customer Loyalty series. In this series, we talk with brand leaders about what they are seeing and hearing on the front lines of customer channel and brand loyalty.
Speaker 1:Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Jason John. He's the Chief Marketing Officer at 1-800-FLOWERS. So, jason, very nice to meet you. Thank you for taking the time to join us today. We'd love to know a little bit more about the mission of your company. I know you are very focused on growing impactful, meaningful relationship with your customers. So how does a mission fit into again kind of the genesis of what you do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely I get it, and that is the mission is really helping our customers develop more and better relationships, and that's what we think about every day when we get up Our 17 brands across our portfolio brands all have that same mission and that same guiding principle. So we work very hard to unlock that through gifting, but also through other means like content, tools etc. That we put in to the consumer's hands to help break down those friction points and ability to manage those relationships.
Speaker 1:You mentioned friction points. We work with a number of brands. We're a growing brand association very focused on customer loyalty, but friction is kind of a term we hear a great deal about. What does removing the friction mean to you and your organization?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we have a really strong loyalty program called Celebration's Passport and that really allows the customer to take advantage of all the offerings that we have across our 17 brands. So not only does it unlock free shipping and free service fees for any gifts that they want to give across the year, across holidays, etc. But also maybe managing important dates, important address book information, keeping that all centralized so when they do want to act on their gift giving desires and again people do want to give gifts they do want to stay in contact with their relationships, especially if they're a long distance. You know gift giving is an important part of keeping that communication and that contact together. Celebration's Passport unlocks that so they're able to do that more efficiently and it doesn't hurt their pocket as much as it could if they didn't have a program like that.
Speaker 1:So the Celebration's passport, the premium program, allows for a unique engagement paradigm. You get transactional data from the 17th Brands, you can get interest, you have the calendar piece. So it really allows you an opportunity to simplify that engagement paradigm. But how do you do it effectively across those different 17 Brands?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's really the challenge. I mean, the number one challenge is to educate people that we do have that. So I'm sure even yourself or me, a lot of your listeners had no idea that 1-800-FLOWERS is actually a portfolio of 17 different Brands, ranging from our food group brand, which Gourmet Food we have Harry and David Cheryl's Cookies, the Popcorn Factory to our personalization group, which has personalization mall and things remembered. So there's a lot of gift-giving opportunity across all the recipients you can think about, across all the occasions you can think about, whether it's every day birthday, get well wishes, etc. Through holidays like Christmas, hanukkah time. Now is a very popular time for our Harry and David brand specifically. So for any occasion, any recipient, we have value there and I think education and educating the consumer that we have that and the core benefit of Celebration's passport, what that means to them, is super important for us to get right.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the Celebration's passport program is basically a fulcrum from some of your marketing efforts. You're creating some simplicity, you're creating some values you've talked about. So personalization is very important in understanding what products or services or content they may have an interest in are of utmost importance, I would assume. So how do you look at personalization within your organization?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's extremely important.
Speaker 2:And again, if you you know not to be, you know, going back from a traditional standpoint, but if you went into that local florist on Main Street for your gift-giving needs, you know you probably have a nice dialogue with that florist. They might even know your family members, they know what you've gotten in the past so they're able to recommend oh hey, we just got this beautiful bouquet. It's, you know, really a lot of purple in that. You know your mom loves purple, which my mom does. So you know, that kind of level of product recommendation, you know, is what we strive for, and the more that we can deliver on that, the more the consumer wants to share with us. And then it's a nice virtuous cycle of communication back and forth where the customer feels they know us and we feel we know them and we're able to act on that to make them a better gift-giver and to make them, you know, to break down that friction of expression and connection. That I think is super important for us to all do when it comes to maintaining relationships.
Speaker 1:Okay, when you look at the program, you know, at a high level, how does the program work, how do members engage with it and what are some of the benefits for the customers for partaking in the program.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the program is. We try to keep it as simple as possible. So there's three different tiers that you can get to, depending on how many points you collect. So you can get points through purchasing but through other means as well as engaging with our content.
Speaker 2:We have an amazing new newsletter called Celebration to Pulse that goes out every Sunday and is authored by our CEO and founder, jim McCann. That really talks more about relationships. It doesn't try to sell the consumer anything has nothing to do with commerce whatsoever, but it's more about relationships and the loneliness pandemic and really talking about, you know, the health and wellness side and the mental wellness side of having relationships and staying in communication with friends. So that that is a weekly newsletter that comes out every Sunday and then you can get points by engaging with that newsletter and reading the articles, liking, commenting etc. So we try to build in a nice combination of commerce and outside of transaction, beyond transaction, opportunities for a customer to get points and then ultimately again help grow a better and more meaningful relationship. So we think, you know, the loyalty program has to really fuel the company strategy and the company strategy is about the relationships of the loyalty program has to encourage that and the customer has to get value out of interacting with that program.
Speaker 1:When you look at your role as the chief marketing officer for this diverse set of 17 brands, you know what's the biggest challenge you face. What keeps you up at night?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, and now that my kids are older, I guess I can get another excuse for why I don't sleep. But I would say communication is probably the key hurdle and the thing that I need to make sure that I focus on on a daily basis. When you get 17 different brands in the portfolio in multiple places across the country it's Columbus, ohio, chicago, it's Medford, oregon, different time zones, you know different functional groups you know it's really communication is the key to make sure the enterprise values are reflected in each of the brands and that what the brands are trying to communicate to the customer all ladders up into the main vision of the company and where Jim wants to take us, you know, into the future. So I think communication is something we work on all the time and if there was one benefit that came out of the pandemic, it's just the tools and technology that we're able to utilize to make people feel like they're all connected. And you might be across the entire country, but you know you can feel like you're in the same room having interactions.
Speaker 1:Okay, when you look at the loyalty program, you continue to hone it, and I've read a lot recently with how you're looking at content personalized content to drive engagement. I also read a little bit about the program tiers GIFT, gift and GIFTastix. Can you talk to us a little bit about how you're using personalized content and drive people or incentivize people through the different tiers?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely so personalized content is. You know it sounds simple, but it is definitely a nuanced opportunity because people are going through different things in their life at different times, so you can't really be presumptuous of what somebody is going through. But at the same time you need to be able to offer sort of a content repository that's there for them when they need it. So, for instance, you know again how to write a sympathy card or you know sympathy GIFT and what's the right way to express yourself during those moments. That's not something that you could or would want to try to project or predict as a, as a company, but at the same time you want to be there for your consumer in those moments. So, just again, it's an education process. I think that's what I can stress the most. You know, and that's where the loyalty program really lean in on, the education process. You know education about the portfolio, what we offer, but then now about our content and our different content capabilities and sort of the nuances of our content that we get after.
Speaker 2:So again, whether it's sympathy, it's the right messaging, it's how to deal with loneliness, or you know how to deal with we had a series around adult male friendships and how that adult males tend to overlook friendships and the benefits that friendships really bring to the table. But sometimes you get sucked into other things in your life and you overlook those little things but ultimately it all adds up to the mental wellness component of it. So, trying to extend our content, reach well beyond the transaction and into you know areas that may be relevant for somebody and might not be relevant at that moment, but to educate them that we are there for them when that moment arises. And I think that is the key, you know, especially on the loyalty program side, is you are there when that person needs you in the manner that they would like you to interact with them. So that's the tools and the other things that we try to offer through this program and hitting the different tiers and tying the point value system, you know, with those types of behaviors.
Speaker 1:You mentioned kind of the content, the training, understanding, kind of what the customers have an interest in, and also simplicity. So how do you effectively do that across 17 different brands, because how one may engage is going to be different. We talked a little bit about personalization and how you're leveraging the loyalty program. Now how do you keep the content simple, the communication simple, so that everyone can, you know, understand and engage with it, because you know everyone's over communicated to today. So, yeah, you do that in such an effective manner.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, I think you know. I think two things to probably highlight on that, you know. The first is what are the core values that you want to communicate around and in a simplified form that you know you're talking three or four of those core values that need to be outwardly projected by the brands. Now, when you start to get into the brand level, they can take those core values and put their spin on it. You know, I'll give you an example. So you know, if celebrations is a is a big core value, we want to make sure, especially on birthdays, that there's a celebratory opportunity there. Well, cheryl's cookies might talk a lot more about kids' birthday parties, whereas Harry and David will not talk about that. They're more about the adult relationships and adult birthday parties. So more about entertaining and recipes. But Cheryl's is about how to create a fun birthday party for, for young ones and maybe a cookie charcuterie board that could be a really nice thing to have at a child's birthday party. So again, the core value was simple. You know we want people to celebrate these core moments in their life, but then it translates slightly differently from the brand and the brand with their own spin on it. So I think that's. That's probably the the the most key concept to keeping simple.
Speaker 2:And then it's channel transfer or channel translations. I should say so you, you can't take a long, long form blog content and put it in your email that's being read on a mobile device and expect people to interact with it in the way you want. So do you have the right people to take that core content and say how do I translate that really at the channel level so it starts to resonate a little bit more for the customer? So in social media we won't have a you know three page blog article around a certain topic, but we will have some snackable content, maybe some link to interactive tools you know from your mobile device, or our Celebrations Passport app where you can get a lot of the content in more short form and opportunities to do other things within that app. But again, that's the channel translation from your core values, when your core content you're trying to translate is those are the two most important aspects working together.
Speaker 1:Okay, you mentioned some of the challenges you have with regard to kind of running a multi brand program? What are? Some of the opportunities you see from this, this diverse set of brands. You have to create engagement, to create a unique content. You probably some of the content you have. We've got some challenges. You know what are the opportunities for you in that regard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was a great question.
Speaker 2:I think you know again, once the education process happens and people understand the breadth of our portfolio, you really start to unlock the opportunity that we can solve problems for them throughout, basically any gift giving, communication, relationship hurdle that they're trying to get over or to celebrate.
Speaker 2:So when you think about again every relationship that you have and then by every occasion that you can interact with that consumer whether it's with a gift or with an expression, with a certain sentiment you know we can solve for that. So the great opportunity is we now, with a portfolio of 17 brands, can solve for a lot of potential problems or opportunities or celebrations from the consumer. So I think to me just being able to harness that and through celebrations passport loyalty program that's that's part of the growth strategy is, like you know, we need to communicate that to the customer that this program can really help you grow those relationships and develop more meaningful relationships. So it's really the core of what the company has to offer is really through our celebrations passport program and we really think it's a key unlock moving forward from a growth standpoint Excellent.
Speaker 1:You have 1.3 million members and growing. How do you leverage feedback from your customers? That can be a big challenge for brands as well. You talked about listening a couple of times throughout this interview and how important that is, but brands struggle with listening. It's active, where hearing can be more passive. How are you actively listening to and understanding your customers? You have 1.3 million. How do you do that so effectively?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. I always stress to people, especially to younger marketers you have to consistently keep a pulse on your customers and understand what the macro environment and other issues that are affecting your segments and your customer segments If anything, again, the pandemic has taught us and now, with inflation and other macro news, that is not so good there's a lot of different external factors that are changing your customer's behavior and their mindset. You need to keep a pulse on what that mindset is because it flows into their behavior and how they want to interact with you. We do this through surveys. We do this through soliciting feedback.
Speaker 2:I mentioned the Celebrations Pulse newsletter that we send out. We always have say hey, give us the topics that are on your mind. What did you like, what did you not like? It's as simple as asking the questions. Then there's also channels like social media, where people will share their opinion with you. Whether you ask for it or not. It's going and making sure you're going through the listening tools and you're actually going in and reading it. You're reading the comments and understanding what's on the consumer's mind. There's many different ways to keep the pulse on the consumer, but I stress that as a core need for my marketing teams across the brands. Here is you need to keep up with that pulse. You need to understand what's impacting the consumer, from their own lives to the macro environment, and making sure that we're addressing that with them through our offering.
Speaker 1:Emotional loyalty is another very important topic to brands. Birthdays, holidays A lot of the things that you focus on are highly motive events. How do you imbue and cultivate emotional loyalty with your customers?
Speaker 2:I think it's really creating that personalized experience. I think that is really the key from a connection standpoint. Again, the more that we're able to break down that friction that we keep talking about and allow them to keep those relationships, keep those connections, help them with their expression and connection with those relationships, the more they're going to feel attached to us. Moving forward, again, it has to go beyond that transaction. It's not just simply sending a gift, but it's the right words to say, it's the right time, it's the right gift, all those things that we help with really start to connect us through an emotional standpoint, then that content really starts to round it out. If we start giving them advice and tips and recipes and how to do something cool, like a cookie shark crew to reward for a kid's birthday party, the more that we start to be present in their lives like that and add value, then it's really going to connect the dots from an emotional connection standpoint.
Speaker 1:Are there other programs that you admire from a customer loyalty, customer experience perspective? What do you like about their offerings? Are there elements of that program that you would like to introduce into your program?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. I'm actually a pretty big fan of the Walmart Plus program and what they've done. I think they've put a lot of work in enhancing that program and evolving it. I really appreciate the fact that they sink in a lot of external benefits with the program, for instance, discounts on gas purchases at select vendors, discounts with Paramount Plus from a video standpoint. To me, I'm actually really interested in external partnerships and being able to help our consumer in other ways with other like-minded brands. If there are any other brands listening today and they want to help grow their loyalty program through a partnership, certainly open to that, I can see us partnering with a bunch of brands out there, again, just from a consumer value standpoint, making sure that they understand these benefits and how they connect.
Speaker 1:Partnerships are a big area of interest in our member community. Especially, they can construct them in a way that has reciprocity and mutual value. It's not just a one-way hash where it's a redemption acquisition play, but partnerships are very important, especially with privacy regulations and everything else coming on. It's a huge opportunity.
Speaker 2:Definitely Totally agree.
Speaker 1:Last question what can LoL D360 do to help you and your team regarding your customer loyalty journey?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm a big fan of keeping the pulse on the consumer. So, as you guys look across a lot of different loyalty programs and have a lot of different partners that you meet with, speak with on a daily basis, you know, just keeping us up to date as far as what the consumer is looking for, what value seems to be working, what seems to be, you know, the main points of benefits that you know are being driven by different consumers and different age groups Because, again, somebody at 22 years old is looking at loyalty very differently from somebody who's 60 years old. So we just need to keep that in mind and making sure that we're adjusting and being flexible to our different segments in our audiences that are interacting. So the more value and insights you guys can bring to that, you know, would be certainly appreciated.
Speaker 1:Right Now it's time for our quickfire questions. Please limit these to one word or short phrases, or again, trouble with the editorial team. They didn't have one of those dog bracelets that they put around that the shock collars keep in, so I'll have to wear that later.
Speaker 2:I'm just kidding. I'll do my best.
Speaker 1:What's your favorite word?
Speaker 2:I would say forward. I love going forward and forward is the best. What's your least favorite word? I would say can't Okay.
Speaker 1:And what excites you?
Speaker 2:Right now I have two girls in travel soccer, so I think getting over the travel part is exciting right now and getting back back to more personal, what do you find tiresome? Tiresome. I would just say just the daily grind, just keeping up with it. That's definitely tiresome, but it's energizing at the same time. It's an equal and opposite reaction.
Speaker 1:What is your favorite flower?
Speaker 2:I'm going to go with the peony on that one. It's a go big or go home flower.
Speaker 1:I really like that about it, and what profession, other than the one you have now, would you like to attempt?
Speaker 2:I think psychiatry, I think diving into the mental wellness aspect has been something that I've enjoyed, so I would go on that route.
Speaker 1:Okay, who inspired you to become the person you are today?
Speaker 2:I think I did benefit from the leaderships that I was underneath. So I would say Martha Stewart, mickey Drexler, kevin Rine and Jim McGann are great leaders that all inspired me to be the person I am today.
Speaker 1:And what is your favorite book recommendation you make to colleagues?
Speaker 2:I kind of like the Purple Cow. It's a relatively older book but I just think the I think it has a really good message and has I refer to that even though it's been many years. I keep I refer to that a lot in my daily activities, so I would recommend people at least checking out.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of variation since then, but that was a that was a good one back in the day, that's it.
Speaker 1:It's a very good book, and let's see how would you want to be remembered by your friends and family.
Speaker 2:Just having a sense of humor, I think, through it all is probably pretty good. Just just good, good, good. Good personality and a good sense of humor.
Speaker 1:All right, great. Well, thank you very much for taking the time to talk to the state, Jason. It was very informative. You know you guys doing a lot of great things and keep up good work and looking forward to hearing more from you and your team coming up in the next year.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Thank you very much for having me. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Thank you for listening. Make sure you join us again for another edition of our Loot and Loyalty customer loyalty series soon and we'll talk to you then. Thanks, thanks.