- Steven Peisach runs Pomp Flowers and sources his roses from his parents' farms in South America.
- His team started preparations in October to deliver 10,000 Valentine's Day orders across the US.
- Here's what the process of marketing and growing roses is like, as told to writer Jenny Powers.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Steven Peisach, a florist in Miami, Florida, about preparing for Valentine's Day. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Most people don't start thinking about Valentine's Day until the week or sometimes even the day before — but I'm not most people.
As the cofounder and CEO of Pomp Flowers, which is about to embark on its very first Valentine's Day in business, I've been preparing for this day for months with my cousin and cofounder, Ivette Harrouche.
This is our version of the Super Bowl.
Our story begins 30 years ago when my parents first started investing in and operating flower farms in South America
Now, three decades later, they own and run three flower farms in Bogota and Medellin, Colombia, as well as in Quito, Ecuador.
Long considered to be one of the premier rose growers in all of South America, my family's roses are the official rose of the Rose Bowl, the Tournament of Roses Parade, the Miss America competition, and the Tony Awards.
Owning our own farms is the biggest differentiating factor between Pomp and a lot of other national floral retailers. We're able to control almost every aspect of the process, from planting each seed to cutting each stem to packing and preparing every bouquet before we turn them over for delivery.
Four months prior to Valentine's Day, we forecast sales and order hard goods
In October, Ivette and I sat down with Pomp's ecommerce team to forecast how many orders we could realistically fulfill for the holiday. Since it's our first year, we went with a conservative number we felt we could achieve while maintaining excellent customer experience.
In the end, we decided to cap sales at 10,000 orders, which is 100 times our everyday volume.
Based on our determined forecast and the fact that the world is facing major supply issues at the moment, we also went ahead and ordered all our requisite hard goods like vases, wire, ties, boxes, and cardboard.
We also start building our marketing plans, which include ads on taxi tops, radio spots, and digital media
Markets were chosen based on where we had fulfillment support and where we believed a large section of our target audience — single and dating men — was. Media was selected based on the reach to our target and ability to secure media during our time period.
We first began with developing our messaging, photography, asset creation, and distribution. This is our first go with most of these channels as a brand, so we're looking at multiple KPIs to understand how they can impact our business — traffic, clicks, orders, and coupon usage.
This year, we're working with several partners, including DoorDash National Shipping, which requires additional communication and coordination in terms of images, messaging, and pricing. We chose them because Pomp has distribution centers in cities near where DoorDash has services.
We also planned out how best to utilize PR, email, and SMS channels to drive visibility
This planning includes our cadence and timing, segmentation, messaging, and execution. We worked with a PR agency that helped us identify outlets of interest and we've been introducing our brand to them and showcasing how we're different.
We've tried to design a communication program that made sense for our audience. For example, we used segmentation tools to send "gifting her" messaging to men while sending messaging about treating a mom or friend to women. As a new brand, this year is truly all about learning.
On average, it takes 3 months to grow the roses earmarked for Valentine's Day
The roses that are specifically harvested and cultivated for Valentine's Day require approximately 12 weeks to reach their optimal bud profile. Three months before the holiday, our farms plant the seeds for our Valentine's Day roses, marking them off and nurturing them so they'll be ready to be cut up to two weeks before the holiday.
Our farm grew heart-shaped roses, and after testing them out in our assorted bouquets this fall, we exclusively reserved 30,000 of them for Valentine's Day.
With 2 months left, we guarantee space on all flights and third-party carrier trucks
We reserved room on flights from South America to the US. Normally, we ship our flowers out multiple times a week, but for Valentine's Day, all our flowers leave on the same day, which requires more people and planning over a three-day period.
With one month left, we prepare our distribution centers for the arrival of the flowers, launch our marketing campaigns, and begin taking orders. By now, our hard goods have arrived and we begin going over protocols with our distribution-center team.
Weeks before Valentine's Day, our roses are cut on the farm and arrive at our distribution centers
When the flowers leave the farm, they do so on cold storage trucks set to 33 degrees, which slows the rate of aging dramatically. It's as if we've put the flower to sleep. Flight altitudes keep them chilled during the flight, and once they reach the US they're returned to their hibernated state in cold storage at one of our four distribution centers.
Our blooms not only go through quality-control checks before leaving the farm but again before leaving our distribution centers. If cut, hydrated, and kept in the right environment, flowers can last between two to four weeks.
Due to perishability, all flowers are shipped overnight priority
The challenge of a Monday holiday is carriers are closed on Sunday; however, we've found a way to work with UPS and FedEx to deliver Monday for those customers who want their flowers to arrive on Valentine's Day instead of a few days before.
The transportation piece is really the only part of the journey where the flowers are truly out of our hands, but we've designed our packaging to provide the necessary protection and hydration needed to maintain our quality standards for handoff to delivery.
In the next few days, we'll continue taking orders and coordinating deliveries around the country
By the time you receive your flowers and they begin to bloom, I'll already be planning for Mother's Day on May 8. Don't say I didn't give you fair warning.