Promoting European Flower Bulbs in the United States

This project, “Flower Bulbs from Europe make you bloom”, focuses on the promotion of European flower bulbs in the United States of America. Royal Anthos is the Dutch trade association of traders in flower bulbs and nursery stock products. Their companies represent more than 85% of the world trade in flower bulbs and are responsible for more than 80% of the total export of bulbs to the U.S.The worldwide flower bulb market had a value of € 906 million in 2017. The European Union supplies around 70-75% of the world’s production of bulbs. The U.S. is the largest importer of European bulbs. In 2017, the total value of the U.S. bulb market amounted to $143 million (€ 120 million), of which 88% came from the EU. Unfortunately, recent years have shown a decline in the import value of bulbs by the U.S.There are three objectives to this campaign. Firstly, make an extra 4,6 million households aware of flower bulbs. Secondly, to educate 1,64 million households about European flower bulbs. Thirdly, the main economic objective of the promotion campaign is to increase the export of European flower bulbs to the U.S. by €7 million. Much of these increases will be required to turn around the current decreasing market movement. The objectives will be completed by a set of four activities that will be continued for each year of the campaign. Two media campaigns will be set up: one focused on increasing awareness and the other focused on improving education. Besides these campaigns, a yearly flower bulb event will be held and press trips will be organised.The aim of the campaign is to bring the right time to purchase to the attention of the consumer, as well as to stimulate the level of knowledge about planting bulbs and the use of bulb flowers. This will breathe new life into the U.S. flower bulb market and will convert decreasing sales numbers into a healthy sales growth.