Banana Florist Blog

This morning, an acquanitance informed us that he considered Banana Florist "the dumbest idea (he) had ever heard."  He iced the cake by adding, "I love it."   Love and hate aside, the extreme initial response greatly encourages us.  When we first started talking about BF, laughter filled the conversations.  There have been a few operational challenges -- all quickly remedied -- during our first two weeks, but once we rebounded and started talking again about possibilities, the fun returned.  I* never want to market something that receives this response: "This is the most sensibile, sober thing I've ever heard of."

* The whole "royal we" voice is tiresome, we know (har).  But there is purpose behind the preciousness.  "We" are comprised roughly of the Top Banana; the resident marketing blowhard (present); and all the wonderfully talented folks who nurture, arrange, prepare and deliver.  "I" will probably pop up on occassion, most likely to take responsibility when things go wrong.  As long as BF continues to succeed, you'll hear a lot about "us." --Joe

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***Update*** Blogging with Moveable Type is like breakdancing while wearing a straitjacket as difficult as producing a decent analogy on two hours of sleep.  Sorry we can't make this photo clickable for larger view.  Take our word that we're holding a messenger bag, and on this bag is an image of a matador. 

San Fran, December 2007.  We meet Kelty from Satchel Studio at her booth near the Ferry Building.  We spot the matador design and oh my gosh, we just have to have it.  The only problem: Kelty doesn't have the design on a messenger bag.  She tells us we can visit her website and have the messenger-sized matador shipped to us back home. 

But that's no fun, is it?  Buying the bag in SF and having it shipped to us create two completely different stories:

Story #1 

Q: Nice bag; where'd you get it?

A: I ordered it online.

Story #2

Q: Nice bag; where'd you get it?

A: In SF, from this awesome designer nobody knows about yet. 

So, we asked Kelty if there wasn't something to be done.  She came up with a solution, giving us a third story, and the best one yet:

Story #3 

Q: Nice bag.  Where'd you get it?

A: We met this awesome designer in SF, at those booths -- you know, near the Embarcadero and Market (as if we have any idea what we're talking about).  She didn't have the bag we wanted, so she went out of her way to make the bag and meet us later in the week to give it to us.

This got us thinking about conversations we'd like to start about Banana Florist. 

Banana Florist Story #1

Q: Nice flowers.  Where'd you get them?

A: Oh my gosh, I just gotta tell you.  From (name of wonderful, thoughtful person).  They also gave me this little white box with a banana inside.  The sticker on the box said bananaflorist.com, so I checked it out and the name of these flowers is actually The ****Head from Buckhead.  You remember last week when I told you that (name of wonderful, thoughtful person) forgot...

Instead of giving me a product, Kelty gave me a story.  We wanna be like Kelty. 

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Anita Campbell at Small Business Trends posted yesterday about logos.  She wrote, in part:

Like selecting your company name, creating a logo that represents your brand while at the same time being affordable, is a challenging prospect.  (empahsis mine [or ours, as it were])

The affordability aspect got us thinking about this big honking disaster.  The understated 2012 Olympics logo cost a tidy $800,000.  Of course, the Olympics doesn't exactly qualify as "small business," but for roughly 1/24,000th of the 2012 cost, we got ourselves a logo that flat out rocks:

One of the great things about working in a small business is the lack of committees.  Banana Florist doesn't have brainstorms crowded with people justifying their jobs by spouting marketing drivel.  For our logo, we went to an incredibly talented individual named Tyler Moore.  Tyler came up with a comp; we loved the design and experimented with different colors.  Within a week, we had our current logo.  No focus groups, and (Praise the Lord!) no brainstorms.

When we place our second order for stickers, we will have spent more on decals than we did for the logo itself.

Small business = fewer people.  Fewer people = fewer committees (none, in our happy case).  Fewer committees = better chance that good ideas become real. 

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Our first week has been a heckuva ride.  To recap: Hours prior to the launch of the main Banana Florist site, we decided it high time to experiment with Moveable Type formatting, which ended with a whitewashed screen in place of this blog.

Then, one day later, after we'd been live for some 24 hours, Seth Godin linked to us.  (We built BF on the principles of the Purple Cow, so this attention proved particularly wonderful and gratifying.)  Seth's link resulted in a lot of folks getting well acquainted with the ****Head from Buckhead, Mom Likes Me Best and -- of course -- the Broquet, right out of the gate.

Of course, we ran into some unexpected twists, but that's just entrepreneurialalisimo.  Our crack team of designers smoothed out some minor kinks, and we're looking darn good. 

Thanks to every one who visited our main site this week, and to all our new friends who took the time to read and comment in this space.

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We recently mentioned that we're not exactly "tech savvy." 

Well, this morning we started to wonder why no one had commented on our little blog here.  What had we done wrong?  Should there be less attitude?  More sublimated passion and gilded nuance?  Well, it turns out we had 11 comments sitting in dock, patiently waiting for our approval.  Our apologies for not catching onto this until now.  In a former life, we used Typepad, and became spoiled by the comment-notification emails.

Many thanks to everyone who commented.  It's great to hear feedback.  "RS" pointed out that it would be nice to have a link back the main Banana Florist site, so we've added that to our wish list.  (We learned the hard way not to tinker with the blog format ourselves, as our faithful readers know.) 

As RS showed, your thoughts and suggestions help us develop.  When the time comes, we'd like to use this space to let you all vote for the next Broquet.  (We're thinking of a bamboo plant, named The Woody.)  So keep the comments coming; now that we're hip to the whole "comment approval" deal, we'll keep an eye out for your thoughts. 

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So, we just tried to register for a gmail account, with the username "bananaflorist."  It's been taken.  Interesting.  Now, we're not exactly "tech savvy," as you already know.  Maybe that email address was taken by one of those Spamming Harvest Robot Soldiers we've heard so much about.  Or maybe something more disingenuous is afoot.  We certainly hope not, but if you happen to get unsolicited email from "Banana Florist," please immediately alert us here in the comments. 

We've added bananaflorist dot com email addresses to our wish list.  These last five days have been intense.  Our buddies at WebSpace Atlanta* are kicking butt getting everything up to speed for us.

*As you might have guessed by now, on this blog we are contractually obligated to mention WebSpace Atlanta a minimum of five times a week in non-consecutive posts.**

**Nah, we're just playin'.  We just like spreading the acclaim nice and thick on the people who help make Banana Florist a reality.

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So, throughout the rip-roarin' experience you have while shopping at Banana Florist, you notice that we exclusively serve Atlanta.  There's the "Proudly Serving Metro Atlanta" button on the home page.   Then, on each "Selections" page, you read this placeholder: "By focusing our flower power exclusively on the ATL, we offer unmatched service to the Metro area."

Why only Atlanta?  Well, that's where we have flesh-and-blood people who we know by their first names.  These marvelous folks arrange each bouquet by hand; place each accompanying fresh banana in a tasteful box; get in the BF Mobile; drive to your house -- and with a big bright smile, hand you that box and your flowers in a beautiful vase (which is free, by the way).  Heck, they'll probably even give you a friendly hug if you ask.

Now, let's say we outsource delivery so we can go national.  There's no way we're talking a florist in Truth or Consequences, NM to stock our banana boxes, stickers, and pick up fresh bunches of our trademark fruit every morning.  So, there goes the "...And a Banana" promise.  And if our NM florist doesn't have Second Base in stock, they might substitute in Mom Likes Me Best, which ruins the whole point of you choosing Second Base.  (And probably destroys your chance of ever getting to Third, if you catch our drift.)

In short, turning over delivery to someone we don't know means that we stop being Banana Florist.  We can't guarantee that you'll get exactly what you order, and we lose all the little touches that make us BF.  We become generic, another cog in the anonymous floral warehouse machine.  We immediately lose all the things that attracted you to us in the first place.

That ... and Atlanta rocks. 

Hopefully, we'll blow up and franchise.  But that's somewhere on the horizon, outside immediate concern.  Our mission is to boost Atlanta's joy quotient one delivery at a time.  Everything else will take care of itself.  

 **Update** This video of frozen flowers, courtesy of ProFlowers, is a great example of what we're talking about.  Link via FlowerChat.

Posted by bfblogger at 04:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, so much for the "How do we get exposure for our site within a week of launching?" conundrum.  Turns out all you need is a link from Seth Godin.  Thanks, Seth!

Seth's post led to several other folks mentioning us on their sites, including the aptly named Marketing Fresh Peel.  We're thrilled that people dig The Broquet and our whole free wheelin' attitude.

Seth's link was particularly gratifying for us, as we built Banana Florist on his ideas.   When we first approached ... ourselves (this whole "royal we" thing is starting to wear on us) ... about Banana Florist, we said, "Here's an idea for a Purple Cow: Better Service.  Lower Prices.  And a Banana."  Every step of the way, Seth's writing -- specifically All Marketers Are Liars and Purple Cow -- figured into our thinking.

We've posted about our blogging misadventures and other challenges because of Seth's thoughts on transparency.  (Plus, we figure that showing a little humility now will lend you towards forgiving us for bragging on ourselves once we really start rolling.)  It's pretty cool to have one of the most noted champions of authenticity point his readers our way.

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Our first order came from someone wanting to send the Cup O' Serotonin -- a fine choice!  The only problem: The order was destined for Maryland.  Banana Florist, of course, proudly -- and exclusively -- services Metro Atlanta. 

While designing the site, we wondered whether our ATL-centrism was clear.  Within hours of launching, we discovered it wasn't.  This particular mistake occured because our delivery forms allow visitors to select states besides Georgia.  While we placed copy throughout the site alerting visitors to our barrel-chested, head-held-high Atlanta pride, the site's functionality didn't match up.

So, our friends at WebSpace Atlanta are on the case, making sure that this doesn't happen again.  We sent an email to our out-of-state visitor, explaining the situation and offering a deal on future orders sent within Metro ATL.

We knew that launching a venture as unique as Banana Florist wouldn't be a bed of roses.  We're learning on the job -- without a safety net -- and will keep using this blog to keep us honest. 

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Well, our blog got off to a shaky start, but things are looking up.  A few hours before the launch of Banana Florist, we thought, "We know!  This is the perfect time to finally try our hand at writing code for cascading style sheets!"  This did not work out well.

Luckily, our guys at WebSpace Atlanta promptly reconfigured the series of tubes and we're back.

We'll use this blog to discuss Banana Florist and the floral industry.  We hope that our customers will comment here, tanning our hides when we make mistakes and letting us know when we make their day.

Posted by bfblogger at 04:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

    So, this is what happens when we decide to make a few minor tweaks to the blog, hours before the Banana Florist website launches. 

While our buddies at WebSpace Atlanta sort out this whitewashed mess for us, enjoy browsing the floral selections we've set up at our main site.

 Check back with our blog soon.  Our designers should soon find a blogging template that even we can't mess up.

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