Watch out coffee, consumers have a natural morning pick-me-up: flowers — that's the message, proven by recent research, that's driving SAF's and the Flower Promotion Organization's (FPO) latest PR effort.

Participants of a behavioral study conducted by researchers at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital confirmed that they feel least positive in the early morning hours but reported being happier and more energetic after looking at flowers at the start of their day.

Through an alliance, SAF and FPO launched a PR campaign in early October promoting the study's results.

"The morning blahs, it turns out, is a real phenomenon, with positive moods — happiness, friendliness and warmth for example — manifesting much later in the day," the study's lead researcher, Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D., says in press materials. "Interestingly, when we placed a small bouquet of flowers into their morning routine, people perked up."

Rebecca Cole, host of Discovery Home Channel's Surprise by Design, provides advice for displaying flowers in the kitchen. "There are just so many places for flowers in the kitchen — the room where we spend most of our waking time," Cole says in the press materials. "From the breakfast nook to the table to the countertop, flowers just belong. It's even the most convenient room to change the water!" Cole is also SAF's spokesperson for the Flower Fundamentals PR campaign, which publicized the findings of SAF's Consumer Attitudes & Behaviors About Floral Purchasing Study. 

The SAF/FPO Alliance is promoting morning flowers via targeted pitching to national consumer magazines, a press kit to print media nationwide and coverage on SAF's consumer Web site, www.aboutflowers.com, and the FPO site, www.flowerpossibilities.com.

The morning flowers campaign is part of the Home Ecology of Flowers Study program. Commissioned by the SAF/FPO Alliance and conducted by a research team at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital in 2006, the study revealed that people feel more compassionate toward others, have less worry and anxiety, and feel less depressed when fresh cut flowers are present in the home.

Since its 2006 inception, the study has generated nearly 157 million consumer impressions to date. The coverage includes newspaper, TV and radio stories in 23 local markets nationwide and placements in nine national magazines such as AARP, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, Health and Reader's Digest.

Generate publicity for your shop. SAF members can access customizable press releases on the benefits of morning flowers and the results of the Home Ecology of Flowers Study.

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

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