Be different but not for the sake of being different. That was the resounding call to action coming from this year's Seeley Conference at Cornell University.

Over two and a half days, participants at the 23rd annual conference heard retail prognosticators, agricultural economists, industry journalists and successful floral industry business owners talk — in the free-flowing debate that is the conference's trademark — about differentiation strategies that cater to the consumer and feed the bottom line.

Four concepts surfaced as hooks on which to hang your differentiation hat:

• Time compression - Consumers' lack of time is the "super current" driving everything. Businesses that provide convenience and save customers' time stand out.

• Ease - A close relative of time compression, easing the hassle of your hassled and harried customers separates you from the pack and brings them back.

• Experience - Giving customers an experience, one dictated by — and unique to — them will differentiate your business more than any merchandise you sell.

• Environment - Business owners are already being held to higher environmental standards and those standards will only get more demanding. The advantage goes to those who embrace that.

Attendees also were introduced to the increasing importance of differentiating through the three P's of the "triple bottom line":

People - leading a socially responsible business;
Planet - pursuing environmentally sound business practices; and
Profit - ensuring a financially healthy organization that has a lasting impact on its community.

The Seeley Conference was established in 1986 to honor Dr. John Seeley (1915-2007) after his retirement from Cornell University. Each year the conference tackles a topic important to the future of the industry with a program intended to stimulate discussion, debate and advanced thinking. And this year, it did just that.

--Drew Gruenburg
dgruenburg@safnow.org

 

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