The Future of Flowers

SWOT

　　In the following, after raking up and sorting out relevant literature and findings of interviews and investigations, we’ve found out that the strengths and opportunities possessed by the Green Flower Marketing Cooperative are helpful to the promotion of its anthurium business. Nevertheless, some potential threats and weaknesses hidden in both internal and external environments still pose some risks to the development of the Cooperative, which we can see in Table 1-23.

Table 1-23 Analysis of the Green Flower Marketing Cooperative

Source of Data: Tidied up by the Cyberfair Project Team

　　Judging from the above discussion, we know that the reasons for the Green Flower Marketing Cooperative’s success are that it has a thorough understanding of local customs, that it grasps every opportunity to actively take part in overseas expositions, that it innovatively and creatively researches and develops new techniques for anthurium cultivation, that it offer various color shades of anthuriums for customers to choose, that it strictly controls the quality, and that it maintains the marketing strategy of surviving in great difficulties, all of which exemplify the often-said proverb that the opportunity is reserved for the one who is well-prepared.

　　 “It is not that Taiwanese don’t like flowers,” well-said Manager Chao from Kaohsiung International Flower Co., Ltd., “they just don’t want to spend too much money.” Taiwanese people usually spend money on flowers on special occasions, such as worshiping events, Valentine’s Day, Graduation Day, or the Chinese New Year. “For Taiwanese people, buying flowers is an impulsive consumption, an occasional one.” But how to increase the flower consumption of the Taiwanese people? “We have to thinks of a way to incorporate flowers into the daily lives of the Taiwanese people.” That is, to turn the consumption habit of the Taiwanese people from impulsive and occasional into a consumption which can upgrade lifestyle of Taiwanese people. We thus submit the following suggestions.

1. Through Strategic Alliance

(1) Cross-industry alliances. Various exhibitions, such as furniture shows and house-ware fairs, are held everywhere
　 and every year. Anthuriums expositions can be partner exhibited with these exhibitions, offering the audience a new
　 way of thinking in household decorations.

(2) Composite operations. The Cooperative can unite with agricultural and livestock products. The cooperation among
　 the industry, government and universities also deserves serious attention. This kind of cooperation was well
　 exemplified by the Cooperative taking part in the 2011 Taipei International Flower Expo and co-researching and-
　 developing with academic institutions.

2. Through Social Responsibility Marketing

　　Businesses can adopt the caretaking of flowers of public facilities to beautify the appearance of a city.

3. Opening up International Market Access

　　Conducting strategic alliances is a key to the international market. Another way is to sell anthuriums in supermarkets or stores around the world, letting the whole world enjoy the beautiful power of MIT flowers. By so doing, the floral industry is sure to create another Taiwan-based green economic miracle, creating a win-win-win situation for the Cooperative, for Taiwan and for the flower lovers.

　　The Cyberfair Project Team, the five angles of management, examined the structuring of the Green Flower Marketing Cooperative. Its success matches the rationales given in Lin, Chen, and Guo (2011). The rationales are as follows. Business opportunities hide in ever-changing environments; in the case of market and product uncertainty, the enterprise has to have prospective and keen observations; leader with inspiring insights is a must; and a perfect management which can provide great flow of commerce, logistics, and information flow, so that the customers and clients are satisfied with the business service activities provided by the enterprise.