Sector and product Innovation can only happen you have a high energy culture that allows a brand and its people space to be brave says Charlotte Langley, VP Brand and Communications at Bloom & Wild. 

Speaking at MAD//Fest London in July, Langley outlined the journey that rapidly expanding and much loved Bloom & Wild have taken. A journey that has literally reinvented the floristry industry.

Her key insights were:

1.    Listening to your customers is really, really easy

2.    Do not be afraid to do things your customers haven’t asked for

3.    Care ‘wildly’ about what you do

All 3 of her ‘top tips’ are ingrained in Bloom & Wild’s true disruptive story from conception of the brand through to how they work today. Before 2013, when they launched, inefficiency coloured the sector - flowers didn’t last very long, (due to the supply chain that meant cutting flowers to delivery could take up to 9 to 10 days), plus, there was also the added hassle of ensuring the recipient of the flowers had to be in.

By being “brave and having a brand proposition that no one would have asked for” Bloom & Wild sorted the twin issues of poor quality flowers and that of delivery. By interrogating the supply chain they realised that at wholesale, flowers came ‘in bud’ and were therefore able to be flatpacked. So, by utilising the letterbox delivery method made popular by brands such as Graze, customers now could receive ‘in bud’ flowers that had a far longer life and “are consequently loved more by the receiver”. In one simple process they have developed an entirely new format, one that is still their USP.

Further innovations created by Bloom & Wild have also helped redefine customer care for many other brands. By listening to many of their customers Bloom & Wild realised that not everyone wanted to receive emails about Mother's Day. Therefore, compassion and tech collaborated - the engineering team were able to create a preference centre where customers were then able to opt out of receiving marketing messages at sensitive times. This marketing email segmentation is now standard practice across many other industries.

Langley says that such innovations could only have been brought about by “a culture at Bloom & WIld that brings energy and high impact collisions that makes stuff happen”. It’s this energy to disrupt a sector, to really care for your customers, and to be brave that means that Bloom & Wild will be defining the industry and world of flowers for many years to come.

Over 8,000 people attended MAD//Fest on 7-8 July in-person and via the virtual platform. Speakers included new KFC CMO Jack Hinchliffe, S4 Capital Executive Chairman Sir Martin Sorrell and Resi Founder Alex Depledge MBE. Full sessions are available now on our YouTube channel.