Roses to seduce the consumer

Roses are a party to florist and top arranger Johan Martens from Helmond. Of course he is a flower enthusiast, but he has something special with roses. It is a particularly good product with which he can seduce the consumer.

For the third time in a row, Johan Martens and his colleague Ria Nijssen were asked to decorate the beautiful Gertrudis church in the rose village Lottum with flowers. This will be done for the biannual Rose festival. 'Every time this is an enormous challenge', says Johan. 'Because the church decorated with roses is part of the Rose festival, attracting over 50,000 visitors. The decorations go beyond merely some rose arrangements. Over 30,000 roses are used to make the church building one of the larger crowd pleasers of the festival.'

Year in advance

The fun starts a year in advance already. The moment when Johan and Ria think of the way they will incorporate the roses within the festival theme. 'It has to be done in such a way that we will entice the visitors. After all, inspiring applications are the best promotion for the flower and rose business. To mention an example, after the latest festival, we were contacted by a couple about to be married. They wanted to have precisely the same decorations in the chapel where they would exchange their wedding vowels. Now that is precisely the way we want it.'

Roses make all the difference

The church decorations are different for each edition. At the first time, the arrangements and flower decorations were mostly made with roses in bright colours, ranging from yellow, pink and orange to red. The second edition only white roses were used. For the upcoming edition roses in soft pastel tinges were chosen. 'We will use a set up with a lot of interaction with the audience', Johan informs. 'The combination of music, light and dance and maybe even a catwalk will make it the most important attraction. For this flower event, we intent to have all roses sponsored and we are still searching for some additional support from the product group. Roses make all the difference is the theme of the Rose festival to be held in Lottum from 12 until 15 August.'

Prince Filipe

it is a well-known fact that Johan has for years been active as a flower arranger with BloemenBureau Holland. Also he has been working for Bloemsierkunst 't Genderdal in Eindhoven for the past fifteen years. And he has been involved with many more projects, such as '300 years St. Petersburg', 'Sailing Corso', 'Autumn shows FloraZON, the flower event in Azerbaijan, numerous international presentations and the construction of shows and events. Johan even helped to decorate the royal wedding of Prince Filipe en Letitzia in Spain. His passion for flowers goes all the way back to his childhood. At the age of 12 he had already made up his mind and started his career at the 'lagere tuinbouwschool' (elementary horticulture school). After that he went to the secondary horticulture school and followed the 'Meesterbindersopleiding' (Master binder education) in Vught. 'All kind of opportunities crossed my path and it only got better. After having worked five years in Venlo at Bloemsierkunst Hai Ebus, now called Nizza Bloembinders, I felt it was time to start for my own. I set up and ran a specialist shop in flowers in Beek and Donk for thirteen years. The past ten years I run Floral Moments from Helmond. Besides this, I have been active as an independent entrepreneur for the past twenty years.'

Competitions

Johan likes to participate in competitions, for a change. He can then compete with both national and international top arrangers. He has so much creativity that he developed his own unique style. 'Every day I am learning. Colleagues, trends and flower events are my most important sources for inspiration. I strive to always seduce the consumer with flower decorations, arrangements and bouquets. The end result should reflect a certain atmosphere. It is remarkable that the younger consumer is becoming more and more open for this seduction. Beautiful products such as roses will help to achieve this. Especially the latest generation of roses in the top end with their beautiful round and lush filled flowers are marvellous. They perform well in both the romantic as well as the modern settings, in which I prefer to show the rose in its purest form.

Johan concludes by stating that cut backs should not be done on promotion. Much talked about television programmes such as 'Eigen Huis & Tuin' (Own Home & Garden) and, recently, 'Nederlands Beste bloemstylist' (Dutch Best Flower Stylist) make tongues wagging and show how beautiful this business is. 'Showing your products and what you do almost always leads to new consumer purchases. “That is what I also want”, is the main reason for the consumer. But you should never show up with a non-inspiring homogeneous product. Therefore, I always give my products a twist. In short, it is all about creating atmosphere, colour and smell in an inspiring setting.'