The whole corona crisis has exposed a number of pain points in the industry. One of the most important of these is the short marketing period of certain companies, such as bedding plants. This makes them especially vulnerable to external factors that have a direct impact on the selling season, such as a lockdown, but equally weather conditions can throw a spanner in the works. Currently, there are certain crops that are combined with bedding plants and extend the marketing season, but these are often the same crops and do not always prove profitable.
To further support the bedding plants, a new Operational Group will start from July 1, 2021. During two years PCS, together with the Innovation Support Centre, AVBS, and VLAM and a number of bedding plants companies will look for new crops, (i) for which there is demand on the market, but which are not yet or insufficiently available in Flanders and the neighbouring countries, and which (ii) can be combined, both in terms of infrastructure and cultivation period, with the current bedding plants production. In a second phase we will use consumer research and new marketing tools to look for the best marketing strategies to maximize the profitability of these new crops and the current production.
The expertise of the Innovation Support Centre will be used in particular in the search for the best marketing strategies:
- Value creation is not so much in technology, product or service, but primarily in the customer/consumer experience
- How do we create 'unique value'?
Based on trends, we will generate and select ideas and develop them into prototypes.
