1-800-Flowers Deepens Emotional Customer Engagement Through “Celebrating a Life” Campaign

Making emotional connections is such an integral component customer loyalty today. Officials at 1-800-Flowers.com believe that a new national initiative with Westwood One can definitely result in making strong emotional connections with customers.

The two companies launched a fully-integrated nationwide initiative to educate, engage, and connect individuals around the difficult subject of expressing sympathy. The “Celebrating a Life” campaign, which kicks off this week, is designed to create a platform for thoughtful dialogue about navigating through the many cultural and social sensitivities that factor into offering caring support during times of loss.

Spanning radio, digital, social media, and video, the “Celebrating a Life” campaign will address emerging and challenging topics surrounding sympathy and grief, including the appropriate use of social media to express condolences, the meaning of sympathy flowers, how to best offer support for loss in the workplace, writing sentiments for remembrance cards, and the cultural considerations for paying respects. Westwood One will ask its listeners for feedback and opinions to gain insights into additional areas of discussion. A new online destination at www.1800flowers.com/sympathy-articles will provide ongoing resources for all topics discussed during the campaign and provide a forum for those needing advice and guidance in times of loss.

1-800-Flowers.com CMO Amit Shah talked to Loyalty360 about the campaign and the positive emotional connections it can bring to customers.

“1-800-Flowers.com is looking to not only ignite a national conversation around sympathy but to deepen its connection with customers by helping them through the everyday realities and difficulties of expressing sympathy in modern times,” Shah explained. “In working with Westwood One, the campaign leverages the radio network’s popular and trusted talent, John Tesh, and Lia Knight, to create a platform for conversation surrounding sympathy each week during the hosts’ respective shows. Both John and Lia are trusted friends of their listeners and these relationships have made their shows a safe haven to discuss a variety of sensitive topics. Given the emotional equity they have with their listeners, their participation was a natural fit to initiate and help amplify this conversation around sympathy.” 

While the company has long been a trusted source for sympathy gifts, this is the first fully-integrated campaign that 1-800-Flowers.com has initiated around the subject of loss, Shah noted.
“This campaign is part of the company’s ongoing effort to deepen its relationship with customers, by providing them with valuable guidance and resources that go well beyond gift giving,” Shah explained. “The partnership with Westwood provides an opportunity to educate and amplify the conversation surrounding sympathy.” 

Shah talked about how the campaign can drive stronger customer relationships.

“Death and loss have often been difficult for many to discuss with others, even with the closest confidant,” he explained. “With this, comes a lack of conversation, leaving many individuals unsure of what to do in a time of loss. This includes how to pay respects, appropriate ways to express condolences in the workplace, writing sentiments for sympathy cards, and how to navigate through the cultural, social, and other sensitivities that factor into the ways to offer caring support and pay respect. Through its newly curated ‘sympathy hub,’ 1-800-Flowers.com has created a thoughtful destination for those seeking guidance or help with emotional etiquette, appropriate condolence sentiments, or remembrance gift suggestions.” 
 
 
 

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