What were our top bouquets? The most popular balloon in custom orders? Sales went up, but so did costs. Did the number deliveries increase? And who were these balloons delivered to – females, children?
Monkey and the Machine – The top bouquets
These three bouquets were the most popular, followed by Valentine Bouquet No 8 – My Love Monkey and Valentine Bouquet No 7 – Rock My World!.
The graph to the left shows just how well these bouquets fared against the remaining 15 bouquets we offered this Valentine’s season.
Our top five bouquets (25% of our bouquet offering) accounted for over 60% of Valentine’s orders.
The top two bouquets were singing balloons while the other three in the top five were not.
It would appear perhaps that the top two bouquets were enjoyed by more established couples, comfortable with the humor of these balloons. Bouquet No 9 would have appealed to an audience where the level of interpersonal comfort was not as high.
Overall, we can ascertain from the popularity of our top five bouquets, that those who sent balloons wanted to send something fun and perhaps cheeky rather than romantic or cute, such as the kissing fish, the dogs, and the bouquet of plain red hearts would have communicated.
WHO (Hearts) A Heart Balloon – Top Balloons in custom bouquets
These balloons were the most popular for custom bouquets.
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| 1. Valentine’s Heart Balloon | 2. Love You Heart Balloon | 3. Red Heart Balloon. NOTE: This is also the balloon that we sold the most of. |
These three balloons were followed in popularity by Item 4002 – The Love Monkey and Item 4006 – Hug Me Heart.
With the exception of the I LOVE YOU Heart balloon, these are the same balloons that can be found in our top five bouquets.
The top five balloon items (17% of our balloon offering) made up 50% of custom bouquets.
Customized bouquets accounted for 21% of our Valentine’s Orders and adding a balloon or two to prepared bouquets only accounted for 6% of orders. Our customers seem to prefer prepared bouquets.
One thing we may want to do to increase custom bouquets is to help people see what their custom bouquet would look like assembled. This is a programming project under consideration.
Deliveries Analysis – The Advent of A Valentine’s Season?
While revenue increased for February over last year, the actual number of deliveries on February 14th 2008 was down from 2007 and 2006. The 8% decrease in February 14th deliveries over last year was met with a 38% increase in February 13th deliveries for 2008 over 2007.
It would appear that the decrease in deliveries on February 14th may correlated with an increase in deliveries on the 13th. However, we expect deliveries to decrease somewhat next year as Valentine’s Day falls on a Saturday – a day traditionally slow for Valentine deliveries.
Demographics – Young Adult Males get Valentine’s Day balloons
Men were the recipient of 14% more balloon bouquets than woman. Some believe that the difference relates to flowers.
“Women love receiving flowers,” says Mike Spahia, Manager of Special Events for The Red Balloon Company, “Guys, on the other hand, probably get a bigger kick out of receiving something more fun and light-hearted. Especially when it’s delivered in public.”
The age of recipients presented even greater discrepancies. Nearly 50% of recipients were in their 20s, by far the largest 
demographic (by age) receiving balloons.
Cameron and Sharon of the Red Balloon Company believe that the popularity of Valentine’s Day balloons for 20 Somethings has to do with the novelty that dating is for the age group; producing a greater enthusiasm to send balloons, flowers, and gifts to their partners than those in older age groups.
Sending balloons may be a novelty for young adults and therefore proves popular among them, but the numbers seem to prove that balloons get a second wind in adults over sixty with spouses.
On the other hand, the popularity of balloons among 20 Somethings may have to do with the popularity of balloons in their youth. The balloon boom in the 1980s probably introduced this generation to receiving balloons. They now have the opportunity to relive a fond childhood experience by sending balloons to friends and family.