Profile of Success: Jim McCann

Jim McCann took over a small, struggling flower shop and built it into a 250-million dollar business, and has his sights set on a target of 1-billion dollars in yearly sales.

How has he done this?

The answer is, of course, complex. There is listening to the market, there is team-building within the company, there is constant innovation.

Jim says one of his jobs as a CEO is to “throw grenades”, to shake things up. But from a marketing standpoint, one of the great lessons of 1-800-Flowers is “multi-media”. This company has expanded into virtually every means of distribution and every media. They are an online and offline marketer; a mail-order company utilizing direct-mail and catalogs; a chain of bricks ‘n mortar stores.

They use all the internet media, radio, TV, print ads, statement stuffers. They wonderfully exhibit the marketing principle: open as many different doors as you can to your customer. Let him choose the one he prefers using.