An unexpected customer request helped Laura Daluga, AIFD, discover a fun sales promotion: Troll dolls with air plants. The profit margin is significant: Daluga finds the dolls secondhand for less than $2 and can sell them in the Ann Arbor, Michigan, area for up to $40.
When a customer asked Laura Daluga, AIFD, to incorporate a Troll doll into a design, Daluga obliged, but she wasn’t exactly excited about the idea. She yanked out the doll’s brightly colored hair and set in some air plants — mission accomplished.
As it turns out, however, many of her customers at the Department of Floristry in Ann Arbor, Michigan, were very (very) excited about the designs, once word got out via social media that the shop could whip up Troll-inspired work.
“People went nuts on social media,” Daluga admitted, adding that she and her team started, er, trolling local thrift stores and EBay, looking for the dolls, which were popular in the ‘80s and ‘90s and have experienced a resurgence following the release of the 2016 animated movie “Trolls” starting Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick. “Trolls are back.”
Back, and for Daluga, pretty profitable. Department of Floristry has been able to pick up secondhand Troll dolls for less than $2. From there, team members remove that hair and pop in those air plants before selling the designs for $25 to $40 — sometimes even more for larger Trolls.
“We couldn’t have dreamed it up,” admitted Daluga, who shared the idea (along with many others) at the Society of American Florists’ 1-Day Profit Blast in Philadelphia. “It totally works with our hipster market.”
Consumer nostalgia for toys, games, food and entertainment can be a powerful sales tool for businesses that make a savvy connection. The good news? Hollywood is delivering plenty of movies with roots in the 80s and 90s this summer, including reboots of “Baywatch“ and “Wonder Woman.” The sequel to “Trolls” also has been scheduled for release in 2020.
Get tips on how to incorporate pop culture into your products and in-store events. Hear Daluga dish about (and delight in) the unexpected troll sales.
