Reaching out to the Russian market

Publishing an inspirational magazine in Russia from the Netherlands has to be quite a challenge - but that's exactly what PrimaFlora has been doing with their PrimaFlora Magazine since 2014. The aim is to inspire florists, arrangers, wholesalers and students - and to promote their services, of course.

"We’re doing very well," says Daisy Bakker from PrimaLabel. "PrimaFlora Magazine was founded by Elena Kazakova, an ambassador of Dutch floriculture. She has Russian roots and knows her way around, through partners like DGI, Florexim, Flowers by Macheluk, Azalia, Business Bouquet, Green Line and other exporters. It’s also passed on to the target audience through wholesalers like Orange, Camelia, Starlight and Evroflor, florist schools and at networks of well-known Russian arrangers. The magazine even reaches Russia’s most remote corners. And Russians love Dutch flowers and plants. That also helps."

The agency started distributing the PrimaFlora Magazine in 2014. The aim is to inspire florists, arrangers, wholesalers and students. It includes a lot of information, interior photos (mostly made in the PrimaLabel studio) and articles on everything that is creatively possible. The company in fact promotes Dutch floriculture as a whole - and growers and breeders in particular. PrimaLabel also promotes cooperation between Russian, Dutch and also Belgian arrangers.

Why Russia? "Russia is a country with many opportunities for the Dutch flower and plant trade. However, it is not an easy market. For many individual companies it is still difficult to gain access. Because we have built a wide network in Russia and because we have a Russian background we have everything we need to help out Dutch projects and create a platform for Dutch flowers and plants."

Since last year PrimaFlora also publishes an English edition of the magazine, and this year a German edition was added. The English edition finds its way to the UK, but in the meantime also to the USA and some other countries such as Turkey. The German magazine was initiated based on Germany being the most important and fastest growing market for Dutch flowers and plants. The magazines appear twice a year in all languages with a circulation of 10,000 and the issues are planned to coincide with the country's major horticultural trade shows as much as possible - which also contributes to promotion for the growers.

 

PrimaLabel is primarily a visual marketing agency. It hosts brands like La Mia Favorita from Vreugdenberg Growers, Deep Purple, Colorita, Anabel, Organza from Royal van Zanten, Sense of Seasons from P. van Geest and Looije’s honey tomatoes. Currently PrimaLabel is working on a new marketing concept for Kwekerij Vlasman’s Voilà Saintpaulias and a number of new vegetable cultivation projects. In that sense publishing PrimaFlora Magazine is a secondary activity: the core business is designing and marketing growers and breeders’ new concepts and brands in the Netherlands and Belgium. "But the magazine now has such a wide reach that we are sure we will go through with it. Our loyal readers will soon receive the latest edition of the PrimaFlora Magazine in our booth at the Flowers Expo in Moscow. For us it is really a nice moment of appreciation for our creativity and of course for the flowers and plants from the Netherlands!"