In gardening, as in business, timing may not be everything. But it can certainly count for a lot. For BloomBox — a service offering home delivery of plants and gardening supplies — the challenging year of 2020 offered a silver lining.

The company was founded in Lancaster, Pa., in 2016. It started small, selling at local markets and making limited local deliveries. Fast forward four years, and the circumstances of the pandemic helped BloomBox sprout into a full-service, online garden center.

“We were able to stay open in the spring of 2020, when a lot of traditional nurseries had to close,” said John Courian, BloomBox’s marketing manager at the time of publishing. “And as we provide a service that’s online and contactless for people who were at home and wanting to work in their yards, we really grew. Our sales were up over 600% from 2019 to 2020.”

BloomBox set about nurturing its brand to ensure the company’s growth would be sustainable. In 2020, the team worked with a local design firm to refine its identity. That work included a website redesign, along with development of a branded look for the company’s growing fleet of delivery vans.

“The visual side is everything in our marketing strategy,” Courian said. “It's our strongest, first impression we give to current and potential customers. Our vans are roaming billboards and a physical presence in the community. That’s why they’re so important. They’re a marketing piece.”

With the brand identity created, BloomBox and Infantree turned over the final design and installation of the vans’ vinyl wraps to the Cassel team in nearby Manheim, Pa.

The concept germinates

A third-generation, family-owned company founded in 1945, Cassel specializes in the design, printing, and installation of graphics and decals for commercial vehicles. The company has flourished serving eastern Pennsylvania and beyond, especially as more customers chose vinyl to brand their vehicles.

For the BloomBox project, the Cassel team faced two challenges: The first challenge was to take a vehicle artwork mockup created by Infantree and develop it into an attention-grabbing vinyl wrap that would be durable for many years of service. The wrap would not only cover the sides of the vans, but the top as well. BloomBox wanted the branding to be visible from hi-rise buildings. The second challenge was to perform the installations in a way that would minimize vehicle downtime and disruption to the client’s accelerating delivery schedule.

Picking Avery Dennison Film

The Cassel team chose the Avery Dennison MPI 1105 Series vinyl wrapping film, with the DOL 1360Z Gloss overlaminate.

MPI 1105 is a high-gloss cast film with 3D conformability, printability, and durability. It’s ideal for complex surfaces with curves and recesses. With a lower initial tack, MPI 1105 uses Easy Apply RS technology to ensure fast application speed and ease of use, helping installers get more done, faster, and with less effort.

“It's the workability,” said Mobarak, about MPI 1105. “We find the Avery Dennison material to be more flexible, adjustable, and longer lasting. It’s also easy to remove at the end of its service life. All this means we have greater capacity, we can work faster and more efficiently. With a client like BloomBox, who needs to keep their vehicles on the road, that’s huge.”

Use of Avery Dennison materials, including the DOL 1360Z overlaminate, also gives the Cassel team the confidence they need to stand behind the durability of their work. “We want to be able to tell our clients that their graphics are going to last," Mobarak said. "The overlaminate helps to protect the vinyl, along with keeping the color. We use an overlaminate on all of the wraps that we do.”

As of spring 2021, BloomBox is blossoming. Green thumbs in parts of five states and the District of Columbia can now order online, and look for the company’s freshly wrapped trucks bringing their plants and supplies to their doorsteps. BloomBox also opened a second location in Baltimore to keep up with growth.

Aside from being a critical marketing tool, BloomBox’s wrapped vans also helped to rally the company’s employees around the brand. Commenting on the moment the first wrapped van arrived at BloomBox, Courian said: “Oh, I wish I had a video of that. All of our staff involved in picking and packing orders ran out to see it. They were so excited, because I think it just brought the brand to life. That might sound kind of corny, but it's true.”