Last time, I ended with this:
"Next time, I’m going to share with you exactly how to wrap this commitment up and tie it off with a bow—to do something so simple and so critically important. That’s right, it's to SELL MORE of the only thing we measure that really matters to the people who buy it—our products and services."
With all the news today about imports, exports and tariffs, it becomes natural to think about what our Centers offer today. The great Trees, Shrubs, Perennials and Annuals you sell are certainly grown close to you or at the very least in the same region or country. Some of you are actually growing some of them in-house. There may be some imported components, whether it is peat or peat substitutes, bamboo stakes, etc., but the majority of what a customer takes home could be considered Homegrown.
Even our great non-plant suppliers, the majority of them produce their products domestically. Just take a look at what you have in your Center today and think about where it is being made. I'm confident the majority of what you see is Homegrown. OK, saying a non-plant item is Homegrown sounds somewhat strange, but you get the point.
Our industry devotes a tremendous amount of effort to Plant Health (or Plant Wellness). Offering a healthy plant is at the core of what we do. If it is not healthy, it just doesn't sell.
What we don't spend much time on is the Wellness of People. Obviously, each of us is very concerned about our overall health and the health of everyone around us. But, there is a growing movement on a connection between the two, hence the subject today... Wellness = People + Plants.
[Originally presented at The Fall Event 2024 - CLICK HERE to download a PDF version]
Sometimes underestimated and overlooked, in-store signage is one of the most valuable tools in your marketing toolbox. Signs come in all shapes, sizes, and substrates. They have multiple purposes– directing, educating, motivating, connecting, storytelling, brand building, and more.
If you are subscribed to The Group's Marketing eList, you may have seen the message shared last Thursday by Tom Kegley, The Group's Brand Guru. Tom shared a review of this year's Super Bowl Ads, produced by Kantar, one of the world’s leading marketing data and analytics business and brand partners to the world’s top companies, including 96 of the world’s 100 biggest advertisers.
The answer to that question varies by who you ask, where their Garden Center is located, and of course... the weather!
For a technical answer, we can turn to the Old Farmers Almanac, which says the answer is:
If you have been in The Group Experience for some time now, you know how much we have talked about the dynamic shift needed in the way our Centers connect to your audience. While there were some changes identified and discussed pre-COVID, beginning in the spring of 2020, the need for shifting seemed to get kicked into overdrive.
Let's back up a minute here... Our founder, Robert Hendrickson, was way ahead of the curve, as far back as the beginning of The Group itself. Everyone remembers how much Robert pushed you to "tell your story." He pushed to shift from a promotional message (plants or products with a price) to a connection to an experience. The was the first push The Group had to make an emotional connection.
Having the opportunity to see many of our Garden Centers' messaging throughout the year offers a chance to see unique local and regional differences (as well as similarities) across the country. What I see in Spring seems to be more similarities with only differences in timing based on your location... Southern-most Centers getting kicked off earlier, and other markets follow as spring rolls out. But overall, the message of a beautiful spring ahead seems pretty consistent. And especially with The Group Centers where we have been sharing ideas on the benefits of plants and gardening.
Fall seems to have some differences or at least some areas of uniqueness. Here are some examples...
One of the major messages we learned at The Fall Event 2022 in Kansas City when Hallmark's Darren Abbott presented to The Group was how important it is to create an emotional connection with your audience. Studying Hallmark's patterns for leveraging emotions gave us ideas on how Garden Centers can create an emotional connection with their audience, not just for plants and gardening, but also for the Garden Center itself.
Consistently sharing the values of the Garden Center throughout its messaging can certainly help. You may remember back in April I shared a blog message titled "Founded with a Purpose" where I told the story of Mayorga Coffee, and supported the message with details of Mostardi Nursery, and Meadows Farms, as well as Renee's Garden, one of our new Fall Event Sponsors this year.
Media Going Wrong
In the bigger picture marketing is much more than advertising. It is more than social media. What is it? Marketing is communication with a specific chosen group of people in language they understand and empowering them to act to support their interests, not ours.
The Marketplace Mantra: “It is the marketer’s responsibility to communicate to our marketplace information to make them want to buy.”
Growing up as a kid, one of my favorite treats was Cracker Jack. That savory combination of caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts was certainly the draw, but there was something more... A Surprise Inside!
A Surprise Inside was never anything really valuable. It wasn't like finding a winning lottery ticket inside or even a coupon for a free box of Cracker Jack. More importantly for me, it had something inside to make me read and think. Often it was something that sparked curiosity and rallied my imagination.
We all live in different parts of the country, and I know for some, there may be one season that is dominant over the others. Areas in the farther parts of either north or south, you certainly can have much more extremes in either winter or summer months.
Karen and I have lived in North Georgia since the Fall of 1989. We moved from Central Florida and even today, we can remember so vividly our trip to Atlanta to look for a home. It was October, and what we were about to see was so different than what we were used to.
Signage in your Garden Center can be one of the most effective, efficient, and timely marketing tools in the toolbox. This year marks the 50th year of business for Fairview Greenhouses and Garden Center in Raleigh, NC. As part of the commemoration, I was proud and pleased to work with Fairview’s Heather Rollins to create a set of large format banners honoring Fairview founder, Jo Ann Dewar and the 3-generation tradition of the ‘Fairview Family’ she has dedicated her working life to (and still does to this day!)
In addition to banners featuring Jo Ann and family, we took the opportunity to update a series of banners used as backdrops to the shade perennials section of the garden center and entrance to the large greenhouse shopping area. Finally, a 50th-anniversary logo was created to enhance various messages throughout the year of celebration.
Marketing Degradation - Marketing has become degraded to an undisciplined practice of rapid-fire social media posts with messages covering dozens if not hundreds of topics to the point that - there is no real net message, or benefit of creating them.
Let’s begin with the end in mind. The end in marketing is a purchase. I will come back to that notion.
One of the earliest forms of what we might call a craft today is Paper Mache. The image of the bee above is an example. A quick search reveals Paper Mache's beginning can be traced back to the 1300's. Today, we could quickly envision a piñata to represent Paper Mache, or an elementary school project. I can remember our girls using Paper Mache to building a volcano for one of their projects (and no kitchen or dining room tables were damaged by eruptions).
I am thinking for Garden Retailing, the idea for Crafting Opportunities could be focused toward both plants and product categories as well as activities outside of the typical spring season.
Part 4 - Sell What THEY Want to Buy - The CHEESE
[Continued from Part 3 - Click HERE to read from Group Blog]
We’ve covered a lot of ground so far in Parts 1, 2, and 3 of this article series. Be sure to click on the link above to review Part 3 or to catch up if you haven’t been following along with each part.
Real creativity, what we may call Creative Juices, must take a special kind of focus and attention. It may require quiet space to really unplug and block out all the typical hustle and bustle you normally experience in the work setting. I decided to ask Tom Kegley what he does to be in the best position for his most creative work. Here's what Tom said:
"In my work, CREATIVITY is equal parts INSPIRATION (concept) and PERSPIRATION (execution). Given this notion of Applied Creativity, I’ll focus on the front end. How does something intangible as INSPIRATION happen?
Part 3 - Meet Them - Where THEY Are (Not Where We Are)
READ THIS FIRST - This week as we head towards Mothers Day, be thinking about the customers who haven’t been in your store and you won’t be seeing this week, next week, next month, or ever, if we don’t figure out how to REACH them.
Sometimes, great ideas begin... Organically.
And by "organically" I don't mean our first reaction of thinking about your favorite compost or plant nutrient. Instead, I am thinking about an idea that arrives "naturally" or without great effort to create a wonderful new idea.
Even though garden centers are primarily a visual industry with bright colors and interesting textures, another sense should be considered when planning your marketing mix: auditory.
I’m a huge fan of radio advertising because it’s one medium where you can cast a net broader than anywhere else to catch new customers. The airwaves reach far and wide, and radio worked especially well for me in Colorado when I would have gone broke advertising in every small-town newspaper within our 200-mile marketing area.