The Cost of Creativity

With Comments from Robert and Danny

[Robert] "Danny called me last Monday and asked about my Super Bowl commercial review. Old news now, so a quick response. For once, the game was way better than any commercial. Other than the extended spot the NFL ran at the beginning, then maybe the Bill Murray Groundhog Day one since it was groundhog day, there was nothing super about any commercial this year."

[Danny] In case you missed the one ad Robert mentions above, simply click on the image here to see it. Robert's top-pick of JEEP's replay of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day is actually the winner of USA Today's Ad Meter - See details here.

When a Writer Calls...

by Danny Summers

This past fall I received an introduction email and then a call from a writer who was assigned the task of creating a story for Better Homes & Garden magazine. The subject started out as:

The Value of Creativity

by Danny Summers

 

It is amazing to see what creativity can do. Whether it is displays in-store, signage, or your marketing message, real creativity is priceless. We have seen and heard how big corporations spend millions producing major ads for product launches or even special events like The Super Bowl which we will see in a few weeks. Most fail to make a big splash or impact. Only a few rise to the top and even onward to the award-winning archives such as ones we remember from long ago. This include Budweiser's Puppy Love from 2014, Apple's original Mac launch in 1984, or Coke's Mean Joe Green and Kid ad in 1980 (Revisit these in our February 11, 2019 GROUPtalk HERE). Or you may even remember Coke's "We'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" in 1971. These are etched into the hearts and minds of millions and are at top of marketing history.

The New Garden Center Customer - Part 2

By Danny Summers

 

In Part 1 we reviewed how we are now in a transition of sorts where in 2019, "Baby Boomers" are projected to start a slow decline in numbers over the coming ears and where "Millennials" are projected to have overtaken Boomers in the top spot as percentage of population. Let's explore this further together...

The New Garden Center Customer - Part 1

by Danny Summers

This is a time of transition, a time of change.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy said, "Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."

Attention Group Owners-Managers:
Make sure to send this on to whomever does your email newsletters...

How's your newsletters? No matter the answer, can they be improved?

A few weeks back we had a lengthy GroupEs eList discussion about e-marketing and especially email newsletters. In the middle of the conversation, Robert Hendrickson said this is an indication we need to reach out to Michael Katz at Blue Penguin Development for his coaching skills. Michael is one of the best at creating effective email newsletters. He has been a featured speaker at multiple past Fall Events and some of you no doubt are on his email list today. But we know many of you are not. I spoke to Michael to discuss our needs and he has put together a special offer, just for The Group. Here's details:

 

Connect+ by Proven Winners^®

New Promotional Support Program for 2020

[Danny] This past week, while we were at the Farwest Show, Proven Winners' Jessica DeGraaf shared with me a new promotional support program they are introducing for 2020. You may remember they offered a special program this past spring where our centers could participate in a customized video series by Garden Answer's Laura and Aaron LeBoutillier. The program produced a series of videos each participating center could use on their website and in social media. The program was very reasonable and gave a wonderful message and a number of you participated. This new expanded program for 2020 brings together a number of offerings and is called Connect+. I asked Jessica to give us some commentary on the program and she sent us the following details.

While we discussed each tier of options to Connect+, we discussed the real value of just a couple of the elements such as the Facebook or Pandora pieces, it was obvious it would cost a center much more than the total cost of this offer and therefore what a great value this could be for our centers. Obviously you need to consider what Proven Winners® programs you will be carrying, what they can offer that matches up with those products and how you can implement in your center. If the product mix matches what you can sell, the value of this offer is pretty amazing. At a time of increasing effort is needed to handle all the promotional tools a center is utilizing today, this type of support can bring some needed relief. Be sure to also follow the link at the bottom to see the simple chart showing the four levels of promotional support.

Death by Marketing

By Sid Raisch

An Italian proverb reads, “He that deceives me once, it's his fault, but if twice, it’s my fault.” The question from this is, are you dangerously close to death by marketing?

Raising Your Invisible Ceiling on Growth

by Sid Raisch

Do you have a plan to break through your Invisible Ceiling this Spring?

Loyalty Programs - Group Sharing Footnotes

The following footnotes have been collected by Danny Summers from The Group during discussions on this subject at the time of developing this story. We plan to add additional ideas from others over time. These notes provide important additional Group guidance in developing or evaluating your program(s).

Loyalty Programs to Drive Sales & Customer Engagement

By Sam Kirkland, National Accounts Manager, Epicor Software
  ...with Group discussion footnotes added

[Footnotes have been collected by Danny Summers from The Group during discussions on this subject at the time of developing this story and are located at the end of this article. These notes provide important additional Group guidance in developing or evaluating your program(s).]

Making the "Emotional Connection"

by Danny Summers

Robert Hendrickson has pushed The Group for years now on some of the very best ways to tell your story and build that unique, emotional connection with the customer. This is the extreme opposite of selling by price and certainly much more effective than selling by the old standard of "feature and benefit" marketing.

#TheFallEvent2018 - Garden Answer's Laura and Aaron present...

"YES YOU CAN Reach Your Customers through Social Media!"

Laura and her husband, Aaron, started Garden Answer, a YouTube how-to gardening channel filled with style, expertise and helpful gardening knowledge, in 2014. Today, they attract over 300,000 YouTube channel subscribers and have generated over 25 million views of their YouTube gardening videos. Garden Answer has 2.2 million followers and over 450 million video views. Garden Answer has become quite a sensation in just a short  time, and the numbers are continually growing!

Their tremendous popularity has prompted industry brands like Proven Winners, Espoma, Gardener's Supply, and others, to partner with Garden Answer to reach consumers.

Reeling in the Non-Gardeners


An excerpt from Ball Publishing's GreenProfit
(With comments by Danny Summers)

This past week GreenProfit published an article as titled above. They posed the question: "How can you attract non-gardeners as new customers" to the three finalists in the 2018 Green Profit/Dümmen Orange Young Retailer Award competition, sponsored by Dümmen Orange and AmericanHort!

Value Up! Eliminating Value Confusion – (Part 2)

By Sid Raisch

In the first part of this article we discussed why the word “value” is easily misunderstood, and how this misunderstanding confuses our people. CLICK HERE to read it.

Now that we've cleared up the definition of value, let's use the word in its highest value. The best way to do this will be to get clear on the levels of value.

Eliminating Value Confusion

By Sid Raisch

We need to clear up some confusion over the word “value”.

We Americans are a confused lot. Our language does this to us. Some other languages have one meaning per word. We have many.

Dual meanings are confusing. I have learned that it is a sign of intelligence when toddler’s pickup dual meanings of words. Understanding of multiple definitions of a word is also a sign of intelligence among adults. So let’s understand the simple word “value”, in all its wonder, and amazing complexity, beginning with the textbook definition.

I have no idea where the dictionary is, so we’ll Google. Maybe the definition of value has changed with the Internet? Right from the beginning, the cause of confusion is evident. Value is both a Noun, with two definitions, and a Verb with two additional definitions.

Let Your Center's Brand ROCK! 

by Tom Kegley

In case you missed the GROUPtalk-Live session last Tuesday, "Let Your Center's Brand ROCK!" by Tom Kegley, you still the opportunity to see and hear what Tom has created. The session has been recorded and you have an invitation to view the entire presentation below. I want to stress a couple of points here... This is MUCH MORE than simply a redesign of a logo for America’s Best Flowers (which looks fabulous by the way). It begins with  a study of the "essence" or "core values" of the company. For America's Best Flowers, one word that was always in their logo and message was... Joy. Tom says there is so much of what we sell that creates Joy and how we experience that Joy is multifaceted through many senses. Creating a new logo incorporated the "essence" he and the staff at ABF agreed with and Tom also kept a rainbow of colors in the concept, except in a different way.

 

Integrate Your Marketing Communications for More Impact

by Tom Kegley

 

With so many ways to reach out to your customers– advertising, email, direct mail, in-store signage, events, social media, and more– it’s easy for your marketing communications to become diluted or disjointed. In today’s ocean of messaging, the isolated message gets lost.
 
No Message is an Island is a macro communications approach for today’s media. If you identify your big message, weave it into every channel you use to speak to your customers, and coordinate the execution, your marketing becomes so much more effective. Whether your campaign is for a weekend, a season, or the entire year, make it stronger by connecting your islands of messages into one giant continent.
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Learn why and how No Message is an Island in 7 minutes in Tom’s moving online presentation.