Connecting for a Cause

by Danny Summers

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.

Each of these examples I shared had a strong message of Connecting for a Cause. You can read that message again HERE.

This week, I have some additional Group Centers that are Connecting for a Cause as well. First, let's travel to Eau Claire, Wisconsin to see the Plant the Valley Campaign for 2024 that Down to Earth Garden Center has created.

Here's the basics for their audience message:

Let’s Plant the Valley! We want to share our love of trees with the entire Chippewa Valley!

We have set a BIG tree-goal that comes with an exciting reward for everyone. April thru November 2024, we have set out to sell 2,500 trees at our retail locations. When we meet our goal, we will “dig in” and plant trees throughout the Valley. Help us enrich  our community, create sustainability, and bring the joy of nature to all parts of our beautiful town. This is a team effort that involves all of us…

How to join in on this mission:

• Purchase any tree from our retail store - watch the tree tracker grow throughout the months! Every tree purchased makes the tracker leaves flourish!
• Promote the program by displaying our ‘Plant the Valley’ merch! (Button/stickers given after your tree purchase. Sweatshirts + tees are available in our garden shop!)
• Choose to sponsor a tree!

I asked Sarah and Ben Polzin how the campaign is going. Here's what Sarah had to say:

"Our Plant the Valley campaign has already driven our tree sales with a 13% increase over last year! Any tree that is planted by our landscape division or sold from either of our retail locations counts toward our goal, so our whole team is involved with the initiative.

This collaboration has created excitement within our team to both learn more about the trees we offer and to reach our goal. We had swag made in the form of sweatshirts, T-shirts, pins, and stickers that our team members wear and our customers can purchase as part of the campaign. It is bringing everyone together to accomplish a united goal."

"News stations and local newspapers have featured our initiative, giving us greater publicity and community reach. We've been featuring our progress on a weekly basis, posting videos. Anytime we reach a new milestone we share it with our customers through social media and our website blog. They love cheering us on!

The Plant the Valley Campaign Down to Earth created to plant 2,500 trees in their community is certainly...Connecting for a Cause! (Click on the image here to see their eNews last week (PDF). And click HERE to go to Down to Earth's website.)

Another Group Center that is Connecting for a Cause is Benken's Garden Center & Florist. In last week's enews, Lindsey and Andy Farfsing, Benken's 4th generation owners, announced they have chosen to donate $20 for each floral arrangement purchased from their Childhood Cancer Awareness Collection this month to CancerFree KIDS.

Their daughter, Rachel, is a childhood cancer survivor, so CancerFree KIDS is an organization that is very near and dear to their hearts at Benken. Certainly, Benken's Childhood Cancer Awareness Month campaign is Connecting for a Cause!

(Click on image above to see their eNews last week in PDF. And click HERE to go to the Benken website.)

Both Down to Earth and Benken's have meaningful messages that stimulates emotional connections with their audiences. They also help to illustrate their organizational values and that builds real connections with their audiences.

What programs or campaigns does your Center have that would be considered Connecting for a Cause? I think you may have more than you think. They may just need to be more in the spotlight as you tell your Center's story... every day, every week.

A special congrats to both Down to Earth and Benken's for their efforts and for sharing details of Connecting for a Cause with us!