Don't Stop Expanding Your Business

The floriculture market has matured, and there are no new sales out there to be had. Growers who expand their operations are simply taking market share from each other.

I read this a few weeks ago from grower, and his response to this situation is to focus on current customers and not worry about finding new ones. I can understand this point of view; you should take care of current customers fully, and work at what works. But something about these comments didn't sit right with me.

Then at Short Course last week, I heard Stan Pohmer speak, painting the same picture of the industry, but said that this mentality is a self-fulfilling prophesy, and is exactly why the market has slowed down.

Maybe you're happy with the size of your business and your revenue, but you can't keep all your customers forever. You'll have to replace that business somehow. And if you want to grow and be more successful than you are now, you need to find ways to fight, don't you?

This industry has matured -- does that assume that there's only one way to go now? Is the industry just going to decline without a fight? Most of the houses in my neighborhood aren't landscaped with color at all. Isn't there room to expand the market there?

Reaching the consumer can't only be the responsibility of the retailer, I believe. What about partnering with your retailers for in-store education? Or better, what about going out into your community? Earlier this summer, a group of California growers opened their doors to the public. Even a non-gardener would be amazed at what they'd find behind the walls of a greenhouse during the height of production.

It's easier than ever for a grower to reach through directly to the consumer. I love what Ball and Proven Winners are doing with the free tools of social media. Check out the Wave and Proven Winners Facebook pages when you have a minute.

And if you think only the big brands can reach people through social, check out Rocket Farms' Facebook following. The more demand there is out there for plants at the consumer level, the more market there will be for growers.

Have you seen what Bob's Market is doing with smart tags? Other growers/retailers are testing them out, including Hort Couture, and more are thinking about it.

Please don't stop thinking about ways you can help create new gardeners!

Flowers Versus Food: A Tale Of Two Surveys

We received the 2009 Floriculture Crop Summary, which again paints a mildly sad picture of the industry -- the wholesale value of floriculture crops was down 7 percent from the '08 numbers, California down 12 percent, Florida down 9 percent. Number of producers down 13 percent.

But if you look at numbers from the National Gardening Association's 2009 Impact of Home and Community Gardening in America survey, you'll see a very different picture. Food gardening was UP 19 percent over the year before. And 21 percent of food gardening households in 2009 will be new to gardening. Here are a few more stats from that survey on why people reported that they garden:

To grow better tasting food ....58

To save money on food bills ....54

To grow better quality food....51

To grow food I know is safe ....48

To feel more productive .....40

To spend more time outdoors ....35

To get back to basics ....25

To have food to share with others....23

To live more locally ....22

To have a family activity.....21

To teach my kids about gardening ....30

These aren't all about food! 35 percent of respondents just wanted to spend more time outside. Outside! In a white-collar, computer-centric world, people still want to be outside.

Maybe we need to stick the Floriculture Crop Summary in a drawer for a little bit and take a look at what's working, not how we're failing. A few suggestions:

Cross-merchandising. Do you market flowers with vegetable plants? Get that impulse buy going. How about six packs or flats mixed with strawberries and white petunias? Strawberries and cream! Tomatoes and torenia.

Continue to market vegetables in a big way. If people aren't in the garden center, they're not going to buy any kind of plant. If the veggies get them in the door, so be it. Some people are saying they're not sure how long the veggie trend will last. I think it might have more legs than we think. After all, I've already put all this sweat equity into building a raised bed. I should keep using it.

Don't forget about the kids. Direct from the NGA survey: "Nineteen percent of all U.S. households were aware of gardening activities for students at their local school. That contrasts with a majority of households (55 percent) that said gardening activities should be implemented whenever possible (35 percent), or should be implemented in every school (20 percent)."

This is your future consumer. Is there anything you can do to get a plant in a school near you?

What else? It doesn't have to be flowers versus food? How can they work together?

The Mind Of The Male Shopper

How do you get male shoppers into your store? Ever think about it much? I found this article by Aaron Britt of the San Francisco Chronicle on making guys feel at home shopping. Britt visited several men's stores with retail and brand development specialist Bertrand Pellegrin, and shared some notes from the trip.

It seems Pellegrin's favorite store was the Mollusk Surf Shop. Britt says its "large, open space felt immediately authentic, charmingly quirky and instantly right." Sounds a lot like the reviews I've heard about Terrain.

The article also shares 10 tips for getting into the male shopper's mind:

10 commandments of a great men's store

The following are author Bertrand Pellegrin's non-negotiable suggestions for creating an ideal men's retail experience.

1. Get the goods - and believe in them.

2. Make service a priority, and never compromise.

3. Give them something they can't find anywhere else.

4. Selling isn't the only goal; make time to connect.

5. Keep it real.

6. Give 'em room - especially in the fitting room.

7. Tell them something they didn't already know.

8. Create a great community and evolve the idea of a 'third place.'

9. Make them feel like Hugh Hefner.

10. Show and tell a great story.

A lot of these rules apply to women, as well, and while I don't know about #9, I like #8. It would be safe to say my husband "hangs out" at Home Depot, visiting his future riding mower and checking out the new power tools. Do you have the merchandise that makes women AND men want to hang out?

Marketing with lumpy mail

Thumbs up to Schoneveld Twello. Today I received this in the mail - an invitation to its indoor flower trials. Schoneveld is also celebrating its 75 anniversary this year, and so with the "Building blocks for the future" theme, I received the press release on a thumb drive shaped like a Lego block.

Ron Rosenberg told us about lumpy mail in a session at Short Course. It got my attention - that's for sure. Great marketing.

Turning a negative (blight) into a positive (spring 2010)

So we have tomato blight, in a year when home gardening of vegetables is on a high. What do we take away from this?

Two things jump to mind - strong plants and stronger marketing. After an event like this, we'll need to prove somehow that the plants we provide are healthy and that gardeners themselves aren't to blame for growing sick tomatoes this year. Gardeners need to know that this isn't the norm and that they can be successful in the garden.

Even if we didn't have any kind of disease problem this year, it's important to keep up with those first-time gardeners and give them the information that will help make them second-time gardeners. I just wrapped up a story for Today's Garden Center on e-newsletters, and they're a great opportunity to get a quick exposure with your customers - and give them information they can use. And please, get a Facebook page.

Next spring, what will your marketing message be? Do we need to have a more targeted message after this year? I asked Don Eberly of Eberly and Collard PR what his thoughts were on next spring, and he said,

"History shows PR programs in down economies and other tough times resulted with companies getting and staying on top of their marketplaces, while those who hid under the table were left behind. Simply put, it is all what we make of it; I really believe these times give us all opportunities to change our stances in the market - that is, if we grab at the chance while we still have it."

Mother's Day in the garden center

Nice profile of All Season's Garden Center in the Grand Forks Herald and picked up by AgWeek.com.

In the article, owner Georgia Heitmann explains the store's Mother's Day plan, which included serving cake and lemonade at the store's open house.

"The neat thing about Mother's Day is you get families," she said in the article. "You'll see three generations or four generations." It's a big weekend for garden center sales - so how did you capitalize on it?

My mother in law was pretty impressed with a local Panera restaurant, which was handing out a carnation and free coffee to all female customers on Sunday morning.

Making oxygen

This ad was released by the World Wildlife Federation, and is all over the Internet. I've seen it on a few sites, and I'm amazed at how many people have commented that they don't get it. What do trees have to do with lung cancer? they've asked. It's not about lung cancer, people!

People out there don't understand that trees and plants create oxygen to breathe. While it makes you think twice about what kids are learning in our schools, it's also an opportunity for growers and especially retailers.

Costa's 02 For You campaign is engaging the next generation of consumers by bringing indoor plants to college campuses and First Foliage is reaching to grade schoolers with its I Love Clean Air program.

Why's everybody picking on gardening?

The usually cool Mike Rowe of the Discovery TV show Dirty Jobs is really uncool in this online ad for a contest with HP. I think this contest is closed, but I found the ad archived on Adverlicio.us.

Plant video contest on YouTube

Do you have some video that promotes the appreciation and understanding of plant? Put it on YouTube and you might make some money on it.

Chlorofilms is the organization behind the contest and is looking to bring attention back to plants and flowers.

ChloroFilms is a nonprofit project started by Dr. Daniel Cosgrove at Penn State University with initial grant support from the Education Foundation of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB). Additional support comes from the Botanical Society of America and the Canadian Botanical Association.

Check out the contest rules and ideas for videos.

Twitter: Part II

I'm seeing more and more gardening and garden center Twitter accounts - nice! Kimmerg sent me a message asking what would make good content for a garden center Twitter feed.

And just today I saw this article - 10 Tips To Be Effective At Marketing On Twitter. There's some good stuff in there, including "you need to know the difference between posting often and spamming," "Make the most out of your account," and "Facilitate conversation!" Great tips.

I'd also say give lots of information gardeners can use. Thinking of the upcoming season, when should I start growing my seedlings? When is it safe to put annuals outside? What's the new annuals you're excited about? Stuff like that.

The thirst for online knowledge

I was on my microblog Twitter last week looking around for news on poinsettia sales, Christmas plant sales, anything. I searched for 'poinsettia' and I found quite a few recipes for the drink (champagne and cranberry juice, had no idea), but not much news on plant sales.

So I asked my Twitter followers, "Any gardeners out there following your favorite garden center's Twitter feed? Which ones? If not, would you like to, if it was offered?" Here are three responses I got:

have not found any. It would be great to find some

I would, if they tweeted. I don't think any of mine are. I'm in Wilmington, NC.

Sure, I would love to see garden center feeds!

We're the plant experts, and there are gardeners out there starved for information. Growers and retailers - give them what they're looking for!

I propose a New Year's Resolution. Step outside your comfort zone. Take a step towards your customers. Go to Twitter.com, click on 'Find People' at the top of the page, and search for jreck, gardenofwords and treesandshrubs. These are the users who commented above, and they have a thirst for knowledge about gardening. There are tons of other gardeners on Twitter, looking to learn more about plants and flowers. How about you set up an account and give them a tip of the week?

If you're on Twitter, let me know. I want to follow you. I'm stambascio. Follow me!

Update: Here's an article on how Ford, Dunkin' Donuts and Comcast are using Twitter corporately to communicate on a more personal level.

Retailing up north - IGCA Tour in Vancouver

Today's Garden Center's Associate Editor Ann-Marie Conroy is out in Vancouver for the International Garden Center Association Congress, and is blogging away at http://tgcrevolution.blogspot.com. If you're interested in marketing and merchandising at all, take a look over there. She's been documenting the trip with some fantastic garden and garden center photos and ideas for retailers and probably growers, as well. Having the gorgeous scenery of Vancouver helps people want to be out in nature and in their gardens, I'm sure.

This photo is from Marigold Nurseries, Vancouver Island’s largest garden center.

Are demographics a blessing or a curse for Hort Couture?

Marketing will never be easy, because as much as we like to categorize people in demographic buckets, people are individuals. Take a look at this post over at Garden Rant on Hort Couture. Some female gardeners think it's a cute concept, some aren't so hot on the idea. Some are even "completely insulted."

Hort Couture's marketing is obviously not for the gardener who likes to have her hands in the dirt. It's for the decorator who uses flowers. The gardener who likes to have her hands in the dirt doesn't really need to be marketed, I guess you could say.

I did just receive an email this morning, though, that Hort Couture has started a blog, so you can check that out and decide for yourself.

It's not enough to be green

An interesting article in Forbes on some sustainable clothing lines and how they've done. One is thriving because of marketing efforts and one has gone down the tubes with the stagnant economy.

Also sort of related, I just saw on Mulch Ado About Nothing that an economist predicts that oil prices will come down in early 2009. It should be interesting to see what happens to the sustainability movement once the economy is stronger. Will consumers go green with their wallets?

Gen Y Gardens!

I love this post from the Blogging Nurseryman today on organics and Gen Y.

"Just like the hippies of yesterday, today's young people are actively involved in and not listening to 'the establishment.' Who is the establishment. US!"

We, as an industry, make the rules. And Trey says if we keep listening to the "experts" on how to market and what products to sell, we'll be lost. A good example he mentions is the myth that young people don't garden.

When I talked to Wolfgang Engelmann, the winner of this year's Medal of Excellence for Marketing, he told me how his research shows that young people today are embracing nature in ways that generations before them didn't. So why not market to them? They want your products! Don't give up on Gen Y!

Long time, no blog

Here's what's up at Greenhouse Grower lately. Our May Top 100 Growers list is just about to hit mailboxes, we just finished up work on our Mid-May structures issue and now we're onto our June issue.

We have a new number one grower on the list this year -- Color Spot Nursery. The operation added almost 5 million square feet of greenhouse area in the last year. Stay tuned to your mailbox and to www.greenhousegrower.com to read more details on the largest greenhouses in the U.S.

The mid-May issue of Greenhouse Grower follows Buckley Growers Illinois and Elzinga & Hoeksema's new greenhouse projects, and a really nice article by Danny Takao on tips for planning a new structure.

Looking ahead now, in our June issue, we're looking for your tags. Send me your custom-made labels and/or tags and we'll include them in the magazine. E-mail me at satambascio@meistermedia.com. Thanks!

And finally, I'll be attending the Southeast Greenhouse Conference this year. I've never been to this show before, so I hope to see and learn a lot. See you there.

Spring has sprung at Lowe's

There's something big going on over at Lowe's Web site. A new section called Welcome Back Spring takes the visitor to a fictional town called Sunnyville, where we meet neighbors who are all about outdoor living.

The Web animation begins with a sweeping look at flowers blooming, koi swimming and burgers sizzling on the grill.

Moe is the neighborhood guy obsessed with his lawn. Mike is the party animal, a bear who knows everything about patio furniture. And Iris is the local gardener. Each character shares tips about their area of expertise. Iris shares when and what to plant based on a planting Zone chart, as well as suggestions on gardening tools.

Even though this is the same information packaged in a slightly different way, I think this is so much more effective marketing than ad circulars. It's a story...and it's online. I can relate to these people and I feel like I'm hearing something from a friend. And a bear! A bear who knows everything about outdoor entertaining. If you make me laugh, I'm probably a customer for life.

Nice Broquet

I was really into the man-friendly mixed containers the NFL Network used to gussy up its SuperBowl XLII set on Sunday (see video of it, and Plaxico Burress, here)

This probably caught my eye even more because I noticed these containers right after hearing about Banana Florist. The florist’s arrangements are lovely, but what sets the company apart from others is their attitude. Using humor that seriously reaches out to grab readers, I’m sure this new company will give others in its area a run for their money. C’mon try to beat this description of a foliage dish garden:

So, Pat from Accounting bailed you out of a jam. Naturally, you'd like to show your gratitude. Let's steer clear of red roses, unless you want a Disclosure Form from HR. (And lots of unexpected attention from Pat.) The Unmixed Signal safely conveys your appreciation for co-workers and other folks you know professionally.

And the Broquet is the solution for sending a man flowers. Quirky humor is definitely in. Even more than that, they incorporate links to pop culture Web sites like YouTube and Gawker, connecting themselves to the world young people inhabit.

Unusual retail outlets: Do you sell to any?

I'm thinking about non-traditional retail outlets lately. Urban Outfitters' soon-to-be unveiled Terrain greenhouse-themed concept is in the works, and our February cover story subject is in with a unique retailer.

Jim Hessler of Green Valley Growers, told me that his business sells to military exchange services -- the PX on military bases. There’s a lower margin on plants sold there because they’re non-profit outfits. But they can move quite a bit of product, especially the ones with the most retired military nearby.

I was in a bookstore about this time last year looking for a Valentine's Day gift, and it occurred to me that what I was looking for was a small potted plant. A small red cyclamen or kalanchoe. If customers aren't going into garden centers this time of year, why not go where they are shopping?

Industry collaborates to bring youngsters into horticulture

Twenty-seven green industry associations have announced they're working together on an industry career Web site aimed at high school students. The Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association (MNLA) and the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) initiated the project, and the American Society for Horticultural Science (AHS) and the American Nursery & Landscape Association (ANLA) are sponsors. And if you're part of an industry association, it's likely involved.

The group is putting together focus groups and surveys now to see what will work with the younger audience. My advice is make sure the site is compatible with cell phones. I think it's great, though, that such a big group of organizations isn't just sitting around, lamenting the problems of the industry. They're tackling one of the big ones. Nice job!

The site isn't live yet, but I'll post a link when it is.