It seems the whole world is stuck in limbo waiting for the current financial turmoil to settle. Being without direction is never comfortable and we’re all anxious to know what shape our lives will take in the aftermath of all this.
One thing which is for certain is that life goes on. There will be people and homes and businesses. And the newfound public awareness of green issues is unlikely to disappear. Having been slapped so hardly in the face by the build-up of materialism, the instinct to live in closer harmony with the natural environment could come to the fore in a big way.
The current trend for bringing nature closer to home (especially grow-your-own food) could be amplified by the present situation, as people with less money to spend outside the home turn their attention towards improving what’s in it.
So while many are still waiting and wondering, I’m seizing the moment to initiate a new project that will tune in with modern day lifestyles and bring gardening to the people. A project that will make it easy for non-gardeners to enjoy plant life in their homes, encouraging new spend into our industry and providing work opportunities for many knowledgeable individuals.
The name of this project is Plant Concierge, to be found at plantconcierge.com.
Plant Concierge will take a multi-faceted approach to facilitating gardening activity within homes of ‘non-gardeners’. And let’s face it, this is a far bigger target group than the one we traditionally go after. As the project develops there will be opportunities for retailers and product suppliers to get involved, but for now I am looking for gardening advisors, designers, gardeners and landscapers to come forward as service providers.
If you or anybody you know wants to take advantage of this opportunity for free publicity of your services then please go to www.plantconcierge.com and register as a service provider.
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Thursday, 9 October 2008
Tough economy presents opportunities for horticulture
Yesterday I saw an encouraging article on the BBC. In the midst of the economic doom and gloom, some businesses are actually thriving. Not in spite of the downturn, but because of it. Cobblers are reporting a surge in trade as people decide to have their existing shoes fixed instead of buying new ones.
Where there’s a problem there’s always an opportunity. The financial markets may be nervous and the resulting hardship for many is real, but the world hasn’t stopped turning.
So where do the horticulture industry’s opportunities lie at this time?
With less money to spend on travel, people are spending more time in their homes. This increases the desire for those homes to be aesthetically pleasing. When times are tough, the human instinct for progression doesn’t disappear – the retail therapy just needs to be re-directed.
With big ticket items off the agenda, getting a few nice plants to brighten up the home and garden is a perfect, low cost, pick-me-up that instantly enhances the living environment, while improving the garden doubles as a great investment for the property as a whole. Coupled with the current pressure on society to be greener, the feel-good factor of having more plants around is amplified.
The time is right for the public to be receptive to gardening promotion, so it’s up to the industry to deliver it. The key is in marketing products appropriately for the mood, pre-empting the particular concerns customers have in the current economic climate.
Demonstrate value for money
Spell out how many weeks/months/years of pleasure a particular plant will bring and plant the thought of what excellent value it represents over time.
How...
In stores via p-o-p and knowledgeable staff. On the web via promotional pages on store websites. Via the media by sending press information on this subject to editors.
Implement transparent, honest marketing
It’s never good to disappoint customers by making unrealistic claims about products, and when money is tight loosing trust is suicidal. If a tropical plant is only likely to last 2 months in a temperate climate then say so – perhaps with a tongue-in-cheek twist that if the customer can’t get away to paradise this year, at least paradise can come to them for a while! Knowing a product has a limited lifespan is unlikely to stop the customer from buying - otherwise there wouldn't be a cutflower market - but managing customer expectations will earn respect and loyalty.
How...
In stores via p-o-p and knowledgeable staff. On the web via promotional pages on store websites. Via the media by sending inspiring information about your more interesting but shorter-lived plants to editors.
Make it really easy
Efficient spending at this time is paramount. Customers won’t want to risk wasting money by purchasing unsuitable plants or the wrong care products, so make sure there’s plenty of advice at hand to help every customer discover how to shop efficiently. Implement a proactive policy for advising customers on purchases.
How...
In stores via p-o-p, in-store displays and knowledgeable staff. On the web promote the super-helpful advice your store is offering via your own website. Via the media go to your local press with a story about your proactive policy of helping customers shop efficiently.
Exude positivity
Today’s consumers don’t just buy products, they buy solutions and emotions. Right now everybody needs a solution to the general economic gloom, so if coming into your store makes them feel good, they’ll be all the more likely to want to take a piece of it home. So have cheery displays and above all, happy, friendly staff.
How...
In stores via displays and staff.
Where there’s a problem there’s always an opportunity. The financial markets may be nervous and the resulting hardship for many is real, but the world hasn’t stopped turning.
So where do the horticulture industry’s opportunities lie at this time?
With less money to spend on travel, people are spending more time in their homes. This increases the desire for those homes to be aesthetically pleasing. When times are tough, the human instinct for progression doesn’t disappear – the retail therapy just needs to be re-directed.
With big ticket items off the agenda, getting a few nice plants to brighten up the home and garden is a perfect, low cost, pick-me-up that instantly enhances the living environment, while improving the garden doubles as a great investment for the property as a whole. Coupled with the current pressure on society to be greener, the feel-good factor of having more plants around is amplified.
The time is right for the public to be receptive to gardening promotion, so it’s up to the industry to deliver it. The key is in marketing products appropriately for the mood, pre-empting the particular concerns customers have in the current economic climate.
Demonstrate value for money
Spell out how many weeks/months/years of pleasure a particular plant will bring and plant the thought of what excellent value it represents over time.
How...
In stores via p-o-p and knowledgeable staff. On the web via promotional pages on store websites. Via the media by sending press information on this subject to editors.
Implement transparent, honest marketing
It’s never good to disappoint customers by making unrealistic claims about products, and when money is tight loosing trust is suicidal. If a tropical plant is only likely to last 2 months in a temperate climate then say so – perhaps with a tongue-in-cheek twist that if the customer can’t get away to paradise this year, at least paradise can come to them for a while! Knowing a product has a limited lifespan is unlikely to stop the customer from buying - otherwise there wouldn't be a cutflower market - but managing customer expectations will earn respect and loyalty.
How...
In stores via p-o-p and knowledgeable staff. On the web via promotional pages on store websites. Via the media by sending inspiring information about your more interesting but shorter-lived plants to editors.
Make it really easy
Efficient spending at this time is paramount. Customers won’t want to risk wasting money by purchasing unsuitable plants or the wrong care products, so make sure there’s plenty of advice at hand to help every customer discover how to shop efficiently. Implement a proactive policy for advising customers on purchases.
How...
In stores via p-o-p, in-store displays and knowledgeable staff. On the web promote the super-helpful advice your store is offering via your own website. Via the media go to your local press with a story about your proactive policy of helping customers shop efficiently.
Exude positivity
Today’s consumers don’t just buy products, they buy solutions and emotions. Right now everybody needs a solution to the general economic gloom, so if coming into your store makes them feel good, they’ll be all the more likely to want to take a piece of it home. So have cheery displays and above all, happy, friendly staff.
How...
In stores via displays and staff.
Monday, 15 September 2008
Lessons from the outside world
As a publicist and writer I get to play a part in the promotion of all kinds of internationally marketed products. From electronic goods to sports shoes to business IT services to human resources, plus of course plants and horticulture-related items.
This exposure to other markets sets examples of what businesses in the horticulture industry can and should be doing to remain competitive in a rapidly changing market.
Both on and off-line, goods are being retailed in an ever-more integrated fashion – just look at Amazon.com, you can go on-line to buy a book and come away with a patio-full of planted containers - and that means every horticulture-related business has to widen the demographic appeal of its products.
While every customer from every demographic is welcome, the challenge the horticulture industry faces is in how to promote goods in a way that non-core audiences respond to. While garden centres are in the consumer front line and have to work on retailer tricks-of-the-trade, the inspiration that drives promotion of individual products needs to come from the beginning of the supply chain.
This means that when a new plant variety is introduced it should be accompanied by information that appeals not only to commercial growers and knowledgeable gardeners, but to a broad, uninitiated consumer market who are probably way more familiar with IT terminology than with different soil types. It means explaining how different potting mixtures or containers are suited for different use and why one costs so much more than another. I’ve been working in this industry for many years and when I walk into the garden centre it’s still not clear to me which products are best suited to my purpose!
Product originators therefore have a powerful responsibility to feed the market with carefully considered sales stories. One challenge they face is in having staff who are so familiar with the horticulture industry and its vocabulary that they can find it difficult to identify and describe the sales features which make a product appealing to outsiders. This is hardly surprising given that most goods are traded within the boundaries of the horticulture industry’s own comfort-zone, finally coming into contact with consumers who have dared to enter the garden centre sales environment. The industry as a whole is not accustomed to courting consumers who haven’t made the first move, but as attention within the garden centre has to be harder-won and the specialist market contracts in favour of a broader range of sales channels, it must learn to speak the language of the non-specialist consumer.
Outside of horticulture I work with businesses who take a strategic and disciplined approach to integrated marketing. They’re playing the internet game with skill, creating well-structured websites that attract search-engine attention and coax sales through. They’re using language cleverly, creating concise, feature-heavy texts that are quickly and easily understood by the widest possible audience. They’re connecting with consumers by focussing on solving their wish-list and resisting the temptation to show off by using jargon. This is the communication style that business customers and public consumers with the potential to buy your products interact with every day. This is their comfort zone. And the horticulture industry must adapt to it, fast.
This exposure to other markets sets examples of what businesses in the horticulture industry can and should be doing to remain competitive in a rapidly changing market.
Both on and off-line, goods are being retailed in an ever-more integrated fashion – just look at Amazon.com, you can go on-line to buy a book and come away with a patio-full of planted containers - and that means every horticulture-related business has to widen the demographic appeal of its products.
While every customer from every demographic is welcome, the challenge the horticulture industry faces is in how to promote goods in a way that non-core audiences respond to. While garden centres are in the consumer front line and have to work on retailer tricks-of-the-trade, the inspiration that drives promotion of individual products needs to come from the beginning of the supply chain.
This means that when a new plant variety is introduced it should be accompanied by information that appeals not only to commercial growers and knowledgeable gardeners, but to a broad, uninitiated consumer market who are probably way more familiar with IT terminology than with different soil types. It means explaining how different potting mixtures or containers are suited for different use and why one costs so much more than another. I’ve been working in this industry for many years and when I walk into the garden centre it’s still not clear to me which products are best suited to my purpose!
Product originators therefore have a powerful responsibility to feed the market with carefully considered sales stories. One challenge they face is in having staff who are so familiar with the horticulture industry and its vocabulary that they can find it difficult to identify and describe the sales features which make a product appealing to outsiders. This is hardly surprising given that most goods are traded within the boundaries of the horticulture industry’s own comfort-zone, finally coming into contact with consumers who have dared to enter the garden centre sales environment. The industry as a whole is not accustomed to courting consumers who haven’t made the first move, but as attention within the garden centre has to be harder-won and the specialist market contracts in favour of a broader range of sales channels, it must learn to speak the language of the non-specialist consumer.
Outside of horticulture I work with businesses who take a strategic and disciplined approach to integrated marketing. They’re playing the internet game with skill, creating well-structured websites that attract search-engine attention and coax sales through. They’re using language cleverly, creating concise, feature-heavy texts that are quickly and easily understood by the widest possible audience. They’re connecting with consumers by focussing on solving their wish-list and resisting the temptation to show off by using jargon. This is the communication style that business customers and public consumers with the potential to buy your products interact with every day. This is their comfort zone. And the horticulture industry must adapt to it, fast.
Friday, 5 September 2008
Could You Be The Weakest Link?
An edited version of following article was published in the Autumn 2008 issue (Volume 1, No. ZERO) of GARDENS International Magazine. This is the original article.
----------------------------------------
The international garden industry is a complex web. Each consumer product sale represents a triumph of teamwork. From licence holder to retailer, every business in the supply chain depends on every other to do their part. The team can only perform as well as its weakest link, and everybody familiar with the TV show of that name knows that the weakest link gets voted off, never to return.
The garden industry is used to trading between its many connections. Yet the system often collapses when it comes to marketing. Businesses who attempt to promote products or brands frequently find themselves acting without support or cooperation from their trading partners, the net result of which is lost opportunities and lack of progression for all.
So why does the industry as a whole let itself down so badly when it comes to promoting products through the line to consumers? And how can individual businesses ensure they are contributors to team success and not the weakest link?
The comfort zone
Traditionally, the garden industry has relied upon a fairly captive audience. With products trading on their own merits within a familiar network, investment in branded promotion seemed unnecessary. Appreciation of promotional marketing and all it entails therefore never developed fully as an industry culture.
The wake-up call
Today’s consumer habits dictate rapid integration between the garden and general lifestyle markets. The target market for garden industry products is no longer captive and ever-larger proportions of sales in future will depend on excellent product marketing right through the line.
Every link in the supply chain needs to embrace the big marketing picture, understand its integrated role and be pro-active in fulfilling the responsibilities that will fortify the industry for the future.
The strong-link retailer
In the front line when it comes to pulling consumer money into the industry, retailers are in a better position than anybody to know what stimulates spending. Retailers have a responsibility to educate the rest of the industry about this and become the catalyst that inspires and pulls innovative product promotion through the supply chain.
Comfort-zone transition: Move from “product seller” to “product development leader”.
The strong-link product originator
Every product is, presumably, put on the market because it satisfies a need and has a set of relevant and inspiring sales features. Product originators have the responsibility to ensure this information is available to the consumer via the supply chain and direct publicity. This means defining and presenting clear, consumer-considered sales stories and consulting with others in the supply chain to develop market-identifying branding.
Comfort-zone transition: Move from “product supplier” to “promotion base generator”.
The strong-link distributor
Distributors have the best seat in the house when it comes to seeing all sides of the promotion story and occupy a position of power when it comes to the realisation of marketing programs. Relied upon by all to carry out information distribution as excellently as product delivery, distributors also have the responsibility to facilitate and encourage communications between trading partners on either side to assist in the development of marketing programs.
Comfort-zone transition: Move from trading goods to trading complete marketing concepts.
The team of the future
Being a strong-link business demands discipline, hard work and a perhaps a new way of thinking. It requires investment in appropriately skilled, enthusiastic staff. It requires financial input and unilateral action.
The reward for those who make the commitment will be membership of a world-class industry team with staying power. The risk for those who don’t is to be voted off as the weakest link.
----------------------------------------
Copyright: Miriam Young 2008
If you wish to reproduce or publish all or part of this content you must get my permission.
You are, of course, welcome to link to this blog.
----------------------------------------
The international garden industry is a complex web. Each consumer product sale represents a triumph of teamwork. From licence holder to retailer, every business in the supply chain depends on every other to do their part. The team can only perform as well as its weakest link, and everybody familiar with the TV show of that name knows that the weakest link gets voted off, never to return.
The garden industry is used to trading between its many connections. Yet the system often collapses when it comes to marketing. Businesses who attempt to promote products or brands frequently find themselves acting without support or cooperation from their trading partners, the net result of which is lost opportunities and lack of progression for all.
So why does the industry as a whole let itself down so badly when it comes to promoting products through the line to consumers? And how can individual businesses ensure they are contributors to team success and not the weakest link?
The comfort zone
Traditionally, the garden industry has relied upon a fairly captive audience. With products trading on their own merits within a familiar network, investment in branded promotion seemed unnecessary. Appreciation of promotional marketing and all it entails therefore never developed fully as an industry culture.
The wake-up call
Today’s consumer habits dictate rapid integration between the garden and general lifestyle markets. The target market for garden industry products is no longer captive and ever-larger proportions of sales in future will depend on excellent product marketing right through the line.
Every link in the supply chain needs to embrace the big marketing picture, understand its integrated role and be pro-active in fulfilling the responsibilities that will fortify the industry for the future.
The strong-link retailer
In the front line when it comes to pulling consumer money into the industry, retailers are in a better position than anybody to know what stimulates spending. Retailers have a responsibility to educate the rest of the industry about this and become the catalyst that inspires and pulls innovative product promotion through the supply chain.
Comfort-zone transition: Move from “product seller” to “product development leader”.
The strong-link product originator
Every product is, presumably, put on the market because it satisfies a need and has a set of relevant and inspiring sales features. Product originators have the responsibility to ensure this information is available to the consumer via the supply chain and direct publicity. This means defining and presenting clear, consumer-considered sales stories and consulting with others in the supply chain to develop market-identifying branding.
Comfort-zone transition: Move from “product supplier” to “promotion base generator”.
The strong-link distributor
Distributors have the best seat in the house when it comes to seeing all sides of the promotion story and occupy a position of power when it comes to the realisation of marketing programs. Relied upon by all to carry out information distribution as excellently as product delivery, distributors also have the responsibility to facilitate and encourage communications between trading partners on either side to assist in the development of marketing programs.
Comfort-zone transition: Move from trading goods to trading complete marketing concepts.
The team of the future
Being a strong-link business demands discipline, hard work and a perhaps a new way of thinking. It requires investment in appropriately skilled, enthusiastic staff. It requires financial input and unilateral action.
The reward for those who make the commitment will be membership of a world-class industry team with staying power. The risk for those who don’t is to be voted off as the weakest link.
----------------------------------------
Copyright: Miriam Young 2008
If you wish to reproduce or publish all or part of this content you must get my permission.
You are, of course, welcome to link to this blog.
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