“The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.” -Linus Pauling
Let’s examine some ideas that currently exist, have been tried before or have been proposed in the distant or recent past.
Perhaps I will explore each in depth at a later time, but for now a simple list should suffice
- America in Bloom: Some may argue we already have a national marketing campaign in AIB. Why not work with what we already have? America in Bloom is valiantly trying to fight two (losing?) battles: advancing the cause of gardening and encouraging community involvement.
- Fall is For Planting: This was an old, and still used by some, promotion by the ANLA. The genius was that it focused on extending the season of prime demand for plants.
- Plant More Plants: a current consumer-awareness campaign by the Chesapeake Club.
- Life. Plant life.: an idea proposed by Laurie Scullin and Frank Zaunscherb of ZMI in 2010.
- You can grow that.: a really inspiring blog post by C.L. Fornari.
- forgot p(L)ants?: a rather silly idea, actually.
- GARDENING–It’s right in your back yard.: a slogan proposed by my pal, Lloyd Traven.
I’m sure there are more ideas that I have ignored. What did I miss?
Art, here’s a few details I remember from the efforts around “Fall is For Planting”… originally under Nursery Marketing Council (Q: Was this started by AAN? It was sure promoted by all.) Then Nursery Marketing Council became “The Garden Council.” You’re very correct in the voluntary approach… a small group paid for the efforts for many to benefit. By the time I came along (1988) the Garden Council’s budget was about $500,000 and one major nursery was paying about 20% of that (doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who that was, right?). They developed some great seasonal slogans and basic programs (Fall is for Planting, Have a Real Christmas, Windowsill Gardening, Plant a Little Paradise, etc., but it cost to much to develop that there was very little money left to distribute to to the industry (banners, flyers, shelf-talkers, etc.) or especially to even think of consumer advertising. Once the idea of the Promotion Order was developed, it just collapsed with little support.
One of the themes developed under the Garden Council was “Plants for Life” and later FNGLA has tweaked it slightly and used “Plant for Life.”
Hope this fills in a few gaps. This is a great discussion and greatly needed. Keep up the efforts!!!
Danny
Thanks for the background info, Danny. I did not know any of this. ~Art