Does Display Matter?

It seems like everyone in the green industry is putting an increasing emphasis on the retail display. Growers are packaging their plants with colorful pots, attractive tags, signage, bench tape and more. Every magazine is chock full of articles about displays and how it can drive sales. Industry events have whole tracks of educational seminars devoted to the subject, with consultants consulting all about design.

All parties agree: if we get the presentation right, we can see an increase in sales of 30% or more.

But OpenHort has concluded that display doesn’t matter (as much as everyone thinks it does). [Last year we wrote, “We have given the American consumer two options: call a landscape contractor and they will come to your house with a truck full of Mexicans or go to a garden center and blindly pick out plants as best you can. Trucks or shelves. Take your pick.” It has taken us some time to get around to explaining what we think about this more fully.]

Better Conversion or More Opportunities?

An overemphasis on the retail display is detrimental to long-term results because it addresses the wrong point in the sales funnel (or sales process). We may get excited to find we can impact the point of “conversion,” but if the traffic flow of customers is drying up, it’s a futile effort. Forgive the cliche, but it’s like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It doesn’t matter how nice it looks; the boat is still sinking.

More disturbing than our industry’s unsophisticated product packaging and merchandising is our inability to generate sustained traffic for more than a few weekends in the spring. People aren’t going to garden centers like they used to. The customers are disappearing.

At some point, we have to realize we can’t get by selling 30% more to fewer and fewer people. We need more customers. We need more sales opportunities.

Assuming that growers and consultants and retailers all share the same goal (which, unfortunately, is not true…but maybe more on that later) to sell more plants for increasing margins, our energies would be best served focusing on increasing the frequency of the sales opportunities, not the quality of the presentation. (We’re not saying presentation doesn’t matter at all. It just isn’t as important as the frequency.)

Build it and they WON’T come.

The “Field of Dreams” philosophy of the destination garden center may have worked before, but it’s broken now. Great plants in wonderful packaging arranged in breathtaking displays are not enough to attract the number of customers our industry needs to survive. We have built a game we are bound to lose. We are completely dependent on the fickle, time-pressed, budget-strapped American consumer to take the initiative and seek us out. In Spring. On the weekend. When the weather’s nice. And traffic isn’t too bad. And they feel like doing some strenuous yard work. Instead of a million other things they could do.

So, how are we driving traffic to those lovely retail benches?

Some garden centers are still hoping traditional media like newspapers and radio can bring the masses into their stores. Others are turning to new media like social networking. How well do they work? Not well enough it seems. Others hold seminars and events, parties and benefits. Some innovative retailers have restaurants and cafes; the public comes to dine in a beautiful atmosphere. Plant-shopping is an afterthought.

Increasing the Chances to Sell.

We see two solid ideas that will challenge the supremacy of the retail shelf: take the plants to where the people are and offer garden coach service.

Go to them.

You’ve seen the pop-up garden marts. The road-side stands. What’s old is new again. Are they really working? Are they profitable? (We don’t know!) In the future, we think we will see even smaller and more temporary attempts to “take the plants to where the people are” instead of “build it and they will come.” We will see mobile garden centers. Think of a converted school bus. (Will we hear the ice-cream man say, “Would you like a hydrangea with that?”) Drop-shipped self-selling pallet systems of plants. Kiosks at high-traffic retail spots. Privatized parks and landscapes that are “shoppable” via QR-code type technology. Tupperware or Pampered Chef style “garden parties” for plants (this idea may belong to the “garden coach” section.)

Perhaps the easiest way to “get the plants in front of the people” is…Facebook. Most IGCs already have a FB page, but they don’t sell though it. They remind, encourage and beg their “fans” to come to the store so that their bench has an opportunity to do it’s thing. Why not put some of that bench right there on Facebook? Check out some simple e-commerce solutions that let you sell directly on your Facebook page. There are plugins for WordPress and hosted solutions like BigCommerce.

(Let me know if you want to hear more about any of these concepts.)

Coach them.

This one is big. Really big. We are convinced that the emergence of the garden coach could revitalize our industry very quickly, faster than we dare dream possible. People don’t want to SHOP. It’s a chore. It’s inconvenient. It’s confusing. It’s overwhelming. And the results they get when they do…well, we should be ashamed of how often our customers fail. Shopping stinks.

But plants are awesome!

People want to be happy, comfortable, relaxed (some may say lazy), attractive, healthy, respected, admired, loved, enlightened, empowered and valued. Plants can give them all of what they want, in  ways that will blow their minds. But they can’t see past the shelves (so wonderfully merchandised!) to see how in the world the confusing jumble of flowers and shrubs we have hidden away in our houses of glass can give them what they really want.

Enter the garden coach. They can paint the vision. They can relate. They can inspire.

And they can do it even when it’s NOT spring. It doesn’t matter if it’s the weekend. The weather doesn’t have to be perfect. If you’re scratching your head, wondering how a garden coach can do any of these things, things a retail bench can never do…then you really need to think about it some more. It’s gonna be huge.

 

Disclaimer: We are not retail experts. Think twice before agreeing (or disagreeing) with us! We have thought of a few arguments against our own position: 1) cluttering the sales funnel (fewer quality leads are better than a massive amount of poor leads), 2) DIY is still a strong instinct, therefore resistant to the garden coach 3) not enough talented people qualified to be garden coaches and 4) unproven profit models for alternative sales locations.

Thanks for reading! We’d appreciate any feedback!

~Art

 

 

Late in 2011, we posted our “3 Ideas to Change the Nursery Industry,” which was a concluding post to a whole bunch we wrote about the idea of a national marketing campaign.

Here’s something you probably missed, four posters and a booklet we made for the ANLA Clinic (RIP) this past February 2012. Here they are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the booklet:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A page from the booklet…

Radical Enough?

Thanks to all the folks who showed up last week at the OFA Town Meeting. Attendance seemed to be up over last year, and the crowd was eager to talk. It was an honor to be invited back as a panelist.

The topic of discussion was, “Putting the steak back in the sizzle.” It was a good discussion, but there was surprisingly little argument that much of the public are finding failure and disappointment from our products. I thought this would be a pretty sensitive issue. It’s not easy to accept that we might be failing the consumer more than delighting her.

5 Take-aways

1. The value is in the relationship. This is the gold mine we’re sitting on, and perhaps squandering. Everything else is just window dressing (sizzle?); all the value in the supply chain rests on the relationship to the final purchaser. Who owns this relationship? Who acts like they own it? Who’s trying to grow it?
2. For growers: plants should improve once the buyer gets it home, not decline. Less P.O.S. (Plants on Steroids), please.
3. For Garden Centers: Care more about the customer saying “wow” when they see the plant at their home every day than if they say “wow” when they are in your store. Do they want your store to look nice or their home to look nice? (Of course, you’d better do both…but care about the customer MORE.)
4. Don’t assume you know what you think you know.For instance, how well do we know the people buying plants? What motivates them? One person said, “The folks coming to your store are doing it because they have a graduation or a wedding or a party and they have to get the yard looking great.” Sounds nice, but is that really true? What percentage are motivated by special events? We rely way too much on anecdotal stories when it comes to understanding the potential plant buying public. With the “Grapevine” survey over a decade old (was it 1999?), we are pretty much navigating in the dark, on guesswork and hunches.

   

5. Steak is a service. This is pretty much my conclusion from the entire discussion. What is steak? (In other words, what is success for the lady buying plants?) My answer is that it’s not a product; it’s a service. (In other words, a satisfying steak is cooked by a competent chef, not a microwave.) Success requires three things:

• Design. Forget “dig, drop, done.” Haphazard design leads to lousy results. The right plant must go in the right spot for the right purpose. Without thoughtful design, the homeowner will fail to get results that both sizzle and satisfy.
• Care. Success takes actually caring about the lady spending her hard earned cash for our plants. Which do you want more, her money or her happiness?
• Time. It’s a precious commodity, but a success doesn’t happen overnight (well, it can, but that kind of success rarely lasts long).

Radical Shift.

The Town Meeting was important to me. It got me thinking about things, some new and some old ideas I’ve shared a little bit about before. I see the potential for there to be a radical shift in the industry, a change for the better. I hope to explain this “brave new world” as best I can in the next few months here on OpenHort. Here’s a tease…things I think it’s time we “forgot”…

• Forget the retail shelf.
• Forget Spring.
• Forget the “destination garden center.”
• Forget annuals.
• Forget trucks.
• Forget “More than Just Pretty.”
• Forget Boomers.

Thanks for reading! I’d love to know if you’d like more!

Art

 

PS: About the picture of Lloyd Traven…

After the 2011 Town Meeting, I made a funny mashup image of Lloyd (the moderator of the event) and Norman Rockwell’s famous painting, “Freedom of Speech” from the Four Freedoms series published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1943. So, this year I decided to continue the theme, and that made this image a pretty logical result.

Lloyd is a good sport. I’m thankful he has a sense of humor! Life is so much more fun that way. For a larger version of the full painting, click the image below.

 

I am making a short documentary film called, “Green Screen: Cultivating Life in the Digital Age.” You can find out all about it in this PDF.

What it’s about.

The film tells the story of the development and launch of a new Facebook game called GardenQuest, which is sort of like Farmville for ornamental plants. Springing from the story is an examination of our digital culture, how technology is changing us, and why plants and gardening will remain important and relevant to life on planet earth. The message is simply: technology tends to be bad for both nature and human nature; gardening is good for both nature and human nature. What happens when the two are combined? Who wins?

Why we’re making it.

We are interested in two things: plants and pop culture. A gardening video game? That sits pretty much in the center of where these two subjects intersect. Also, we want to make films. This seems like a good place to start. We hope the film will cause people to think about plants and gardening in a new light, and with a new determination to actually do something positive and reconnect with nature through gardening.

Who’s the audience?

The GardenQuest game had over 80,000 fans pre-launch. Farmville and other social media games have many hundreds of millions of players. We think this story will be of general interest. This is not an “industry-focused” film. The intention is for our industry to speak to the world, not (as we do on OpenHort) speak to the industry itself.

Where’s the money?

This is self-funded. GardenQuest is giving us access and liberty to tell the story. There is no financial relationship. This is not a puff-piece infomercial.

When will it come out?

Not sure. The original plan was to film this summer then edit in the winter (my “slower” times, when the nursery isn’t quite as busy). However, it remains to be seen what exactly will happen to the GardenQuest game? Will it suddenly become a big hit in October? Will the company go bankrupt in December? The story may change!

How can you help?

We’d love your help! First, we’d love to know if you think this is interesting. Second, tell us what you think about the subject…what do you think we should be telling the world? Third, tell us who you think should be in the film? Fourth, volunteer to be in the film yourself!

We are looking for:

1. People who love the game or the idea of the game.
2. People who hate the game or the idea of the game.
3. People who can speak to why gardening is good and beneficial.
4. People who can speak to how healthy the industry is.

Sneak Peek

This is a brief video we made from some footage we filmed on the day GardenQuest went live (in “beta”).

 

 

 

 

 

“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?”

“Oh, to climb the ladder of success only to find it was leaning against the wrong wall!”

Our entire industry should focus on one thing: the success of plants in the landscape.

What good is it for a breeder to unlock a novel flower color (or any other attribute) if the plant stinks in the garden? Too few breeders are concerned about the big picture, and far too many new introductions amount to little more than crap (not “steak”) that “sizzles.”

What good does it do for “Brands” to put plants in fancy-colored pots if those plants aren’t any better than the old tried-and-true varieties? It’s foolish to package with “sizzle” when the steak’s no good.

How sad is it to see growers cut corners, to hear them say, “How good is good enough?” From the substrate to the fertilizer to the spacing and the pruning, growers are increasingly focused on quickly getting crops to be “retail ready,” and give less and less concern over how well their “babies” will survive once they leave the “nursery.” It takes a discerning buyer to recognize true, lasting quality from the impostors: nice looking plants heading downhill fast. While “disposable goods” have been the mark of our consumerist economy, and repeat purchases are the desire of every business, wisdom says too much short-term strategy leads to over-expansion and then, all too quickly, erosion. It’s just not sustainable. Plants should be an investment, not a disposable good. Plants should grow, not die.

What does it profit a garden center to have retail displays that “wow,” but customer’s yards that flop? What good is it to have ideal traffic flow in the store while homeowners plant with no design plan at all? Is it right to care more about the “point of sale” than the “probability of success?”

And what good does it do for landscapers to install plantings that look like magazine-quality, mature gardens the moment they are planted, but become overgrown and unmanageable in just a few years?

And, just to make sure I upset everyone out there, what good is it for native plant advocates to demand a neutered, impoverished plant palette that most people simply don’t want?

Who’s responsible for the end result?

This is the main question I take with me to Columbus this weekend, and what I will be asking at the OFA Town Meeting. Who makes sure the steak is satisfying, and not just sizzle? Who’s job is that? Is it the breeder, the grower, or the retailer? Like you, I am tempted to say, “It’s everyone’s job.” But then I remember a bit of wisdom that I have found to be true, “If it’s everyone’s responsibility, then it’s nobody’s responsibility.”

Who’s job is it to see that the plants succeed in the landscape?

 

Thanks for reading! See you in Columbus! ~Art

This is Part 2 of 3 in a series of posts about the OFA Town Meeting 2012. The topic of discussion: “Putting the Steak Back in the Sizzle.” Read Part 1 here.

Business stinks.

A year ago, at the OFA Town Meeting, we asked ourselves, “why doesn’t the customer love us any more?” After 12 months, we’re still struggling to answer that question, and in the meantime, things haven’t improved much for the “green industry.” Sales continue to slide. Customers have disappeared. Profits keep on shrinking. If you are thriving and booming–seeing your best years ever–then please come to the OFA Town Meeting to share with us your secret to success. But for most of us, across all channels, business just stinks. (And give the next guy who says, “Our sales are up this year!” a quick kick in the pants, because he’s comparing one lousy year against another lousy year. Business still stinks.)

Blame game.

Why does business stink? Many think the answer is obvious: “It’s the economy, stupid!” Everything is down; get over it. But is this true? According to economist Charlie Hall, who is a panelist to help lead the discussion at the OFA Town Hall this year, consumer spending is actually greater than it was before the recession. So, if your sales aren’t back to where they were before the recession started, you have to ask, “What are we doing wrong?”

My first observation when looking at this chart is: “Consumer spending is back to where it was before the recession?” 2008 sure looks a lot better than 2012. I guess Charlie and other economists must put the “start” of the recession somewhere in 2009. But even if consumer spending as a whole isn’t back to the way it was in 2007, we still shouldn’t be too quick to blame the economy for all of our problems. People are still spending money. Lots of money, actually. The question we have to ask is, “Why aren’t they spending more with us?”

It may seem elementary, but we think people are increasingly spending their money on the things they REALLY WANT, and are continuing to cut back on the things they just don’t really care about that much. In other words, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. “Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. (Matt. 13:12)”

Which path do you think “the green industry” is on? What’s booming now? Think iPads, smartphones, flatscreen TVs and (ironically?) organic food and “sustainable green” products. Do plants fit into that list? (We think the answer is, “No, but it should (and could) be.”

Explanations.

Perhaps you’re inclined to look at macro trends for an explanation: demographics show us why our customers are disappearing. Maybe you are more interested in industry trends, so you see that oversupply and lack of fiscal discipline has really hurt average price and consistency of quality and results for producers. Maybe you’re more in touch with cultural issues, so the death of local media outlets like newspapers with their once-universal reach and ability to communicate with a market is what really stands out: social media alternatives just aren’t able to bring people into the stores like newspapers and radio used to be able to do. Or maybe, just maybe, you’re crazy enough to think, “Could it be our product doesn’t perform? Are people sick and tired of killing plants? Are they over us? How many times did they bring home a great looking plant from the store only to see it slowly shrivel up and croak? Could it be that our product, instead of making them feel good about themselves, their lives and their environment…makes them feel like failures? Could it be our plants have increasingly more “sizzle” (point-of-purchase branding and florist-quality blooms) but a decreasing amount of “steak?”

I will re-post this “Before & After” picture because I think it bears thinking about more deeply. This is what we’re selling. We should be disturbed by this.

 

You don’t want to miss the Town Meeting at OFA this year. It’s on Sunday, July 15 at 6pm. The topic is: “Putting the Steak Back in the Sizzle.” Here are some of my thoughts on the subject!

I like steak. I like sizzle. But “sizzle” without the “steak” isn’t satisfying. Do the plants we sell perform as we promise? And, when they don’t perform, how do our customers feel?

An Important Question

You should attend Town Meeting! Why? Because you care about your business and your industry. We will be asking some important questions we need to think about and talk about. The 2011 Town Meeting (which I wrote about here, here, here and here…hey, it was inspiring!) was provocatively titled: “Why our Customers Don’t Love Us Anymore.” I am looking forward to continuing the discussion, looking deeper at the issue of how well are we romancing our customers? “Could it be they don’t love us ’cause we didn’t satisfy them?”

Not a Waste of Time

This isn’t an academic exercise. This isn’t the same-old marketing advice. Town Meeting is the ONLY open forum our industry has. Anybody can let their voice be heard. Come ready to challenge, debate, speak your mind…and hear some really interesting perspectives.

What do you think?

Are you giving your customer what she wants?

Are you sure she’s satisfied? Could it be we’re reaping the results from decades of disappointments and false promises?

…which will lead me to my next post, “It’s NOT the economy, stupid!”

 

Thanks! Hope to see you at the OFA Town Meeting. Sunday, July 15 at 6pm!

~Art

 

 

 

There’s been some interesting push back from a few Gen Y gardeners sick and tired of hearing the horticulture industry worry about whether “kids these days” will ever show interest in plants.

The best example is this blog post by Gen Schmidt from North Coast Gardening, “Gen X and Y Gardeners – Can We Quit Worrying About This, Please?” Ms Schmidt  does not agree that “at some scary date in the future, we will be left with no gardeners at all because all my generation likes to do is play video games and text with people who are sitting in the same room.” She claims that Gen Y is actually MORE likely to garden than previous generations.

“My generation’s reliance on technology has given us an even greater desire to get outside and plunge our hands into the soil, and the easy availability of information and inspiring ideas (Pinterest, anyone?) makes us more likely to get outside and garden, rather than less. But I’ll admit it: on the whole, people in their twenties and thirties don’t garden as much as people 45-and-up. And, repeat after me, this is not a cause for concern. Why?”

Don’t Worry?

Gen answers the question “Why?” with three main points. Landscape activities are triggered by 1) home ownership, 2) wealth accumulation and 3) parenting. With the exception of child-rearing prompting gardening activities (the data I have seen suggests the opposite), her points are solid and pretty undeniable. When Gen Y start forming new households, their demand for garden products will hopefully make the Boomer generation a distant memory.

“Can we quit worrying about this, please?

No, we can’t. Even if we have great hope…even if we believe the future could be great…its a VERY bad idea to stop worrying about this. Actually, I don’t think we are nearly concerned enough about Gen X & Y. We need to think and talk about this more, not less. Generational change is important.

Every generation worries about their children. Parents have been shaking their heads at “the kids these days” since Adam and Eve’s son Cain murdered his brother Able. And, while its good advice for parents to not panic and lighten up a little–“hey, the world keeps spinning and kids are stupid because they’re young and irresponsible…but they DO grow up and they DO learn from their mistakes. Its gonna be OK.”

But, stop worrying? No, we SHOULD worry.

We worry because we care.

Imagine if a Republican party insider circulated a memo that said, ” So what if voters under 30 went overwhelmingly for Obama in the 2008 election? Younger voters will mature and, like all previous generations, will grow more conservative as they age. Once they are homeowners, investors, entrepreneurs and parents they will vote to protect their assets from liberal redistribution schemes by the Democrats. Forget about the kids and wait till they grow up.” Don’t worry? That’s not good advice.

We should worry even if there were nothing to worry about.

Imagine if someone stood up at a Nordstrom meeting and said, “Hey, let’s lighten up a little. We’re a great company. Our culture of service is second to none. We’re the best! Can we please just stop worrying about the customer experience already?”

Imagine if the Toyota annual report said, “Our quality is good enough. We will save money this year by spending less on new quality initiatives. We have proven our ability time and again. Can we please stop worrying about quality?”

Ha! Stop worrying? I don’t think so.

There is reason to be concerned.

The generational change playing out right now is fascinating, and while its not all bad news for the Horticulture Industry, it isn’t all good either. Anecdotal evidence by folks like Ms Schmidt that her friends are passionate gardeners, really only proves one thing: there will be a viable niche market for plants, even as we bridge the gap from Boomer to Gen Y (Gen X as a drastically smaller demographic). The mass market? Not quite so easy to figure out.

Much to ponder.

What does it mean that the average child today spends 7 minutes playing outside and 7 hours in front of a screen? Is it any coincidence childhood obesity is rising drastically? Is it any surprise ADD is rampant and our kids are numbed by medication? When a major portion of a population has spent 95% or more of their entire lives inside a climate controlled building, where they push buttons that manipulate virtual realities both for work and for play, what does this mean for society? What will the impact be on the American landscape?

OpenHort doesn’t think these are stale questions, and we aren’t about to stop thinking about them.

~Art

 

 

 

“Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax” was a big hit on opening weekend, raking in $70 million at the box office. But it’s marketing tie-ins with nearly 70 brand “launch partners” has caused the Seuss to hit the fan. As first reported by Mother Jones, “people are having a (rather justified) heart attack about the fact that The Lorax is now being used to cross-promote a new SUV.”

So much for “speaking for the trees.” The little orange eco-hero now hocks the Mazda CX-5, disposable diapers and  candy-coated pancakes. Pundits from everywhere are commenting: from the Washington Post to the Huffington Post, from the Wall Street Journal to the Guardian and from thousands of bloggers to the most insightful commenter of them all, Stephen Colbert.

Check out this car commercial, where an ugly strip of asphalt defaces the blissful Seussian landscape:

It’s not wonder everyone is talking about what a sell-out the Lorax has become.

But there’s something nobody’s saying.

It’s easy to focus on the tone-deaf SUV ad, but nobody’s said anything about who ISN’T a sponsor (or WASN’T ever invited to be a sponsor). Where’s the trees? With 70 “launch partners,” how come there aren’t any plants, flowers or trees cross-merchandised with this film? How come the only “green-friendly” product the American consumer can think of is diapers made of recycled material? Would there have been any controversy if the Toyota Prius were the car, not a Mazda gas+oline hybrid? Not likely, but maybe there should have been.

Greenwashing looks bad when it’s done so poorly, but our approach to environmental consumerism is flawed to its core. All these products can only claim to be less bad than they were before--and some only slightly. The single product that can actually claim to be good, not just less bad, continues to go ignored, even when that product is the point of the whole darn film.

But it doesn’t strike anyone, anywhere that an excessively merchandised movie about trees would lack any product tie in for…trees.

For the thousands of businesses and millions of Americans who grow, sell and landscape with trees, the Lorax is just another reminder that they aren’t really relevant to today’s society. When you aren’t invited to the party, and nobody notices, that is the definition of irrelevance.

But look on the bright side, at least you plant folks aren’t sell-outs!