Pay Attention To Me!
I’m young. This month, I turn 27, which lands me squarely in my late 20s. Which still leaves me and the majority of my friends way outside of what most garden center owners consider their target demographic.
And that’s a shame. Because despite our youth, we’re already decision makers. Take me, for example. I’m a full-time working woman, living in a big city, in my own apartment, with window boxes already built in! I have discretionary income. (Not much, but still… )
But most garden centers in my area aren’t reaching out to me. They don’t go where people my age go; they don’t gear any of their advertising toward us. If I didn’t have the benefit of working in this industry, I probably wouldn’t even know the independent garden centers in my area existed. What gives? Pay attention to me! To us!
You’ve heard people (including Stan Pohmer) say in the past couple of years that independent garden centers are no longer competing with only the big boxes. All other industries and products that occupy consumers’ time and money instead of gardening? There’s your competition.
I’ve visited local garden centers for the Christmas ornaments, some herbs to pot up inside, bottles of lotion here and there. But if I weren’t the editor of Lawn & Garden Retailer? I’d have been at Target for those ornaments, a grocery store for the herbs and Bath & Body Works for the lotion. Because garden centers, despite my insider status, haven’t wormed their way into this young shopper’s consciousness. They haven’t really even tried. So, instead, I spend the bulk of my money on technology, new shoes, concert tickets and fancy meals.
Help You… Help Me
As soon as it warms up, I’m going to be needing some plants to fill those window-box planters. And I’m going to need some expert advice to prevent those plants from dying. And did you hear Lowe’s just started a massive, national ad campaign to tell the public their employees are “knowledgeable, helpful and friendly”? Cue crickets.
There are ways to reach out to the younger demographic without abandoning your current base, those loyal, home-owning Boomers. Find out what’s involved in getting into your local farmers market. They’re crawling with young, hip locavores. Is Yelp.com active in your city? Get in touch with them to get a table at a spring or summer event send your seasonal employees to staff it with coupons, promotional materials and a few beautiful mixed containers for show. Heard of Groupon.com? If you’re in a major metropolitan area, you could be a great candidate for this Internet-based collective-buying business. And many communities have free summer street festivals where you might be able to set up a booth and attract passers-by who didn’t even know you were nearby! Honestly, you can’t afford not to pay attention to me. To us.
California Dreamin’
Later this month, from April 9 to 16, the Lawn & Garden Retailer and GPN staff is on its way to the West Coast for the annual California Spring Trials. This is a huge trip, and it’ll be even bigger this year because you can be a part of it! We recently debuted our trials website, www.californiaspringtrials.com. Consider that your hub for all things Spring Trials: We’ll be blogging, tweeting and posting photos. And keep checking future issues of the magazine for our annual print coverage.
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