We don’t need a campaign, we need a catch phrase

Published April 23, 2012

Todd Davis

Stop the insanity. Stop it right now.

If I hear one more person bring up a big-budget national marketing campaign to promote nursery products, I’m going to go postal on a bunch of California raisins while wearing a Got Milk shirt.

Super Bowl commercials are not the answer. There is a newer, cheaper way to get the North American population excited about gardening and buying plants.

But a quick note: We should really send Universal Studios a big thank-you card. This company released “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax” just in time for spring this year, and made more than $180 million at the box office. Never mind that it was basically a 75-minute infomercial for our industry.

See? The positives of our products are so great, other people promote them more than we do.

Social power
But back to my point. The days of needing huge marketing campaigns are gone. Sure, we could spend millions to create and air commercials on national television. You know what works better?

This March, a clever garden center owner posted “It’s spring. We are so excited we wet our plants” on his sign. Then he posted it on Facebook.

Within days millions of people had seen that sign and laughed. And I bet more than a few of them got excited about spring and went plant shopping.

This January I heard Scott Stratten, author of “UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging,” speak at the ANLA Clinic in Louisville, Ky. His premise? People share “awesome.”

I don’t care if it’s Angelina Jolie’s leg or an out-of-shape cop pepper spraying an Occupy protestor, Facebook and Twitter create and discriminate instant buzz like no medium before it.

So let’s get to work.

Brain power
Look, there are thousands of clever people in this industry. I speak to you everyday. You have better ideas and you’re funnier than the marketing experts in Manhattan. We eat awesome for breakfast.

So let’s put it to use. If you spot something funny at your nursery, post it. If a co-worker says something clever, post it. It will spread, and we will benefit.

Even better, our industry needs a catch phrase – an umbrella statement we can all rally around.

The Arizona Nursery Association has started the Plant Something campaign that it hopes to take to a regional or national basis. But I personally like the idea of New England gardening personality C.L. Fornari, who recommends, “You can grow that.”

The idea is simple. If someone says they really like tomatoes, you say, “You can grow that.” If someone says they need more romance in their life, you respond, “You can grow that.”

So let’s change the conversation. Rather than talking about big-money campaigns, let’s talk about increasing our nation’s passion for planting. Now that would be awesome.