Get acquainted

How well do you know the end consumer? In an age where collaboration across the supply chain is critical for success, communicate with your suppliers and customers about consumer trends. Work together on targeted marketing campaigns to get the consumer to buy plants and spend more money on green industry products each year.

GIE Media teamed up with Trone Brand Energy and surveyed 785 home gardeners from across the country to find out some of their purchasing habits. Use this information to help get better acquainted with the consumer and boost your sales.

Purchasing preferences and shopping habits
Some encouraging news: 77 percent of those polled planned to spend the same or more compared to 2012. A significant number of respondents spend up to $50 a year on flowers and edibles (in-ground and in containers). Are you meeting that need with your product mix?

Knowing where they buy is also important to your marketing plans. More than half of the consumers polled buy at least some of their plants at independent garden centers, typically visiting one to two stores (IGCs or mass retailers) per year. However, many customers would choose an IGC over a mass retailer for their knowledgeable staff (65 percent versus 43 percent). Also, 65 percent of respondents shop at IGCs because they prefer to shop local. Across the board, consumers are looking for the best selection of plants and flowers, and look for those that are the healthiest, highest-quality specimens.
 

It’s no secret that consumers use the Internet for all types of purchases, whether it’s clothing, office supplies, home décor or plants. The majority of consumers browse the Web to learn more about plants in general (75 percent) and discover how to deal with a specific problem (76 percent). Our survey also found that, among this audience, QR codes are not currently widely used. However, 27 percent of respondents said they’d be very likely to use QR codes to look up plant information in the future. So this isn’t a moot point just yet. Work with your retail customers to provide excellent gardening Internet sources for consumers.

How their garden grows
According to our survey, the majority of customers garden for their health, to have a pleasant space to spend time in, because it adds value to their homes and/or simply because they enjoy it. This is a good sign that some consumers are getting the “value message” that is so critical to plant sales. However, based on how much consumers in our survey are spending on trees and shrubs, the industry has a lot more consumers to educate. We must do a better job marketing the economical, health and environmental benefits of trees and shrubs.

See more research and find out about the respondents’ demographics at http://bit.ly/14J85cA.