See RED -- relax, entertain or decorate

It’s hard to believe that we are seven years into the new millennium. Several speakers at the recent Michigan Greenhouse Growers Expo discussed the future of floriculture as well as how to market our product to today’s consumers, including baby boomers, Gen Xers and Millenials (Internet Generation or Gen Y).

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Michigan State University horticulture professor Bridget Behe discussed marketing ideas to reach the generations after the Boomers, who are our most loyal customers. Behe advised growers and retailers that they need to pay attention to how the American population is aging. Currently, our industry is targeting Boomers, people 45-60 years old. We are most comfortable selling our product to that group, and Boomers buy the majority of our product. Behe said it’s time to get out of our comfort zone and to “rewrite the script for gardening.” She said we need to use terms that resonate better with younger generations.

One of the ways that Behe said we can connect with young consumers is to get them to see RED -- relax, entertain or decorate. These are the direct benefits of gardening that need to be communicated to younger consumers. Gardening can be a way to relax. Consumers need to be shown how they can incorporate and integrate flowers, vegetables and herbs into their lifestyles, whether it be for decorating homes or for culinary purposes. They need to be provided with suggestions and displays that demonstrate how to use our products.

Connecting with consumers

In a study of consumers who search for gardening information online and make garden-related Internet purchases, Behe found few young (18-29 year olds) and older (60 years old or more) consumers searched for information compared to consumers in the age groups of 30-44 and 45-59 years old. Of the 1,600 consumers Behe surveyed, nearly half (49.4 percent) had made some type of online purchase, but of these only 7.4 percent made an online garden-related purchase. However, 53 percent made a garden-related purchase in person.

Behe said the online search for information along with Internet purchases are expected to increase and that horticultural businesses should consider developing an online presence, if they have not already done so. It is particularly important for companies to be able to provide information about their products and themselves. Development of an online presence provides companies a better opportunity to reach younger consumers, which aren’t aware of and don’t use our products the way older consumers do.

Kerry Herndon, owner of Kerry’s Bromeliad Nursery and Twyford in Florida, who has been growing plants since he was 17, told attendees that he hasn’t been in the plant business for a long time. For awhile he said he was in the gift and decor business. Now he is in the fashion business, an approach he said Europeans are already taking.

Herndon said that consumers have an infinite number of products to choose from and they are making judgments as to which products they will buy. He said people are not buying “stuff,” but they are buying stories. We need to do a better job of convincing consumers that our products have value. Herndon said this may require repositioning our industry. This could involve showing a new group of consumers that we are the original environmentally friendly industry that manufactures oxygen and reduces carbon dioxide emissions. Herndon said the companies that will continue to be successful are the ones that do something different, that separate themselves from everybody else.

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- David Kuack