You cannot control the message

My last post concerning Scotts/Miracle-Gro's trademarking a phrase thought up by someone else brought us this comment from Robert Woodman, of The British Gardener. "I was in ‘shock and ore’ to read what Scotts has done with trade-marking ‘you can grow that’. I guess this is ‘the taste of a new generation’, but its not ‘M’m M’m good’. As a writer I like to ‘get ready to rumble’ but I want to ‘be all that you can be’ and choose my words carefully. Still this kind of stuff can ‘put a tiger in your tank’. Scotts ‘just do it’ attitude for their marketing doesn’t leave me with a ‘we love to see you smile’ feeling, but ‘it’s so easy, even a caveman can do it’. Sure it’s ‘taking care of business’ to come up with these slogans, but to rip it off from a blogger and prevent others from using it leaves me to think that Scotts is ‘Home of the Whopper’. ‘Have it your way’, we can show disapproval by buying from the competition, words that ‘melts in your mouth, not in your hands’. What ever happened to freedom of speech, doesn’t it extend to the written word as well as the spoken word? As always Trey, your blog is ‘good to the last drop’ when exposing ‘pork, the other white meat’."

It's as if by trademarking someone else's phrase you bring some of the enthusiasm and "mojo" that created the original idea to your business. It just doesn't work that way anymore. These days the customers are often the ones creating the content, via social media. That's the big news. You cannot control the message. People will talk about you, with or without your input.

Thanks to Robert for the entertaining comment.

What are they thinking?

File this under why people new to gardening give up so soon. A new gardener might have heard that mixing perlite with their soil improves drainage. Perlite is commonly used in organic potting soils, and is the little spongy white rocks you see. Better look twice at that label.

Miracle-Gro perlite is not organic, or natural. For some reason beyond my imagination they have added Miracle-Gro fertilizer to the perlite! I have never heard of perlite with fertilizer added, and I sell pallets of perlite. That’s the last thing you want with a product designed to increase drainage. Fertilizers may be added to the potting soil, but never to the perlite itself.

The folks at Scotts Miracle-Gro have really outdone themselves this time. I would love to hear from someone at Scott’s on why they are doing this. If you wanted to grow organically and bought this perlite to mix with your soil, you’re screwed. Add this product to your mix and then fertilizer as you normally would, your screwed again. Check out the reviews at Amazon.com.

Why are you mixing fertilizer with a product designed for drainage? In my mind this borders on insanity. Can anyone in horticulture tell me why this might be a good idea? Could these kinds of things be one reason people fail at their gardening efforts, and blame themselves for their failure? Could it be that the decline in people gardening is a result of these companies who manufacture products and plants that are doomed from the start? Could it be the biggest enemies to attracting new gardeners, may very well be the biggest horticultural companies around? Perhaps.

Scotts Miracle-Gro want's "to target the pot market"

According to The Wall Street Journal Scotts Miracle-Gro CEO Jim Hagedorn say's, "I want to target the pot market,"

...There's no good reason we haven't." Yup, you know we have hit mainstream when Scotts Miracle-Gro want's in on the market.

Things sure have changed at Scotts. Back in 2006 Scotts ran ad's in many trade magazines titled, "Jim cares about Independents". I never bought into the phony campaign, writing about it back in 2006. Seems I was proven correct all these years later. The Wall street Journal article tells us, "the company is recultivating its ties to independent lawn-and-garden-store owners, including offering them exclusive products. Mr. Hagedorn strained those ties with a 2009 speech in which he criticized the owners for not doing enough to promote Scotts products, prompting many owners to walk out.  "'I don't give speeches to independents anymore,'" he said." The article also say's, "Targeting marijuana isn't the only way Mr. Hagedorn is pursuing growth outside the national chains. Scotts is also looking to sell more through grocery stores." Yup, Jim loves independents.

Why does Scotts want to get into the marijuana market? According to Jim, "raids on pot-growing operations have turned up Scotts products. Mr. Hagedorn takes that as a good sign of brand awareness, but he fears that some growers would be reluctant to use a mainstream product." Reluctant? Miracle-gro has a lousy reputation among growers. Likely what Scotts will do is buy out an established brand that has a good reputation.

The article continues, "with consumers still cautious about spending, the retailers aren't building new stores as quickly as they used to, making growth for suppliers like Scotts harder to come by. Against that backdrop, Mr. Hagedorn has pushed his regional sales presidents to look for smaller pockets of growth, such as the marijuana market, that together could produce a noticeable bump in sales."

This is quite interesting. I know of some garden center owners who say they would never carry any products that could be used for marijuana cultivation. Will they drop the Scotts line now? When Scotts starts sniffing around a garden category it's already main stream. Once they break the barrier look to other large entities like box stores to jump in.  Yes, very interesting.