Great British Garden Revival?

Did you hear about the new BBC series “Great British Garden Revival”?  Those of us in the garden businesses need to keep each other "cheered up" as we await spring, and a chance for the cash flow to start flowing our way again. So it's off to Britain where everyone in the business of gardening is talking about it! We will have to wait to see what the target audience "the public" thinks later.

The Guardian reports that “A new gardening TV show hit our screens last night, but what did Twitter make of it?” To The Internet! The Telegraph's Ed Cumming declared, “The series is hardly revolutionary, but there was plenty of sensible advice and lovely shots”.  Another Twitter user says, “So enjoyed half of #gardenrevival tonight. It was marred by bad practice and ill conceived dumbing down as are most gardening programmes.”  Everyone has an opinion and is willing to share it. If your interested you can follow the chatter on  Twitter at #gardenrevival.

It seems that even in Britain gardening is less popular than it was in the past. That's why the series is called "The Great British Garden Revival".  According to The BBC, "more and more front and back gardens are paved over - for development, for parking spaces, or because families don’t have the time or inclination to manage these spaces." The first show in the series dealt with "Wildflowers" and "Front Gardens". The wildflower segment seems to have helped "Seedball", a company that promotes, "a simple way to create beautiful native wildflower gardens & help wildlife too." Apparently "98 per cent of wild flower meadows in Britain have been lost". The next segment "Front Gardens", tells us that in" the past, our front gardens were highly valued and we used them to show off our gardening prowess, but sadly over time, front gardens have been paved over for parking and turned into a no-man’s land between the street and front door." Good luck!

As one person on Twitter expressed, “Thanks all for horti tweets this eve, had trouble keeping up w/ them all! At least #gardenrevival has got us all fired up again”. That's what I see as the greatest benefit of the series. It keeps those of us in the trades excited and talking during the off season. Really, I don't think a garden revival is in the cards for Britain, or here for that matter. There are just too many other things for people to do with their time and money. However, if those of us in the trades can reach the enthusiastic few through our passion and social media, it can make a difference. It should be enough to keep those of us still in business, in business. Seeing that passion expressed did put a bounce in my step this cold, bleak morning. As for TV shows about gardening? Not so sure, but we can always go to The Internet to find out.

Making gardening hip or cool?

 

According to Ball Publishing, "The Berry Family of Nurseries (BFN) announces the launch of a line of products aimed at the urban dweller. Berry is teaming with internationally recognized landscape designer, author and garden personality Jaime Durie. The partnership is designed to engage the up and coming gardeners and gardeners to be."

In a You Tube interview Jamie say's, " “We’re going to make gardening hip again...and were going to make it fun.”  That's a pretty amazing feat for one man, and one nursery. I remember when we we're told Suzie Coelho (remember her?) was going to do that.  It might work a bit, but when you say "we are going to make gardening hip again...and we are going to make it fun" that's a lot to promise.

Gardening doesn't need to be made hip and fun.  What happens when people find out it's not always "fun" or decide some other hobby is more hip? They feel let down and less likely to return to gardening. Rather than trying to make gardening hip and fun, we should be focusing on the rewards we receive from gardening. Beauty, health, food to eat, and a connection to the earth.

Is social media becoming big media?

In July I wrote a post titled, "Are blogs relevant in today's social media world?" From that post, "while Facebook and Twitter offer a way to communicate to the customer, its questionable how they will be able to continue as competition and economics come into play. Your blog can be a 'home' that folks can come back to again, and again. You can 'own' your website and blog, you cannot 'own' your Facebook Page." It was a pleasant surprise to read author Warren Ellis and his post today, "The Social Web: End Of The First Cycle." In that post Warren say's, "This may be the end of the cycle that began with Friendster and Livejournal. Not the end of social media, by any means, obviously. But it feels like this is the point at where the current systems seize up for a bit. Perhaps not even in ways that most people will notice. But social media seems now to be clearly calcifying into Big Media".

Warren say's, "Google+, of course, is not, strictly speaking, a social network. Most people can’t see what other people are doing there. Google, of course, sees it all. But everyone knows that going in" Perhaps that explains the new found interest in Google+? It's also why I started a new community there, "The Future of Horticulture".

Warren finishes his post asking, "I wonder if anyone’s been thinking twice about giving up their personal websites". For me the answer is no, my "blog can be a 'home' that folks can come back to again, and again."

Is it social media, or just media?

If it’s on Facebook, Twitter, or Google +, is it social media? When companies, and individuals you don’t know inundate your time line or feed with stuff you really don’t want to hear is it social media? I had been wondering what has happened to social media now that we get “paid Tweets” or “paid Facebook” posts. Is this also social media? Here is a definition of social media I can get behind. “Media for which the consumer’s relationship with the creator is relevant for understanding or value.”  So what do we call those paid posts? “If you don’t know the people, or don’t care, it’s probably not social media. It’s just media. It doesn't matter if it’s created by an individual or a corporation.”

“What’s more, when companies use social media...well, they’re not. They may be using platforms that are primarily used for social media (like Facebook) or platforms that are used for social media, among other things (like Twitter), but that doesn't make the companies—or their media—social.”

The above eye opening quotes can be found here. They we’re written by Evan Williams, founder of  Twitter and Blogger. 

Are those for real?

Yesterday The American Horticultural Society posted this picture of Clematis on their Facebook page. By the time I saw it many people had shared and linked to it. The problem? It’s a Photo-shopped picture, which a couple of people noticed and commented on at The Societies Facebook page. Then the post went missing. No explanation, just gone. I left a comment at the site asking what happened to it. The comment remains unanswered.

It’s very easy to be taken in by a photo like this since we are inclined by nature to “believe what we see”. When you remove a picture like this with no explanation one gets the impression that the folks at The Society are wishing it never happened. Why not just leave the photo up and fess up? I and many others had linked to the photo and now those links lead nowhere.

On The Internet what you do never really goes away. When you make a mistakle it’s best to just admit it and move on. Answer curious questions like mine. The pain of getting fooled will soon go away, and everyone can have a good laugh.

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.

Make it easy to connect

Met a marketing consultant/nurserywoman at The IGC Show today. I thought her business cards we're cool. The front is a typical biz card, but it's the other side I liked most. It has all the different way's you can reach her, with the easy to recognize social media logos. It makes it very easy to connect using your favorite platform.  The next time I need more cards, this might be the way to go.

Groupon sinking

The daily deal site Groupon, was all the rage in the retail world just a year ago. It seemed that retailers had found the secret to success. Just  give your product or service away, and watch the customers flow through the doors. Once they have seen your amazing offerings they will return again and again to buy stuff you CAN make money on. Why does small business, or any business fall for stuff like this? We talked about Groupon a few times here at this blog, and warned against getting involved with them. Seems these days Groupon is losing staff and money at a fairly good clip. Their stock is down 75% from it's November 2011 IPO and they are losing staff.  I don't have a lot of sympathy for Groupon, since they seem to be built on the backs of small businesses who for one reason or another fell under their spell. Usually it's smaller retailers desperate for traffic flow that jump on board with Groupon in the hope that volume somehow trumps profit, or the quality of their offerings. It also assumes that people  care only about "cheap'. I think the customers we are looking for don't necessarily feel that way, and don't respond to "price only".

Bridging the generation gap

Watching a customer yesterday struggle to get out of their car reminded me of how precious our time here is.  In our rush to embrace new technology and the youth market I hope we don’t forget our older customers. It reminded me that the simplest things for you and me to do might very well be a struggle for others.  Our society can be measured by how we treat our elders. Do we look to them for wisdom, or shunt them off to the “old folk’s home”? We know the answer, and it's not good. So much is changing and for older folks it can be quite frightening. While you or I may say we want to “embrace change” often it’s our way of being “brave”. Author Bruce Sterling put it best in his closing remarks at Reboot 11, “Dark Euphoria is what the twenty-teens feels like. Things are just falling apart, you can’t believe the possibilities, it’s like anything is possible, but you never realized you’re going to have to dread it so much. It’s like a leap into the unknown. You’re falling toward earth at nine hundred kilometres an hour and then you realize there’s no earth there.”

As the societal ground shifts beneath our feet keep in mind the older folks who may be looking for something to hang their hopes on. The garden provides continuity and hope for us all, and is a place where young and old can come together. With the decline in garden clubs it’s an opportunity to create new clubs filled with hope and fun. This is where the local garden center can become involved. Create your own garden club and invite old and young alike to join. While garden clubs have always been places to learn from one another, they are also community building.

It’s difficult these days to get everyone in one room, at one time anymore. That’s where social media can be a benefit. It can provide a way for people to “meet” virtually. If you’re older, less tech savvy membership is confused by social media; maybe you could hold classes on how to use it. Teach people how to use these new tools. Show them how it can foster community even while sitting at home looking at a screen. Once you have built your “club” his way, it will be easier to gather people up physically for meetings and events.

This post was inspired by this drawing. It’s by author and illustrator, Maira Kalman and reminded me of a customer we had the other day. Every time someone of a certain age walks through your door keep this picture in mind. It helps keep things in perspective.

You don't need government funding to sell plants and flowers.

According to Garden Center Magazine, "Nursery, greenhouse and garden center operators in New York are joining together to promote and market their nearly $400 million industry in the state." According to the article, "Sunnyside owner Ned Chapman is president of the New York State Independent Flower Growers Marketing Council." He say's "We need to market the industry to government officials. We have to convince them that we are a worthwhile industry. Hopefully, this will lead to state funding for marketing that’s our goal.” This is what we have become? Promoting our trade to "government officials" so we can get state funding for an ad campaign, like one that have been used to promote other products like, “Apple a Day,” “Got Milk?” and “Pork: The Other White Meat.” You remember those? They came from a distant time when mass media ruled, and you just might be able to pull off promotions like that. Never mind that those kind of promotions likely wouldn't work these days. Never mind "The Internet" that changed everything and made those types of promotions "old school".

My advice to a garden center would be, ignore the cries for more government funding! Promote yourself to your customers using your own media. It's cheaper, more effective, and puts the message where those who need to hear it, can. Tell you state association about it today. It's called social media, and requires no government funding.

Sunset magazine, now a box store brand.

Sunset magazine seems intent on dragging itself into the box, and chain stores.  According to SFGate, "Sunset introduced a line of branded plants designed to thrive and shine in virtually every California garden. The introduction was timed to coincide with the release of the ninth edition of Sunset's influential Western Garden Book."  The article continues, "Sunset's Western Garden Collection is on nursery shelves in all 89 Orchard Supply Hardware stores and 40 Lowe's in California, and the company hopes to expand into selected small chains and independent garden centers."

The plants in the Sunset Western Garden Collection are not even new to the trade. They are in most cases already being sold, but will now be "branded" as "The Sunset Collection". Sunset say's, "The Sunset Western Garden Collection is the first live plant collection to focus exclusively on top performing plants for the Western gardener. The Sunset Western Garden Collection will debut this spring." What a bunch of crock! I, and other western independent garden centers have been selling plants that focus exclusively on the western gardener for many, many years. I guess our independent garden center brands don't count with Sunset.

When Sunset released the most recent edition of their "formally" influential Sunset Western Garden Book, many small garden retailers we're upset when the books showed up at Costco first. Topping  it off, they we're at  prices we small retailers would have to pay just to be able to sell them in our stores. Now Sunset disses the small locally owned garden centers that helped build the Sunset Brand over all those years, and heads straight to the box stores with their collection?

What's with all these branded plant collections? Does no one do anything original anymore? It's all cut and paste for these companies. Take existing plants or products, buy the rights, slap your name on them, tell people how original you are, and hope no one notices it's just more noise. Sunset magazine has managed in just a couple of attempts to alienate small locally owned garden centers across the west. Why would an independent garden center sell plants that are easily recognized as a "box store" brand with Sunsets name on them? I know we won't. Like other small western retailers we will concentrate on building our own brand. We have been "focusing exclusively on top performing plants for the Western gardener" long before this recent attempt to stay relevant from Sunset.

Will you be at The IGC Show in August?

In August the largest trade show for Independent Garden Centers takes place in Chicago. The Independent Garden Center Show website say's,  "...210,000 square feet of vendor exhibits stretch far out toward the stunning blue waters of Lake Michigan at Navy Pier, where more than 1,000 exhibitors meet face-to-face with thousands of IGC buyers – just like you – from all over the country and around the world. The flower-filled streets framing downtown Chicago’s stores, restaurants, attractions and sights, plus spectacular Navy Pier, lakeside Chicago’s No. 1 destination (and proud home to the IGC Show, its largest annual event), add to the excitement." Until last year I had not been to Chicago since the late 70's, passing through on the "old grey dog" (Greyhound). That was a epic trip! Last year I was quite taken with the beautiful shoreline, as well as downtown Chicago. I was pleasantly surprised to find out how much fun walking around downtown Chicago can be. I look forward to returning in August. Our Facebook group, Independent Garden Centers and Nurseries receives special pricing for the workshops, as well as a discounted rate for attending the garden center tour. When your a member of our group you also get to hang with us in "the VIP balcony lounge" upstairs – along with a open free beer & wine bar. We'll enjoy the performance of Dennis DeYoung of STYX.

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If your a owner, or employee of a independent garden center or nursery go here to join our group.

Disclosure: I am a guest of the IGC show, and and as such receive compensation for my attendance.

Saying one thing, doing another.

An interesting moment on Twitter today when a garden media personality got excited about seeing a certain plant brand in their local Lowe's, and decided to Tweet their excitement. A couple of independent garden centers decided to Tweet their displeasure to the personality. You see, they also carry that particular brand of plants, and are not too happy about being left out of the marketing.

You will see more of this as smaller, locally owned garden centers realize that they have the ability to answer back. It's also going to get a whole lot harder for "media" people and branding companies to claim they want to support independent, locally owned business all the while promoting the box stores instead.

Does my business belong on Facebook?

With the failed IPO of Facebook (failed for small investors), one wonders what is in store for the medium. If your a small business and have invested time and money having a presence there you might wonder, what's next? I am not sure, but Facebook is peaking and will eventually become MySpace. It's going to happen, as I have become bored with it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy checking up on friends and use the service for my business, but it's lost its cache. Why would I want to use a social media service that promises more advertising, and still more mining of my data? One of the reasons I started with social media was to avoid the advertising. If you have small business presence on Facebook just keep using the service, but be prepared. Things will change rapidly. We have learned in this new world is change happens quick.

What platform should you use? Start collecting your customers e-mail, and ask if they would like to receive your e-news. You own your e-news, and can keep it ad free if you desire. As these social media platforms come an go you will still have your e-mails an a connection with your customers. In the future we will see more closed platforms, where the group can control what's going on. This is where your web site, blog, and e-news will pay off. You own these, and can keep them safe for your readers. Start a garden club, and have people meet at your website. You'll get people who genuinely want to hear what you, and others in the group have to say.

There is something else about the Facebook IPO. I get the impression that the IPO was designed to enrich the founders, friends, and institutional investors. The average retail customer get's screwed, and that doesn't sit well with me. Image is important, and Facebook's image is taking a hit.

Facebook is just one of the tools available

For all the hype the Facebook stock offering is getting I find it a bit of a non-event. Sure it will be a way for early investors and insiders to get rich, but for the rest of us? Does anyone think Facebook is the end all when it comes to social media? Another, better one will come along in short order. Frankly the bigger it becomes the less enamored I am with it. Small is cool!

Small business should have a Facebook page, and stay involved. Don't however, put all you eggs in that one basket. Keep your e-mail list safe, and don't forget about reaching people directly with e-news. Facebook is just one of many tools available for small business. It's over-hyped right now, and that usually doesn't play out well. People will soon enough "get used to it" and the novelty will wear off. Look how quickly Pinterest got the attention and eyeballs.

I think the initial stock offering for Facebook may be the companies high point. It will now have to show constant growth for the investors, and that may eventually be it's undoing. It can happen. Remember MySpace?