A bit of a stretch

Over at Southern Living Steve Bender known as "The Grumpy Gardener" has written an article titled, "Who wants to kill the birds?" It's about the recent fines Scotts Miracle-Gro received for selling poisoned bird seed.  In the article Steve say's, "Grumpy loves birds. He fills his feeder twice a day. So imagine his shock when he learned that Scott’s Miracle-Gro admitted to selling bird seed tainted with pesticides. Was Scott’s, the maker of a slew of popular lawn and garden products, in league with the devil? To find out, Grumpy paid the company a visit last week at their corporate headquarters in Marysville, Ohio."

It's great that Steve goes straight to the source for some investigative journalism. However, Steve mentions at the end of the article,  "Scott's paid my airfare and lodging for my visit. The Scott’s haters will immediately conclude that Grumpy was bought. Not so. I only agreed to hear Scott’s side of the story with no promise that I would report on it positively, negatively, or at all. Lots of companies in the garden industry send me stuff. If I try a product out and conclude that it’s good for my audience, I recommend it. If I don’t, you never hear about it."

Sure Steve.

We can grow that!

Back on September 4th I wrote a post titled, “You Can’t Grow That”. It concerned Scotts/Miracle Gro, and its trade marking the phrase, “You can gro that!” The problem was it was a phrase thought up by CL Fornari, nursery women and author. I wrote, “According to her website, garden writer CL Fornari decided last October to start a campaign titled, ‘You Can Grow That’. Once a week any garden writer who wished to participate would write an article under that heading… Long story short, Scotts/Miracle Gro applied for a trademark on “You Can Gro That!”, after she had broached the idea on The Internet.” Actually, the idea was first broached by C.L. in a "closed" garden center/nursery trade group on Facebook, and not just put out for anyone to see on The Internet.

The good news today is Scotts/Miracle Gro has backed off from the trade marking, leaving CL with her phrase to do as she pleases. Here is the story. It’s quite a turn around and something I wouldn’t have expected from the company. Something tells me it was social media and the avalanche of bad PR Scotts has received over the last year. Whatever the reason it’s nice to see Scotts/Miracle Gro do the right thing. It’s also fun to be a part of something that is changing for the better how we do business in the world of horticulture.

Honest dialogue

One of the goals with starting our Facebook page for retail garden centers, their vendors, and media was to foster open dialogue. So often it seems that the trade news we hear is a bit watered down. You don't get the feeling that your hearing what people really think. Much of the time it seems that traditional media has to walk a fine line between open dialogue, and their advertisers. Not at our Facebook page. When you wake up and check out the site you just never know who will be involved, and what is going to transpire. Today is one of those days. If you a garden center owner, employee, vendor, or garden media (this includes garden blogger's) you can join.  You will need a Facebook account. It is changing the trade as we know it. Don't miss out. Go here to join, and make a difference, and don't forget to make sure that somewhere on your Facebook page it indicates how you are involved in the gardening trade.

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.

You can't grow that!

Here is a story that shows just how quickly the horticultural industry in diverging into two different types of business. On the one hand we have smaller, independent garden professionals and on the other hand we have the larger concerns who seem terrified of what the smaller concerns are up to. How else does one explain Scotts/Miracle Gro's recent actions? According to her website, garden writer CL Fornari decided last October to start a campaign titled, “You Can Grow That”. Once a week any garden writer who wished to participate would write an article under that heading. You can read about it here. Long story short, Scotts/Miracle Gro applied for a trademark on “You Can Gro That!”, after she had broached the idea on The Internet.

What’s up with Scotts? At a recent shareholders meeting in January 2012, Chairman and CEO Jim Hagedorn said, "We are making a step change in fiscal 2012 and setting a new benchmark for our advertising investment," Hagedorn told shareholders. "Both our Scotts and Miracle-Gro brands will be supported by completely new campaigns. While we will continue to support individual products in each commercial, we will do so with a consistent approach and message that creates a halo effect for the brands. I believe this is some of the best creative work we have done in years and I am confident it will impact our business – not just in 2012 – but over the longer-term as well."

Then last August Scotts reported, “During today's conference call to discuss its third quarter results, the Company said it expects adjusted earnings for fiscal 2012 to be approximately $2.00 per share and mistakenly stated an expected loss in the fourth quarter of about 40 cents. To clarify, the Company anticipates an operating loss in the fourth quarter which will translate into an adjusted loss per share closer to 60 cents. The Company still expects adjusted earnings per share of about $2.00 for the year.”

Like all of us, Scotts is trying to figure out its place in the changing gardening scene. Its reputation has taken a beating these last few years, and people just don’t seem to want to garden in a way that helped build the company in the past. Garden centers no longer feel it necessary to carry their products, as there are better alternatives now available. Lawns are slowly loosing favor with the gardening public, and lawn care is where Scotts ruled. Finally, through actions like trade marking a phrase, “You can grow that” it shows a certain un-becoming characteristic. It seems destined to alienate itself even further from the very people it would normally count on for support, garden writers and their readers.

Still a big opportunity for "real" green businesses

Had no idea the hullabaloo that would arise after my Tweet of an article from Garden Center Magazine about the partnership between Scotts Miracle-Gro and The National Wildlife Federation and their "Be Out There" campaign. It illustrates well the the idea behind my last post, "You Can't Design a Marketing Campaign to Go Viral". It picked up a life of it's own because people feel passionate about the subject, and decided to share with their friends. Passion helps spread ideas.

I found this post from July of 2008 after searching my blog for the term, "greenwashing". The only thing I would change from that post is this sentence, "Blogs are becoming the the news source for the new millennium." To be relevant today it should say, "Social media is becoming the news source for the new millennium."

Here is my Twitter account if you would like to follow.

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.

Gardening Trends

We in the garden center trade are under intense pressure by media and experts to follow trends. They say the way to success is to look at what the mass of people are doing. Selling organic products from your store is now trendy because everyone is into it. When you have Wal-mart selling organics, Scotts putting out a line of organics, and the media types all telling how organic they are you know it's a trend.

I think the trend towards organics is great! As a business person we sell lots of organics and the more people are aware of them the better sales will be. Of course the list of places where you will be buying organics will be increasing so to stay ahead of the curve we in the garden business will do like we have always done. Offer a better product, packaged more thoughtfully, and backed with better information on how to use.

The problem with following trends is everybody else is doing it. To stay ahead as an independent small garden center you have to create the trends. The hard part of that is that its lonely creating trends, and most of the time you don't know you are doing it. Sometimes you're the first to notice the very beginnings of an upcoming trend and can ride the wave. Most of the time you're just doing what makes sense to you but it takes awhile for the consumer and especially the industry to notice.

Garden centers selling organics is nothing new. John Dromgoole, owner of The Natural Gardener Nursery in Austin, TX has been involved with organic gardening for thirty years. He has been teaching and selling organics before it was trendy. You can hear him speak at the upcoming Independent Garden Center show in Chicago. He must think it's great to have so much interest now in what he has been doing for so long. Still he must wonder why there is so much excitement in the garden center industry now. Where has everyone been? The time to have gotten involved with this and reaped the greater profits was years ago. Sure there is room for the organic market to grow but the competition is getting a lot tighter. Now that Scott's and Wal-mart has recognized the importance it's going to be everywhere. We are about to be bombarded with an advertising campaign that will try to incorporate every eco-catch phrase possible. Organic, ecological, natural, eco-friendly, and earth friendly seem to be the most popular now. I think we'll be The Home of Eco-Friendly Gardening.

The secret to success as an independent is to not follow the money but rather have the money follow you. If you follow the big money it leads to large corporations who leave nothing to chance and only move a certain direction when they are very certain of a result. By the time they are certain this trend will be profitable for them the real trend setters have already moved in a different direction. The real trend setters might not know the direction they are moving. An aversion to following trends will lead them to a niche that they might enjoy for awhile, before everyone else figures it out. Real change takes place on the fringes, not in the middle.

What's the next trend going to be? I don't know. Most likely it's getting started by someone who is passionate about what they do and willing to buck the trends and set their own course. Following trends is safe but boring, bucking the trends and creating your own style is scary but ultimately more rewarding.

Being an independent nursery.

Carol made a comment at my last post on Scott's. She said "Well, I guess Scott's must still think the independents are worth partnering with, still viable in the marketplace, still worthy of attention, so maybe that is good news?" Yes, it is good news. We have never thought that independent nurseries were going to go away. We believe that the number of independent nurseries will fall, but the remaining ones should be better able to differentiate themselves from "The Boxes", and better follow their own "independent streak".

It"s that independent streak that needs to be nourished. It's so easy to fall into the trap of trying to please all the potential customers out there. A couple of people ask about Miracle-gro or Scott's Turf Builder and most garden centers will carry them to keep those people from shopping elsewhere. Don't want to loose a sale. Scott's wants to saturate the gardening public with its products like Nike does with sports. Chains, boxes, independents, or hardware stores, they all carry the stuff. It's a smart business move, and the reason Scott's is such a powerful brand.

What we would like to see is true independence. There are plenty of products out there that do as good or better job than Scott's. Find those and give people a choice. While 70% of the gardening public will always shop the big brands the other 30% would love to try something different, for a variety of reasons. We are an independent, not a chain store. Why carry chain store products?

We don't carry much that you will find in a box store. Most of my plants, fertilizer, soil amendments, and garden accessories won't be found in box stores. My suppliers have made a conscious effort to stick by the independents and we support them. They do not try to sell to both independents and chains. It's hard to please both kinds of customers. Maybe Scott's will pull it off, but I just don't know.

Large brands like Scott's, Hines, Bayer, and others belong in large brands like Home Depot, Lowe's, K-mart, and Wall Mart. They are for the 70% of the gardening public that will not be your best independent nursery customer. Focus on the 30% that are looking for something different. Having Scott's products on your shelf won't help in branding your small nursery.

Scott's products are not bad. They are better than many others being sold, and it shows in Scott's growth. We just feel that if you're going to travel the independent garden center route you ought to quickly differentiate yourself in the marketplace, and carrying what everyone else has won't do it.