The Mind Of The Male Shopper

How do you get male shoppers into your store? Ever think about it much? I found this article by Aaron Britt of the San Francisco Chronicle on making guys feel at home shopping. Britt visited several men's stores with retail and brand development specialist Bertrand Pellegrin, and shared some notes from the trip.

It seems Pellegrin's favorite store was the Mollusk Surf Shop. Britt says its "large, open space felt immediately authentic, charmingly quirky and instantly right." Sounds a lot like the reviews I've heard about Terrain.

The article also shares 10 tips for getting into the male shopper's mind:

10 commandments of a great men's store

The following are author Bertrand Pellegrin's non-negotiable suggestions for creating an ideal men's retail experience.

1. Get the goods - and believe in them.

2. Make service a priority, and never compromise.

3. Give them something they can't find anywhere else.

4. Selling isn't the only goal; make time to connect.

5. Keep it real.

6. Give 'em room - especially in the fitting room.

7. Tell them something they didn't already know.

8. Create a great community and evolve the idea of a 'third place.'

9. Make them feel like Hugh Hefner.

10. Show and tell a great story.

A lot of these rules apply to women, as well, and while I don't know about #9, I like #8. It would be safe to say my husband "hangs out" at Home Depot, visiting his future riding mower and checking out the new power tools. Do you have the merchandise that makes women AND men want to hang out?

Marketing with lumpy mail

Thumbs up to Schoneveld Twello. Today I received this in the mail - an invitation to its indoor flower trials. Schoneveld is also celebrating its 75 anniversary this year, and so with the "Building blocks for the future" theme, I received the press release on a thumb drive shaped like a Lego block.

Ron Rosenberg told us about lumpy mail in a session at Short Course. It got my attention - that's for sure. Great marketing.

Turning a negative (blight) into a positive (spring 2010)

So we have tomato blight, in a year when home gardening of vegetables is on a high. What do we take away from this?

Two things jump to mind - strong plants and stronger marketing. After an event like this, we'll need to prove somehow that the plants we provide are healthy and that gardeners themselves aren't to blame for growing sick tomatoes this year. Gardeners need to know that this isn't the norm and that they can be successful in the garden.

Even if we didn't have any kind of disease problem this year, it's important to keep up with those first-time gardeners and give them the information that will help make them second-time gardeners. I just wrapped up a story for Today's Garden Center on e-newsletters, and they're a great opportunity to get a quick exposure with your customers - and give them information they can use. And please, get a Facebook page.

Next spring, what will your marketing message be? Do we need to have a more targeted message after this year? I asked Don Eberly of Eberly and Collard PR what his thoughts were on next spring, and he said,

"History shows PR programs in down economies and other tough times resulted with companies getting and staying on top of their marketplaces, while those who hid under the table were left behind. Simply put, it is all what we make of it; I really believe these times give us all opportunities to change our stances in the market - that is, if we grab at the chance while we still have it."

JIT: But in time for the growers?

Wrapping up this spring, you can see the post-spring weather report and the results of the Industry Pulse survey at Today's Garden Center magazine. Sounds like it was a wet spring for the northeast, but really great in other regions of the country. Our survey showed that foot traffic was up, but the average ticket was down this year.

The most interesting thing to come out of this spring has to be the retailers' growing reliance on a just-in-time live goods policy. Retailers went back to growers to replenish supply during the spring, making fewer inventory purchases before the season started. What will this mean for next year?

It sounds like a good idea, but what if we do find a way to get young people into the garden center, and the shelves are bare? A ridiculous oversupply is no good, but running out of product isn't good either. Is the JIT balance easier to manage than I'm thinking, or are we up for several years of tinkering with this system to make it work?

And how with this affect the grower side? Will growers keep growing enough on spec to keep up with these last-minute orders? I guess they'll have to if they want to sell all they can through the independents and not miss any opportunities.

The New Look GreenhouseGrower.com

With all the changes going on in the print version of Greenhouse Grower this month, we decided it was a good time to spiff up the website, too. Here are a few of the new features you'll find at GreenhouseGrower.com:

• Content areas. Production, Profit Center, Variety Central and Trends. These content areas reflect the new organization of the print version of Greenhouse Grower and this new navigation will help you find what you're looking for a little more easily. Don't miss the link in the menu bar to our Top 100 Growers section at the top of the page.
  
  
• Featured Video and Featured Content. Take a look at the top right of the home page. We've made video more visible so you can get a sample of what's available at GGTV. We'll also show you highlights of our most timely stories and programs in our Featured Content section.
  
  
• Links to Facebook and Twitter. Click on the Facebook/Twitter logo on our home page for links to Greenhouse Grower's Facebook fan page and Twitter accounts for editors Delilah Onofrey, Kevin Yanik, Pete Mihalek, Richard Jones and me.

And, of course, we have a brand-spankin' new Greenhouse Grower logo. Want to hear the story behind it? Check out a Q&A with our new logo's designer, Bill Rigo, over at Kevin's Greenhouse Angle.

Check out all the changes at GreenhouseGrower.com and click here for associate editor Kevin Yanik's take on the changes we've made in the pages of Greenhouse Grower.

Vote For Your Favorite New Variety

Voting begins today for Greenhouse Grower's Medal of Excellence Reader's Choice Award. The nominees are chosen by our panel of industry experts from all the new varieties released at this year's California Pack Trials. The nominees are:

* Caliente and Calliope geranium series, Syngenta Flowers

* Lobularia 'Snow Princess,' Kientzler for Proven Winners

* Euphorbia 'Breathless Blush,' Ball Horticultural

* Osteospermum 'Voltage Yellow,' Ball Horticultural

Click here to vote for your favorite variety and stay tuned for the winner of this year's Reader's Choice Award, announced at OFA Short Course on Monday, July 13.

You can't hide. Consumers will find you.

Here's an interesting dilemma the Internet gives us. We've been getting a lot of comments on Today's Garden Center from consumers, and they want to know where to get the new varieties that we write about.

We all ultimately want gardeners to be happy and successful with the products we sell. So how do we close this loop? Gardeners have so much more information about plants because of the Internet and it must make it twice as frustrating to find what they want. So what can we do about this?

First off, all these different names for the same plant has to stop. It is so confusing for the gardener. Enough beating on that dead horse.

Second, how much lost opportunity is out there? We've had more than 1,000 views on a Greenhouse Grower page on Benary's ptilotus 'Joey' in the last month. And the comments have been from consumers asking where they can get 'Joey.' I think mail order plant sales could make a killing now that gardeners are tuning into the same information that you, growers and retailers, are reading.

Finally, if you have information on a popular variety, put it online. The more information, the better. If a consumer can get a variety from you, tell them. Breeders, tell consumers where they can get your varieties. Fernlea Flowers's Fernlea Garden Club lets me know when its varieties are available near me.

IGCs: How can growers build a better relationship with you and get your business?

Finishing up the spring rush. Now that the hustle and bustle are dying down, how about a moment of reflection? Think about everything that's happened this spring.

Retailers: And what can growers do to ensure that they'll get your business? Do you think your business is moving to a just-in-time model and should growers be prepared to keep up with that pace? Is there a difference between how smaller growers handled this spring versus larger ones?

Growers: Did you have trouble finding the live goods you needed from brokers this spring? What were your demands like from retailers? Will this spring affect the way you'll plan for next year? In what way?

Seems like this has been a very interesting spring and may have ramifications for years to come.

It's plant sample time

It's that time of year - when we start looking forward to plant sample deliveries. We've received two this week, from Ball yesterday and Proven Winners today. It's interesting to see how they're packaged and shipped to us every year. This is a photo of the Ball shipment, and the plants hold up really nice.

Looking forward to seeing Ball's Mint Mocha coleus, and I'm planning to plant the new zinnia 'Zahara Yellow' in hanging baskets on my front porch. 'Easy Wave Burgundy Star' petunia is a great striped petunia. Oooh, and the Purple Flash ornamental pepper. I've never tried an ornamental pepper before, so this should be really fun. We also received geranium 'Fantasia Cardinal Improved' and Henna coleus.

The shipment from Proven Winners includes hydrangea Incrediball and Invincibelle Spirit, cyperus King Tut and 'Superbena Pink Parfait.' We also got some really nice samples of Snow Princess from Proven Winners. I love alyssum, and this similar variety is even cooler since it seems to mound a little bit more. I don't know about men, but the women I hear from love little flowers like these and Diamond Frost euphorbia.

If you want to read more about these varieties (and see video), check out our 2009 California Pack Trials coverage.

Spring garden center visits

We had great weather last Thursday, so we went out to visit a few local garden centers. A few thoughts...see all my garden center images here.

Signage. Walking around Lowe's Greenhouse (an independent, not the big box) in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, felt much more like I was in someone's backyard than a store. As a shopper, I really liked that. I could see the potential. But it was also the most branded garden center I've ever seen (left). I'd say I saw posters or benchtape for about every plant brand I've ever heard of. Is that a bad thing? Not sure. I think branding is good. I'm a brand girl and I think I trust a product more if there's a name behind it.

I did notice a bench of veggies under a sign that said Lavender. I guess trends are one danger when investing in signage.

No signage. Breezewood Gardens, also in Chagrin Falls, was completely at the other end of the spectrum. There was almost no signage at Breezewood's perennial and tree yard, which is pretty intimidating to a new gardener, I'm sure. Flats were going for $17.99, with a bulk discount (5 trays or more) of $16.99 each.

There was a nice display for Novalis' Nooks and Crannies line (left), including a green roof bird house.

Our last stop was at Eagle Creek Garden Center, Bainbridge, Ohio. They had really nice signage for a cool product called Pop, Drop and Grow (left). It's a biodegradable pot that you rip the bottom off and drop right in the ground or in a container. On the price side, Eagle Creek was selling annual flats for $16.99. As a shopper, it's always a nice place to go. There's a nice gift area and a great selection of plants, lot of Proven Winners. The potting shed is also a nice setup, with lots of examples of fun combos for sale.

Update: Here's what our Assistant Editor Pete Mihalek thought of the trip, from Today's Garden Center's The Revolution blog.