Ralph Null, AFID
Design Concepts
Columbus, MS
It's a green world and we can't get enough of it. The advance of green and its influence is seen everywhere. The race for different, more exciting plants with a new or different shade of green is the opportunity to spur significant sales. Plants are a natural to supply this commanding need in society for a green world and abounding opportunities exist. But, as a designer, I am often perplexed by the amount of energy spent by some of my colleagues deciding if these greens "go together".
"God didn't make any clashing colors" is a mantra that I have lived by when making choices for combinations whether it was a garden design, interior plantscape, container garden, or floral design. Appropriate combinations are less about the "clashing of greens" and more about the proper proportionate relationships of the combination. Too many differences lead to confusion and disjointed unity within the total composition.
Many of the new colors of today's plants which create excitement would have been dismissed yesterday as chlorotic, ugly and totally worthless in the commercial marketplace. Today, the excitement of gray, blue-green, rust, chartreuse, yellow, burgundy, near black, speckled, mottled, pubescent, wooly, variegated, segmented, mosaic, and plain green is abundant. Wow! What a wonderful palate from which to work! Bring on the green!
Steve Miller
The Aventure LLC.
http://www.theadventure.com/
As we roll into the end of 2006, I've been thinking about what big stuff I learned and observed while consulting and speaking across the US.
My list grows, but one top observation regarding almost every organization I've consulted and spent time with, large and small, nonprofit and for-profit, (heck, even my country club) stands out above the rest - the lack of REGULAR, ONGOING, DAILY MARKETING ACTIVITY.
When meeting a new prospect for the first time I always ask, "What do you DO exactly?" The answer repeatedly comes back in some form like:
* We publish books for the Christian marketplace.
* We develop solutions for radiologists.
* We do landscaping.
* We design and manufacture garage doors.
* We create and manage trade shows for the XYZ industry.
The fact is, these answers are not the primary business for these organizations. The correct answers would be:
* We market books that we publish for the Christian marketplace.
* We market solutions that we develop for radiologists.
* We market our landscaping services.
* We market garage doors that we design and manufacture.
* We market trade shows that we create and manage for the XYZ industry.
This is not just semantics we're talking about here. This is important. Filling the funnel of future customers should be Job One of every organization every single day. Peter Drucker said the purpose of business is to create a customer and the first function is marketing. I would go a step farther and say the purpose of business is to create and maintain long-term, profitable relationships.
Yet almost all of us fall into the daily trap of confusing busyness with effectiveness. Our To-Do lists, voicemail, and email overflow with items marked "Urgent!" We dutifully tend to these tasks that, more often than not, have nothing to do with creating new business. The Tyranny of the Urgent, it's called.
It's cliché to say there's a big difference between something that's Urgent and something that's Vital. Of course we know that something Vital is more important than something Urgent. But the truth is, we get done what we think we should get done, and something marked "Urgent" sounds, well, urgent. Isn't it interesting that we don't have a button on our email or voicemail marked "Vital?"
What's the answer? It's a lot easier than you might think. Tomorrow morning when you start your work day, don't even look at your To-Do list for the first hour. Invest that first hour on the Vital task of Marketing. Call two prospects and two current customers. Clip out an interesting article and send it to your top ten prospects with a note, "Thought you'd find this interesting." Begin writing a whitepaper. Add an entry to that blog you've been meaning to start. Do something that markets your products or services.
Make that first hour your daily Marketing Hour. Fill that funnel. Nurture a new relationship. And be vicious with that time. Don't let somebody take that away from you with something they think is Urgent. Remember what Drucker said.
Marketing is VITAL.
Gary Mangum
Bell Nursey
Burtsonville, MD
In any industry there are those who volunteer their time to help the broader industry – and those who choose to focus more intently on their own business and personal endeavors. I’d like to suggest that each of us has some time inherently available that we can “give back” to the industry that helps us put food on the table – and brings joy to so many.
I owe just about everything that I’ve been able to achieve personally and professionally to the foundation provided by my parents. I was not a great student, and did plenty while growing up to skirt nearly every rule I could. My parents worked hard to teach us a strong work ethic and instill positive values that I only fully appreciated after they were both gone.
One of the things I learned from my father was the importance of participating in organizations that could help his young retail floral, and later tropical plant business grow and prosper. At the same time he was developing business contacts through committee work and leadership positions with Rotary and the Chamber of Commerce, Izaak Walton and others. He spent countless hours helping United Way and the Salvation Army. I clearly remember him saying that these efforts would each provide future dividends, and those conversations four decades ago were the first time I ever heard anything about “giving back to the community”
I don’t think there is anything more important in business than the relationships that we develop, and in many cases the enduring friendships that come as a result. In 1988, I started spending serious volunteer time in the start up effort that took the NASA research findings about plants and clean air, and made them available to the public. During the media tour that was part of the early effort, I was exposed to a buyer from the Home Depot (Vince Naab), in NYC, that I didn’t know was in the audience. A number of years later, he visited our greenhouses at the suggestion of a mutual industry friend, Mike Rimland – and today we’re doing very serious sales with Home Depot as a direct result of those entirely unrelated contacts. I often wonder if we as a company had not been a believer in volunteer work in industry organizations – would we have ever gotten onto Home Depot’s radar. Had Home Depot not supported industry events, they might have missed out on a good thing as well.
Organizations that benefit all of us personally and professionally deserve meaningful support. Finances, dues, PAC support, and outright contributions, are clearly important – but people capital in my mind is critical – and in short supply. Too often we see and hear the same names involved in organizations – sometimes for decades. These “givers” would all welcome new talent in their ranks – and depending on your willingness, maybe it’s you.
It’s amazing how few people raise their hands and say – I can help. I would challenge anyone reading this to examine your own situation – and see if there aren’t a few hours a month you can carve out to give back to the community. Whether that giving is expressed monetarily or through personal efforts I’m not sure it matters. I really do believe what my father said – and I can tell you that from my own perspective, the personal and professional rewards have been well beyond any investment myself and my partner have made.
Robert Hendrickson
Managing Director
The Garden Center Group
Baltimore, MD
I think I’ll call it the “LDG Approach To Business” short for “Life-Preserver Desperation Grab” which is the attempt to stay afloat by following whatever topic the industry seems to be peddling. Several years ago all the talk was about branding. But that band-aid short circuited when overly-aggressive vendors took control of the process focusing their attention on branding their own companies or products and lazy retailers did nothing more than throw up a bunch of posters. Then it was experiential retailing where every store was going to become a mini-Disney until people found out that would mean spending time and money on something other than products, mainly facilities and staffing. Then it was loyalty programs that ended up being nothing more than a new way to give away margins to the very people that were already spending the most money. And that doesn’t even include the long forgotten life-preservers called Christmas shops, water garden departments and garden gift products, which were later renamed garden decor when the first stuff didn’t sell. Gardening as a lifestyle is now competing for attention with the next industry Titanic... generational marketing. You know the drill... boomers are a dying breed of old geezers that somehow must be quickly replaced with one or more of the next alphabet generations. “Quick! Throw me a preserver! The industry says our only hope is to attract a brand new generation of people that could care less about us now. What’s a blog?! How do you pod cast?! Is that some type of fishing pole?”
For companies going down for the last time... sorry... there’s no magical ring for you to grab to stay afloat. The best companies in any industry, including the very best garden centers, know that no one element or demographic target is capable of producing long-term success. For them it’s always the on-going process of continual improvement that will position their companies as marketplace leaders. They don’t just get a toe wet on the shore... if something is available that could help their company grow... it’s full steam ahead... damn the torpedoes! Visit winning retailers like Best Buy and Whole Foods. Notice anything? Their stores attract people of all ages because they’re great places to shop for any age. Work on becoming a truly great company and exciting place to shop. The next generation will find us when they’re ready.
