Do NOT Stop Worrying About Gen Y

May 21st, 2012

There’s been some interesting push back from a few Gen Y gardeners sick and tired of hearing the horticulture industry worry about whether “kids these days” will ever show interest in plants.

The best example is this blog post by Gen Schmidt from North Coast Gardening, “Gen X and Y Gardeners – Can We Quit Worrying About This, Please?” Ms Schmidt  does not agree that “at some scary date in the future, we will be left with no gardeners at all because all my generation likes to do is play video games and text with people who are sitting in the same room.” She claims that Gen Y is actually MORE likely to garden than previous generations.

“My generation’s reliance on technology has given us an even greater desire to get outside and plunge our hands into the soil, and the easy availability of information and inspiring ideas (Pinterest, anyone?) makes us more likely to get outside and garden, rather than less. But I’ll admit it: on the whole, people in their twenties and thirties don’t garden as much as people 45-and-up. And, repeat after me, this is not a cause for concern. Why?”

Don’t Worry?

Gen answers the question “Why?” with three main points. Landscape activities are triggered by 1) home ownership, 2) wealth accumulation and 3) parenting. With the exception of child-rearing prompting gardening activities (the data I have seen suggests the opposite), her points are solid and pretty undeniable. When Gen Y start forming new households, their demand for garden products will hopefully make the Boomer generation a distant memory.

“Can we quit worrying about this, please?

No, we can’t. Even if we have great hope…even if we believe the future could be great…its a VERY bad idea to stop worrying about this. Actually, I don’t think we are nearly concerned enough about Gen X & Y. We need to think and talk about this more, not less. Generational change is important.

Every generation worries about their children. Parents have been shaking their heads at “the kids these days” since Adam and Eve’s son Cain murdered his brother Able. And, while its good advice for parents to not panic and lighten up a little–”hey, the world keeps spinning and kids are stupid because they’re young and irresponsible…but they DO grow up and they DO learn from their mistakes. Its gonna be OK.”

But, stop worrying? No, we SHOULD worry.

We worry because we care.

Imagine if a Republican party insider circulated a memo that said, ” So what if voters under 30 went overwhelmingly for Obama in the 2008 election? Younger voters will mature and, like all previous generations, will grow more conservative as they age. Once they are homeowners, investors, entrepreneurs and parents they will vote to protect their assets from liberal redistribution schemes by the Democrats. Forget about the kids and wait till they grow up.” Don’t worry? That’s not good advice.

We should worry even if there were nothing to worry about.

Imagine if someone stood up at a Nordstrom meeting and said, “Hey, let’s lighten up a little. We’re a great company. Our culture of service is second to none. We’re the best! Can we please just stop worrying about the customer experience already?”

Imagine if the Toyota annual report said, “Our quality is good enough. We will save money this year by spending less on new quality initiatives. We have proven our ability time and again. Can we please stop worrying about quality?”

Ha! Stop worrying? I don’t think so.

There is reason to be concerned.

The generational change playing out right now is fascinating, and while its not all bad news for the Horticulture Industry, it isn’t all good either. Anecdotal evidence by folks like Ms Schmidt that her friends are passionate gardeners, really only proves one thing: there will be a viable niche market for plants, even as we bridge the gap from Boomer to Gen Y (Gen X as a drastically smaller demographic). The mass market? Not quite so easy to figure out.

Much to ponder.

What does it mean that the average child today spends 7 minutes playing outside and 7 hours in front of a screen? Is it any coincidence childhood obesity is rising drastically? Is it any surprise ADD is rampant and our kids are numbed by medication? When a major portion of a population has spent 95% or more of their entire lives inside a climate controlled building, where they push buttons that manipulate virtual realities both for work and for play, what does this mean for society? What will the impact be on the American landscape?

OpenHort doesn’t think these are stale questions, and we aren’t about to stop thinking about them.

~Art

 

 

 

Posted in Marketing, The Green Industry | 2 Comments »

Where’s the trees? | What Nobody’s Saying Amidst the Lorax Marketing Fiasco

March 8th, 2012

wheres the trees

“Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax” was a big hit on opening weekend, raking in $70 million at the box office. But it’s marketing tie-ins with nearly 70 brand “launch partners” has caused the Seuss to hit the fan. As first reported by Mother Jones, “people are having a (rather justified) heart attack about the fact that The Lorax is now being used to cross-promote a new SUV.”

So much for “speaking for the trees.” The little orange eco-hero now hocks the Mazda CX-5, disposable diapers and  candy-coated pancakes. Pundits from everywhere are commenting: from the Washington Post to the Huffington Post, from the Wall Street Journal to the Guardian and from thousands of bloggers to the most insightful commenter of them all, Stephen Colbert.

Check out this car commercial, where an ugly strip of asphalt defaces the blissful Seussian landscape:

It’s not wonder everyone is talking about what a sell-out the Lorax has become.

But there’s something nobody’s saying.

It’s easy to focus on the tone-deaf SUV ad, but nobody’s said anything about who ISN’T a sponsor (or WASN’T ever invited to be a sponsor). Where’s the trees? With 70 “launch partners,” how come there aren’t any plants, flowers or trees cross-merchandised with this film? How come the only “green-friendly” product the American consumer can think of is diapers made of recycled material? Would there have been any controversy if the Toyota Prius were the car, not a Mazda gas+oline hybrid? Not likely, but maybe there should have been.

Greenwashing looks bad when it’s done so poorly, but our approach to environmental consumerism is flawed to its core. All these products can only claim to be less bad than they were before--and some only slightly. The single product that can actually claim to be good, not just less bad, continues to go ignored, even when that product is the point of the whole darn film.

But it doesn’t strike anyone, anywhere that an excessively merchandised movie about trees would lack any product tie in for…trees.

For the thousands of businesses and millions of Americans who grow, sell and landscape with trees, the Lorax is just another reminder that they aren’t really relevant to today’s society. When you aren’t invited to the party, and nobody notices, that is the definition of irrelevance.

But look on the bright side, at least you plant folks aren’t sell-outs!

 

lorax_products

 

Posted in Enviro, Marketing, The Green Industry | No Comments »

Plants Need Their Battle Sleep

February 16th, 2012

Researchers at Rice University have found evidence “plants make predawn preparations to fend off hungry caterpillars.”  They say it’s all down to the circadian rhythm, commonly called a “body clock.” Using lights, researchers forced a test group of plants to go off-cycle, to have their days and nights mixed up. These plants were destroyed by pests, while the on-cycle plants survived relatively unscathed.

What did the plants with good sleep habits do differently? The Rice researchers point to the production of the “hormone jasmonate, which plants use to regulate the production of metabolites that interfere with insect digestion.” This hormone basically is a poison to pests, and apparently plants regulate its production based on their internal clocks.

So, make sure your plants get a good night’s sleep!

~Art

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Is the Future of the Management Clinic “Owners Only?”

February 14th, 2012

Is this the right tactic?

Our last post, 5 Reasons Why Business Education Conferences Are Dying, was a product of thinking about the future of the American Nursery & Landscape Association’s Management Clinic. We had originally thought to title it, “Why the Clinic Failed,” but decided to make it a more general article because we thought it might apply to more than just the Management Clinic. Now, we want to spend a few minutes forgetting the past and looking toward the future of the Clinic. Will it return? What will it look like?

We don’t possess any secret, inside knowledge. We assume the Clinic, if it does continue, will not be in Louisville. It may not be in late January. It may not be called the Clinic. It will most likely be a joint venture between ANLA & OFA. And, if you aren’t a business owner, you might not be invited.

One of the ideas we have heard mentioned over and over was that perhaps the next Clinic would be for “owners only.” Let’s examine why this could work, and why it might be a bad idea.

Why Owners Only Could Work.

1. Owners make decisions. They are the ones who control the purse strings. Managers, salespeople and buyers all may love the Clinic, but they aren’t the ones who decide whether they will attend or not.

2. Owners are willing to pay more. This has yet to be proven, actually. But the theory is that owners control the money and are willing to pay more for their own development and for high-level networking.

3. Owners need to meet for industry association business. Hey, there’s a lot of work to be done for associations, and the leaders need to meet in order to get things moving. Most of the industry leaders are also owners, so it makes sense to bring them together for both education and association business.

4. Owners can let their guard down when employees aren’t around. It can get uncomfortable to have your team listening to speaker after speaker catalog how business leaders are doing a poor job of leading and managing their teams. It is also more difficult for owners to share their struggles, doubts and failures when employees are around.

5. “Owners only” would mean a more focused, less complex conference. There wouldn’t need to be so many concurrent tracks. Fewer meeting rooms and speakers means a more cost-efficient conference.

6. There are fewer middle managers in the industry than there were a few years ago. Not sure I can prove this, but I suspect many have left the industry as companies have down-sized.

7. Timing is not as big of an issue. There’s no day on the calendar that isn’t somebody’s busy season. But the time of year is less of a concern because it’s easier for an owner to get away for a couple days than it is for several key employees.

8. A large room of business owners would be a high-value audience for sponsors. It wouldn’t matter if the conference were smaller if the all the attendees control the checkbooks. (Is that true?)

9. Owners only would probably lead to a more balanced mix of representation across the supply chain (retail/landscape/grower/greenhouse/distributor). The Clinic has for a long time been dominated by the retail sector.

10. An “owners only” conference may be easier for the OFA membership to understand; they may see the value more easily. How do you begin to explain the Clinic to someone who has never been? Maybe “owners only” helps to communicate the value.

11. An “owners only” conference may lead to better understanding/integration between the ANLA & OFA if the business owners have an opportunity to mix. Bringing multiple people from a single company can mean there is less interaction as folks from the same company spend time talking to themselves. Owners only would be more of a mixing bowl.

12. Exclusivity. An “owners only” conference may be able to be sold as an exclusive privilege to be able to attend. Perhaps there could be a cap placed on attendance…say 150. Maybe OFA could get 50 spots, ANLA would get 50 spots. They could be sold for, say, $1,000-3,000 each on a first-come-first-served basis. Then the remaining 50 could be auctioned off to the highest bidder. People want what others can’t have.

Do we need a clique?

 Why “Owners Only” Might Not be a Great Idea.

1. It looks like a clique. An “owners only” conference gives the appearance of a “good ole’ boys” network. Is that the way we want to begin the joint venture with the OFA and ANLA? By saying only the anointed may participate?

2. You have to sell the value of the Clinic to more people. An owner who believes in the value of the Clinic may bring 4, 6 or more people. If those folks aren’t allowed to attend, we’ll have to convince more businesses to participate to make up for the folks left at home.

3. Owners are often not the true leaders…the ones who actually get things done. Owners are not often the buyers. They like to think they are the decision makers, but many have delegated most important decisions to the managers they’ll leave behind at home.  This will lead to ineffective networking. Buyers may be more important than owners.

4. Old dogs, old ground. Take a look around and you’ll see there are not that many “young” owners, and very few folks under 40 who have started their own business. This is very different than it was in the 80s. Are the same “old” owners the ones who have new ideas to drive change in our industry? We don’t want the Clinic to be a social club of semi-retired business owners. We need a majority of the attendees to be envisioning a brighter future, not trying to preserve the past.

5. Where do we train and inspire our bright up-and-comers?

Summary

We hope the Management Clinic returns in 2013, and we will support an “owners only” model. (But we won’t really like it.) We hope an “owners only” model would be temporary, a way to refine and reinvent the Management Clinic.  We think it is less important to have only owners in the room as it is to have the “best and brightest.”

The goal should not be to find 1,000 people willing to pay for an educational conference. Let’s not settle for that. The goal should be to get the 1,000 best, smartest, most exciting people in the industry together in an open, sharing environment where they are inspired to dream big and equipped to lead change…who wouldn’t want to attend that meeting?

Thanks for reading! Let us know what you think by posting a comment. If you’re not brave enough for that, you can send me an email too!)

~Art

 

 

Posted in ANLA Clinic, The Green Industry | No Comments »

5 Reasons Why Business Education Conferences are Dying

February 13th, 2012

Are conferences a thing of the past? Low attendance is no longer just a trend, a temporary response triggered by a tough economy. Lethargic industry-participation is the new reality. Once packed ballrooms and busy, electric hallways are becoming ghost-towns at many conferences. How long will the remaining attendees keep coming back for more? How long can conferences struggle to survive before they are put out of their misery?

If you are a conference organizer or loyal attendee and your event is failing, how can you dramatically and quickly bring back the crowds and the excitement? And if your event is thriving, an exception that proves the rule, how do you avoid losing your momentum like so many others have done?

I don’t have the answer, but the way forward must surely start with understanding the root of the failure. I humbly submit my…

Top 5 Reasons Conferences are Dead.

1. Misery Does NOT Love Company.

It would be easy (and obvious) to say, “It’s the economy, stupid!” Why over-complicate things? Businesses can’t afford to do everything they once did. They have cut back. Some have dropped out of conferences altogether; others have scaled back. When the good times roll, they’ll be back.

But I don’t find this explanation satisfying. It may be true, but it doesn’t help conference organizers know what they can do to fix the problem. It’s basically an abdication of responsibility to forces outside anyone’s control. It is far more useful, yet less comforting, to admit, “The people we want to attend don’t see value in what we offer. If they did, they would come.” The marketplace has spoken. The bad economy has forced businesses to prioritize. Guess what? Business education and conferences weren’t a high priority. Why is that?

They must not see the value.

We should not give in to the temptation to blame the reluctant customer, even though it’s justified. Yes, business decision-makers are foolish to put the brakes on education, innovation and progress. Why stop the flow of new ideas when what you need most is new ideas? It is irrational to retreat into isolation at the exact moment the opposite is called for. But if your industry is suffering through a “Dark Age,” you’ll make little progress in sparking a “Renaissance” by castigating the non-participators.

The “Age of Enlightenment” starts with shining light on that which is most valuable. Return to first principles. Rediscover why it is you have a conference to begin with.

Action steps. You have a decision to make: do you attempt to convince the non-attendees or do you refocus on the attendees? Who’s value do you seek to uncover, understand and enhance? If you want to get non-believers to participate, you must find out why they don’t see value in your conference/association/event. And what do they value? If it’s not worth their time, they won’t attend. At the same time, you can’t neglect what your core, loyal attendees value. They may not be the same. It is probably unwise to try to truly understand both.

Also, consider how you can sell your conference to decision-makers when the value is most clearly seen. This is likely to be during or immediately after the event itself, before the notepads full of great ideas and the dreams of change are buried back at the office. Post-conference euphoria and its sudden decline is well-known, and it is the root cause of my second reason Conferences Are Dying.

2. Disillusionment: It’s not what you know; it’s what you do.

Many business leaders decide against attending a conference because they haven’t put into practice all the things they learned at the last conference they went to. They think, “Why go get more ideas, however good they are, when I still haven’t implemented all (any of) the good ideas I got last year?” Ideas are cheap and easy to come by. It’s what you do with ideas that matters. If your past attendees can’t point to tangible improvements your conference made in their business or personal lives, why should they return for more?

A corollary to this problem is repetition. Same topics. Same speakers.  Same people.  Same information. Do your session titles sound like this? “Your people are your greatest asset.” “Time management: reclaim your life.”"Engaging your team.” “Revitalizing corporate culture.” “Facebook and social media: what does it mean for business?” As important as these topics are, it can be a turn-off if people think they’ve heard it all before.

Action steps. How do you ensure attendees implement what they learn, and remember they learned it from you? Is there a way to have specific goal setting and ongoing accountability (which lasts past the post-conference euphoria) a part of their conference experience? How do you make them hungry for more, not overwhelmed by their inability to digest what you’ve already given them? And how to you make them interested in a meal they’ve already tasted? It is important to also consider making the social and relational aspects as important or more important than the education/content. Build and maintain a sense of community. Church attendees keep going back every week not because they’ll hear something new (since the Truth is timeless) but because they know they need to hear it again and again…AND they have a community that helps them on their journey. How can you build a supportive, sharing community? Answer these questions and your conference will prove its value and stave off disillusionment.

3. Unsocial Networks.

Connected. We are always connected. Smartphones and WiFi, texting and status updates. Email, Facebook and Twitter constantly bombard us. We follow and are followed, but where is “Social Networking” really leading us? While technology allows us to connect with more people more frequently, our expanding connections have spread us thin, shortened our attention spans and allowed us to retreat into an isolationist stance with a veneer of participation. We are lurkers online, voyeurs happy to observe from a comfortable distance.

Potential conference attendees think: “I can read the blogs of the speakers. I can watch them on YouTube and follow them on Twitter. I can network more effectively on LinkedIn. I can connect more deeply on Facebook than I can during a five minute coffee break between sessions. I don’t need to go.”

Here’s the irony of social networking: it tends to make us unsocial.

Action steps: Social media and its constant connection isn’t going away, but there will likely be a backlash from many who feel the need to connect old-school style: face-to-face. Be ready for this awakening. How can you position your conference to be the logical place for web-connected networks to gather in real life? How can you co-exist with social media, not in competition with it? Find a poster child or two. Can you identify a few key people who became somewhat dissatisfied with the depth of relationships they had online, and your conference allowed them to connect on a deeper, more meaningful level with people they cared about–not strangers but people they “sort-of” knew from the web? And how can you tell their story? And what do you offer that can’t be found on YouTube or in blogs?

4. Uncomfortably Commercial.

One way over-connected people are dealing with the deluge of data, updates and emails is by tuning out the noise. We’ve got spam filters, caller id, Tivo and Netflix. They’re defense mechanisms to keep us from going insane, and the only way you’re going to get past someone’s defenses is to invade their lives, trick them or get their permission to enter. (I think it’s obvious which one you should choose.) But the net result is we are now more annoyed when presented with unavoidable, unwanted commercial messages. We are used to fast-forwarding through ads, bouncing unwanted emails and hitting the ignore button. So when an attendee sits through an infomercial disguised as a keynote speech or a “lunch and learn” that’s really a “sell-my-stuff to a captive audience,” it’s not going to go over too well.

Many conferences, faced with declining income from attendance fees and hotel rooms, have loosened the constraints on their sponsors and speakers. This is understandable. Get more sponsors and let them have more time to sell and you get more money. But it’s probably the wrong decision.

Who wants to be a captive audience? If your conference has become more sponsor dependent and controlled, you are probably losing  your credibility as quickly as you’re losing attendees.

Action steps: Forget about sponsors. Sounds radical, but you should try it if only as a mental exercise. Focus on the value your attendees get from your conference. Care first about their experience. Make it work for them. Delight the audience. If you have a conference that exists for the benefit of sponsors, you have it backwards.

5. Accidentally Inflexible.

The number one reason conferences are failing? Hotel contracts.

Healthy, sustainable conferences must be able to grow and contract. Suppose there is a life cycle to events and conferences. They start small, with a core group of impassioned, true-believer attendees. It becomes obvious to the outside world that something special happens when this group gets together. More firms flock to attend. Sponsors gladly sign up to get their names in front of the audience. At some point, perhaps over several years or even over decades, the core group that was the heart of the conference moves on, or are diluted to such an extent that the life leaves the party. Attendance wanes, until either the conference finally dies or re-invents itself with another, smaller core group of impassioned true-believers. And the cycle continues. (It may very well be possible to avoid the decline by ensuring the core is healthy and constantly improved.)

What keeps a conference or event from scaling down, retrenching and reinventing? Their hotel contracts. Somebody signed a five-year agreement to fill a thousand rooms and rent a large conference space. And that’s not the only constraint preventing change. The sponsors have been promised big attendance numbers. And what about the speakers? How can we afford the big-names if we don’t have a lot of attendees? How can we get a lot of attendees if we don’t have big name speakers?

All the commitments (contractual and implied) that organizations and conferences make probably seem like good business. Cheaper rooms. Better speakers. More sponsors. But when you don’t plan for decline–when you can’t scale down–you are inflexible. Which means you’ve lost control. Which means you’ll fail.

Action steps: Kill your sacred cows. Don’t worry that others will think you’re desperate. You should be. Right-size your conference.  How can you assemble the best and brightest of your industry? Consider making the conference exclusive, maybe even by invitation only for a few years. Raise the price of admission. Comp the most influential people who are guaranteed to amaze their fellow attendees. A bit too radical? Maybe start a new conference as a sort of life raft for your larger, struggling conference. Maybe it should be an “unconference?” Focus less on getting a lot of people willing to pay to attend. Instead, focus on getting the right people.

Summary

Are conferences a thing of the past? Probably not, but yours might be if you don’t understand the value you offer attendees, not sponsors. Define the value, communicate the value and scale the event down to as few attendees as possible. Then get ready to grow.

Thanks for reading! Share your thoughts with me by leaving a comment or sending me an email.

~Art

Posted in ANLA Clinic, Thoughts on Business | 1 Comment »

Inspiration & Humiliation at the ANLA Clinic 2012

February 7th, 2012

in·spi·ra·tion: The infusion of ideas into the mind.

I cannot praise the American Nursery & Landscape Association (the staff, the industry volunteers and the Board leadership) enough for the amazing event that was the Management Clinic. Over the past decade, the Clinic has meant more to me and my company than any other thing I can think of, and the 2012 edition was as rich a mix of brilliant, insightful ideas, mind-expanding opportunities and meaningful networking as ever. I wish you had been there. You simply cannot understand the excitement, the energy, the passion and the fun that filled every hallway, meeting room and social gathering. Many thanks to all who worked hard to put on the Clinic and to every single attendee who generously chose to leave their business and family for three days of learning and sharing.

Here are some of the many people who inspired and “wow-ed” me this year:

The ZenGenius installation at the Clinic.

Joe Baer and his team didn't just make a cool display; they called us to "re-invent" and "re-imagine." The most powerful representation of the cliche "do more with less" I have seen.

Joe Baer

Joe Baer and his team of “Visual Merchants” from Zen Genius were deservedly the talk of the Clinic for their wonderful concept/display of re-purposed pallets cum garden boutique. Besides being clever, resourceful and beautiful, the truly remarkable thing was how it served as the perfect metaphor for the times: “More with less.” How often have you heard this cliche, or said it yourself? But it is rare to see it so plainly demonstrated in a tangible way. For me, it was a parable into which I could walk and linger, touch and absorb. It seemed to say, “Yes, we have all been humbled by difficult times. True, we cannot afford the standards we once thought essential. But, with creativity and discipline, we can embrace our humility and actually…truth be told…raise the standard higher than it ever was before. All we have are a bunch of busted pallets? Let’s make it awesome!” Well done, Joe!

Chris Hansen shared his enthusiasm for selling plants online.

Chris Hansen

Chris Hansen of GreatGardenPlants.com was amazing. This guy is killing it. His business is so dialed in on success, he didn’t mind sharing exactly how he is selling tons of plants online. I have so much respect for his openness: he literally showed us all the nuts and bolts (including the money side) of how he uses Google and its metrics to drive his business. If OpenHort had an award for “Going Above & Beyond to Share Knowledge with Potential Competitors,” it might just be named after Chris Hansen. He was also a judge for the “Garden Idol” where he showed a keen sense for the potential market viability of the new plants being introduced. There aren’t many “plant geeks” equally as passionate about the business numbers as they are the newest cultivars. You rock, Chris!

 

Winner of Garden Idol 2012: Under the Sea Coleus from Hort Couture.

Garden Idol

If you don’t know, Garden Idol is like American Idol, but for new plants…and it is wild.

This year’s winner was Hort Couture‘s Jim Monroe for the “Under the Sea” collection of coleus. They are pretty cool plants and I look forward to growing them.

Congrats to Hort Couture for the win and lots of respect to Jim Monroe for his emphatic statement from the stage: “These plants will NEVER be in a box store. Over my dead body.” I think he really means it, too. It will be interesting to see how he and a newly-resurrected Novalis will be able to secure unique genetics and prevent them from ever crossing over to he mass-merchant channel. Can it really be done? We’re glad someone’s trying! Atta boy, Jim!

 Spring Meadow Nursery

Spring Meadow deserves a “wow” mention for deciding to NOT compete in this year’s Garden Idol, despite having many worthy plants. Instead, they paid for everyone’s drinks! It was a classy move, and the “party with a purpose” raised several thousand dollars for nursery research and breast cancer research. Well done, Spring Meadow!

Stephanie Stockton

Not only did Stephanie Stockton organize a great Clinic, she also raised a lot of money ($4,000 I think?) at the “party with a purpose” by getting folks to donate to see her have all her hair cut off. Wow. This is the level of commitment and participation we have come to expect from our association staff, and we shouldn’t take it for granted. Remarkable, Stephanie!

The OFA

Speaking of association stuff…I was really glad to connect with several OFA members at the Clinic. The OFA president, Mike McCabe of McCabe’s Greenhouse & Floral, was visible and immersed himself in the whole Clinic experience. In light of the “joint venture” between ANLA and OFA, it was important to have their leadership present. Kudos to Mike! However, I can’t pass up the opportunity to point out that none of the OFA staff attended. I’m sure there are good reasons for this, but I think there are better reasons for why somebody from the OFA staff should have been there. How are we to integrate our two organizations with one of the key goals being to “Further expand and offer more robust educational programs” if they don’t know what our main educational program was really all about? Don’t get me wrong, I am not really upset here. I’m confident the OFA cares about the Clinic. Just consider this a gentle call-out, a simple observation. We expect a lot from our staff, and that’s a good thing!

Not a merger. A joint venture.

Bailey, PDSI & Conard-Pyle

It’s interesting to see these three great companies partnering together and finding synergy where there could be isolation. Their brands are complementary, and it was really cool to see them all displayed side-by-side. They aren’t merging or losing their individual identity, but they are very smartly combining their efforts where it makes sense. These guys get it!

Jonathan Matteson

 Jonathan Matteson

I’d never heard of Jonathan or his employer, Kellogg Garden Products, before the Clinic, and he wowed me basically because he wore a scarf and fingerless gloves the entire time. Seriously, Jonathan is way more hip than most of us in the industry. But he offered more than just cool, eccentric style. He had a lot of great insights–especially about Twitter, Facebook and all the social media stuff, which were perhaps the most-frequently mentioned topics at the Clinic. Everybody was talking about connecting with their social networks, but Jonathan did it better than the rest, I think. So, he gets a “wow.” Stay warm, Jonathan!

Marcus Sheridan

He calls himself the Sales Lion, and his presentation style was abrasively forceful…but his schtick was backed up by some really brilliant-yet-simple insights into Google, the psychology of buyers and the very nature of business and marketing. This guy was smart, and he didn’t mind sharing all of his strategies and tricks. Whoever found Marcus and invited him to the Clinic: way to go!

Sid Raisch

 Sid Raisch

I’m a big fan of Sid, so him getting a “wow” is not surprising. At this Clinic, I only heard him speak for five minutes during a “Speed Round,” but his simple appeal to eliminate the word “bid” from our business vocabulary was right on. There are a lot of smart people out there, but Sid stands out because he has something more: wisdom. You can check him out at his website, Advantage Development System. Keep thinking, Sid!

 

Kellee Magge's MonkeyBar Management

Kellee Magee

Honestly, Kellee Magge deserves a lot more than just a few sentences at the end of a blog post. Our industry owes her a lot of thanks for her many years of service. The Clinic is her signature event and this year appears to be her last. If you haven’t already, check out her new venture, MonkeyBar Management. Besides having a cool logo, Kellee and her new company provides “the skills that you need to bridge the gap from where you are to where you need to be.” Specifically, she is offering her services for event and business retreat organization, business development, strategic facilitation and basically just being her amazing self. Thanks, Kellee, for all you have done for ANLA and for all the love you have poured into our companies! Hope you have fun managing your own monkey-bars!

What “wowed” you?

These were just a few of the “wows” I got from Clinic 2012. I’d love to hear what “wow-ed” you. Feel free to share yours here by commenting, or post on Facebook so everyone can see it!

But…

But despite all the fun and valuable learning, the 2012 Clinic will be remembered less for the people who were there than for the people who weren’t.

hu·mil·i·a·tion: Descent from an elevated state or rank to one that is low or humble.

There was a sadness overshadowing this Clinic, for it just may be the last. Attendance was at an all-time low.  So low, in fact, many of us wonder, “Will it return?” I hope so, but it probably won’t be in Louisville and it may never be the same again. (Perhaps it could be better?) Why was attendance less than half what was needed? The green industry is suffering through our own Dark Age, where negativity, blindness and disinterest prevails. Our hope is in the handful of firms that see and are even now leading an exciting, new Renaissance in their businesses and in our associations.

I plan to post later this week my thoughts on why the Clinic “failed” and what we can do about it. Drop me a line if you have anything to share or just to let me know you want to hear what I think! I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

~Art

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Advent

December 2nd, 2011

My children get excited for December 1st, for that’s when they get their advent calendars. Each day they open a small door in their calendar and get a piece of chocolate.

Last night at dinner I asked, “If you were designing an advent calendar to sell, what would it be like?”

My 8-year-old son Josiah said, “I’d make the doors and numbers extremely hard to find. It would be like a puzzle. You’d have to work for your reward.”

My six-year-old, Julia, said, “I’d make an ADVIL calendar. It’s for grownups.”

To which my 12-year-old quickly added, “Cause the holidays are such a headache.”

Creative ideas don’t come to smart people; they come to those willing to have fun with their thoughts, to make connections that are foolish, childish, even silly. If you need a creative idea, go ask a child.

May the love of Christ bring you peace as you celebrate His advent!

~Art

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3 Ideas to Change the Nursery Industry

November 21st, 2011

Recently we posted several articles about “collective marketing,” the whole idea of having an industry-wide “got milk?” type of campaign. The general conclusion these posts arrived at was that such an initiative would simply not work as we currently define it.

But rather than give up, OpenHort has 3 ideas that can change the green industry. Here they are:

Play to our strengths.

One of the major reasons “collective marketing” won’t work is because the industry is so fragmented…regionally, climatically, horticulturally…the list goes on. As the ANLA posted on the Knowledge Center Facebook page last week, “efforts…were always harmed by the industry’s diversity and fears that “flower growers would benefit more than tree growers,” or… “what if promotion peaks during Minnesota’s spring but I’m in Georgia?””

Instead of fighting an uphill battle, what if we played to this strength, in fact seeking to increase the diversity? OpenHort envisions a future with many more people actively selling plants for a living. We see an opportunity to form an army of individuals advancing the same cause: getting people excited about plants. It is our belief that the biggest change we can effect is through an emerging but ignored sector of the industry: the personal garden coach.

Huh? What is a “personal garden coach?” You’re probably already aware of the phenomenon of the “personal trainer” for fitness.  A large percentage of Americans have the desire to get in shape, but not the knowledge or the drive to do it alone. Gardening and landscaping are very similar. Many homeowners and potential gardeners do not have the first idea how to get started. Our industry has made success very complicated for the average person with an average interest in plants

We have given the American consumer two options: call a landscape contractor and they will come to your house with a truck full of Mexicans or go to a garden center and blindly pick out plants as best you can. Trucks or shelves. Take your pick. [This is perhaps THE KEY insight we can offer, and we will visit it again. Trucks or shelves.]

Could it be that our sales are flat or declining not because people don’t care for plants but because they don’t particularly like the solutions we offer them? What if they don’t want trucks or shelves? What if they want a person to help them?

The third option is beginning to take root already. There are landscapers finding that their target customers are choking at $30,000+ landscape quotes, but eager to pay for a multi-year project done in stages. There are garden centers finding that the people coming through their doors (or not!) are intimidated and lack even a basic understanding of how to select, install and care for plants…but they are willing to pay  for “personal shoppers,” to have their hands held and be guided through the life-long process of enhancing their homes with beautiful plants.

It is time for the industry to legitimize and encourage the emerging role of “personal garden coaches” by creating a national certification program. Such a program could bring many hundreds of new professionals into our industry. But existing firms do not have to worry that this will increase competition or shrink the existing pie nor their slice of it.

Retailers can have their staff become certified, and benefit from selling an additional service as well as selling more product. Landscapers, likewise, should not see this as a threat but rather an opportunity, either from offering this level of service themselves or by becoming “subcontractors” for an army of garden coaches out there independently spreading the gospel of gardening.

One objection to this idea: “Certification should be done at the state level.” Another objection: “We already have horticultural certification at the state level.” Take a moment to imagine something different. We imagine it as national in order for it to be more visible, powerful and normal. We imagine it as very different than simply a horticultural knowledge exam. One might know plants, but do they know how to “coach?”

By offering a national certification program, it will encourage this sector to grow tremendously by legitimizing it, professionalizing it, defining it and ensuring that it grows in ways that benefit the industry.

Once this national certification is in place, common or “generic,” easily-customizable sales, marketing and support materials could be developed and deployed via this network.

If you’ll forgive a Christian gospel analogy…instead of relying on converts to somehow show up at church and listen to one single preacher, let’s equip the congregation to go out and make disciples.

That’s our first idea on how to “sell more plants.” We have two more we’re ready to share.

Get creative(s).

The future belongs to the creative class, and its ranks are swelling quickly. The tools and distribution platforms to create and publish creative content have been democratized so greatly in the past 5 years that only the invention of the printing press can compare with the societal impact we will witness. Today, for less than the cost of a used car, a student can obtain the means of making a feature film that can rival Hollywood. With blogs, social media, desktop publishing, apps, mobile computing and video broadcasting platforms, the traditional media gatekeepers have lost their power.

OpenHort believes our industry has a tremendous opportunity before us. We can exploit this change. We can lead it. We can rehabilitate our image and reinvent ourselves faster than we can imagine. We can change the perceived value of plants.

OpenHort encourages every green industry firm to hire a creative. Every grower, garden center and landscaper should make it a priority—right now—to hire a talented multimedia creative producer. Do not look to your current staff to “fill in” like you always have done.  And do not out-source the creative process to an expensive, established marketing firm. Hire your own creative.

It doesn’t have to be a full-time position, though that would be ideal. And it doesn’t have to cost a heart-stopping amount. There are many thousands of design and film students, amateurs and semi-professionals willing to work for as little as $10 per hour. True, many are only worth $10 per hour, but now, while the upheaval is still occurring, there are many talented creatives that are undervalued. OpenHort will help you find them by telling you how to advertise, what to look for and how to put them to work.

We want to see a massive infusion of new creative ideas into our industry, and we want OpenHort to be a connector, facilitator and inspiration to these creatives in the green industry. We believe that if as little as 20 firms made the commitment to hire a creative, and to task those creatives with promoting the basic fundamental value of plants…the innovation would be staggering. We would go a long way forward to understanding what we as an industry should focus on to “sell more plants.”

Tell stories.

The way forward is not through clever slogans or slick brands. To focus on these is to get distracted. Slogans and brands are fine and well, so long as they connect emotionally with the people we want to buy more plants. The way to be relevant, the way to engage an audience, the way to move people and inspire them…is nothing new. We must tell stories. We should make it a priority to become world-class storytellers.

Whether it be through recruiting and equipping garden coaches or though finding and hiring creatives, we must make sure that they realize their #1 goal and primary skill should be in telling stories.

OpenHort has a modest proposal to begin a project that will point us forward in how we should tell stories.

We propose to make two documentary-style videos that tell the personal story of a gardener (end consumer) in an emotional and relatable way. The idea is a simple one: have real gardeners explain why they love plants. Not just for the results, but for the whole process. The experience. The lifestyle.

Once the format, tone and style of these videos are established and refined, we can make plans to produce and distribute them in a concerted way. Imagine if in a few years’ time we had 1,000 such videos made. It is possible. Even if the only viewers of these videos were their friends and family, which would happen naturally without paying for network airtime, the number of people impacted with a positive message for gardening would perhaps be close to 1 million. How much would this cost? We don’t know. Perhaps as little as $200k.

This is what we imagine: A garden center asks some of its customers to give testimonials to why they love plants. Depending on the garden center’s unique priority, they could choose the demographic that would most benefit them (GenY or BabyBoomer? Female? Middle-class suburbanite? Urban hipster? Tropical, xeriscape, vegetable?) The “creative” connected with the garden center makes the videos, producing two versions: one that specifically promotes the garden center and another that is generic and able to be used by the entire industry. What could be unleashed if we give voice to those most passionate about our products?

How can we encourage and nurture those with an average or immature interest in plants to pursue this interest further…and in a safe and credible way? We need to make it seem normal to have people talk about plants.

To move forward, OpenHort is asking for help. It is our goal to have 100 individuals contribute $20 to have these two pilot videos produced. It’s not that it will cost us $2,000; we don’t know what it will cost. And we don’t care about the money. OpenHort isn’t about money. We would gladly pay for this ourselves, but this is a test. We are tired of wasting our time. If we can’t convince 100 people to give up 20 bucks freely, without a guarantee that it will ever end up helping their business directly…then the whole concept of “collective marketing” and industry-wide participation in the common goal of selling more plants is…well, never gonna work.

If you’re tired of hearing people say, “We should have a campaign like GotMilk,” but never doing anything to make it happen. If you wish there was something we could do, here’s your baby step. We’re willing to work on this very hard, but we’re not willing to work alone.

In summary, OpenHort proposes that we:

1)      Play to our strengths. Lay the groundwork for a massive influx of “personal garden coaches” by creating a national certification program. This would increase diversity and distribute the power and control, but in a way that could allow for common marketing messages.

2)      Get creative(s). Encourage and guide all green-industry firms to hire creative individuals from outside the industry, and then put them to work.

3)      Tell stories. Donate $20 to OpenHort to produce 2 pilot “Why I Garden” videos. To support us, send me an email: art[at]openhort[dot]com.

 

We are eager to hear your response to these ideas, and willing to support any others that may be superior. As with everything that OpenHort produces, you are free to use, borrow, improve upon or do anything at all you’d like to do with these ideas. We plan to post them on the blog later this week, so if you have suggestions or comments, please send them our way soon.

Thanks!

Art Parkerson for OpenHort

 

 

Posted in Marketing | 11 Comments »

OpenHort on Hort Promotion: Part Seven: Alternative Assumptions

November 21st, 2011

“Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.” -Francisco d’Anconia, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

We have backed ourselves into a corner, and we run the risk of either continually going in circles (wishing that we could have a national marketing campaign but doing nothing to make it happen) or of going out in a blaze of glory (trying to force an involuntary program on the industry). Let us reevaluate our assumptions.

We assume we want to sell more plants. No argument there.

We assume a national marketing campaign similar to “got milk?” would cause us to sell more plants. A naive assumption. Advertising is risky business. It doesn’t always work. This is not my main point, but I can’t resist pointing out that this is not 1990. If the milk folks had started today instead of in the previous century, would they be able to achieve their results with the funding they had? It is a far different media landscape. Network TV is dead.

We assume the way to tell our story to the world is via paid advertising. It is not the only way. It may be the most effective way.

We assume collective marketing is moral. Obviously, there are many in the industry that believe compulsory confiscation of their monies to fund collective advertising is not moral.

We assume if we all got our act together to get this done, the USDA and Congress’ approval would be a formality. Think again. It appears that conservatives such as the Heritage Foundation will thwart anything they view as a “tax,” as seen by the recent Christmas tree marketing effort that has been in the news.

In summary, a collective marketing campaign in the style of “got milk” will not work.

So, what are we to do? Give up? Forget about it? We say no; let’s check our premises again to find the way forward. Let’s make some new assumptions.

1. We believe plants are more valuable than they are currently perceived to be.

2. We believe the way to increase the perceived value of plants is by communication. In other words, we have a story to tell: the value of plants.

3. We believe if we tell this story (more) effectively, it will increase the perceived value of plants, resulting in higher prices and increased demand (volume).

4. We believe we can tell our story more effectively than we currently do, even without a “got milk” style national marketing campaign.

5. We believe the industry is diverse and fragmented, and that this diversity is a strength, not a weakness.

6. We believe the time is right to organize ourselves to ensure we tell our story, together, in harmony but with diversity.

Does this all seem philosophical to you? Do you think I’ve said a lot without saying anything? I hope you will think about the problem deeply. It matters much how you pose the question, “How do we sell more plants?” There is a way for us to move forward as an industry, for independent firms to act in concert, benefiting themselves and the entire industry.

OpenHort has three proposals, which we will present in the next section, Part Eight.

Thanks for reading!

~Art

 

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Harvest Water from the Air. Goodbye Drought?

November 8th, 2011

Australian Edward Linacre, a student at Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Technology, has invented the Airdrop irrigation system. The Airdrop claims to harvest moisture from the atmosphere by channeling  air underground, where the change in temperature produces water through condensation. Yesterday Linacre’s design won the James Dyson Award. In an article in The Guardian, James Dyson says that his award competition shows “that ingenuity is alive and well.”

 

From air to root zone in 5 steps.

Copper wool inside copper tubing makes the condensation process more efficient.

 

 

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