Horticultural Marketing Idea Exchange -- Issue 2

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You asked to receive these money making ideas from the 2005 OFA Short Course Idea Exchanges.

Second Edition Of Money Making Ideas Are Yours, Free! . . .

If ideas come to you during the year that you would like to share, please send them to hortideas@mccurryassoc.com and we’ll include them in future emails.

PRIVACY: It’s very important to us – your email address will not be shared with anyone . . . and we won’t Spam you . . . if you know of others who would like to receive these creative ideas every three weeks, have them send an email to hortsubscribe@mccurryassoc.com – put their name, company name or affiliation, city, state/province and we’ll add them to the list. We will also be archiving these at www.ideaexchanges.com.

Questions? Thoughts? No cost follow up is available to all 2005 OFA Short Course attendees – we’d love to hear from you . . . (hint: if you email, put OFA in the subject line so the Spam filters don’t eat your email.)

Gary Hudson Hudson & Associates gary@GaryHudson.com (916) 375-6540

Bill McCurry McCurry Associates WMcCurry@McCurryAssoc.com (800) 553-1332

 

Marketing Idea Exchange

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Email from Lisa Campbell, Danville Gardens, Danville, IL

What a great idea to send out ideas through out the year. I think that we are often overloaded at the Short Course and tend to forget some of what we learn. We missed seeing you this year and being in the exchanges, but we'll be back next year. What do we need to do to be added to the email list?

Answer: Nothing more – just a quick email with your name, firm name or affiliation to the horticultural industry, city/state/province and that’s it . . . you do not have to be an OFA member to be on the list (but you’d be nuts to be in the hort industry and not take advantage of what OFA offers!).

The list is open to all, at no cost. To subscribe send an email to hort@mccurryassoc.com – include your name, affiliation and city. To view archives go to www.mccurryassoc.com/ideaexchanges.cfm

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• Some garden centers report great success with flyers inserted into the newspaper
  • Used coupon to track success – helps you identify who responded to the ad and gives incentive to those who might be tempted to visit you but need a reason.
  • Not all customers are coupon-centric so also count your traffic volume and compare that to days you are not running advertising.
  • Inceased store traffic without coupon redemption could indicate your coupon offering wasn’t attractive but your customer was reminded you exist. It’s also possible your increase in traffic had nothing to do with your advertising, it could have been weather or other factors.
• Fertilizer free with purchase – gives incentive to purchase now, plus insures better success with plant material purchased. Also gets staff and customer used to the fact no one should buy plant material without fertilizer or something to get it going when planted.
• Tomatoes grown in single pots is additional revenue source – points out how some customers want all the work done for them and are willing to pay for it.
  • $1.19 per tomatoes in 18/01
• To generate new customers consider rewarding a customer who brings a referral. The existing customer and the new customer both get a $10 coupon to use for any purchase mailed to them. The names were checked against the mailing list to verify that the customer is new.
• Pot buyback program - $0.25 paid in cash for every pot returned to the nursery/garden center that is imprinted with their name. Has many benefits . . . brings customers back, saves money on pots (which will increase in cost as oil prices climb) and positions you as caring about the environment. When they leave the pot in their garage to bring it back to you it reminds them of you. Rarely does customer get cash back; usually they buy more than the redemption value on the trip.
• Sell gift cards as a fundraiser. The school or non-profit pays less than the face value of the gift card (some nurserys or garden centers give 10% discount – others 25% or more). Some stores have a card printer to customize the cards for the entity name (Gift cards and printer were purchased from company called LLT) Some retailers reported sales in excess of $4,000 per non-profit entity. One suggestion was to only sell the cards as fundraisers during January to early April. This is when you need the cash and the timing helps the non-profit as the donor can visualize using the card right away. Most have no limit when the card must be redeemed and report great cash flow while the card is not redeemed. Others felt they should encourage the card being redeemed right away as they see this as an avenue to bring new customers to the store.
• A Canadian garden center reported great success with their 4’ x 8’ digital sign. The sign can do graphics like a big screen at a sporting event. It gives the garden center great flexibility and creativity to capture the attention of motorists driving by.
• End of season close out sales are getting too common . . . so make yours unique. One retailer requires “admission fee” to be able to buy things at half off. The customer must donate food to the local food bank and in return gets 50% off their entire purchase. This program runs at the end of the season when the discount would run anyway. If the customer didn’t bring food, they can make a cash donation to get “access” to the clearance sale. Makes the sale seem more unique and special to the customer plus benefits the community and positions you as someone who cares.

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ABOUT THE LIST: This is a "work in progress" and is designed to be responsive to the list subscribers. When this list was being contemplated, many of you asked that we not show email addresses where they might get picked up by Spammers, thus there is no public master list of subscribers. Additionally, some of you felt the ability for anyone to respond to the group as a whole led to an avalanche of emails that jammed your email systems. Thus, space allowing, we will attach to the next newsletter any comments that are intended for broad distribution. Please let us know if these policies make sense for you. You can reach us at hortideas@mccurryassoc.com

We look forward to hearing from you. When you send in your submissions, questions or comments please identify yourself and let us know if you want your name withheld when your material is published.

LEGAL MUMBO JUMBO OUR COUNSEL WANTS YOU TO READ
Your continued receipt of this Marketing Idea Exchange will indicate you agree to the following:
1. Good taste, common decency and truth are required at all times and necessary for the continuation of this list.
2. Each list participant is expected to send in at least two marketing ideas each year. They can be your best ideas, worst ideas or just ideas you're thinking of trying.
3. To guarantee sanctity of email addresses, communiqués will go through McCurry Associates email. You agree to not share the email addresses of people on this list with anyone and further agree to not send emails unrelated to ideas for the horticultural industry. No Spamming allowed.
4. You agree that business is an art, not a science and what works for one organization may or may not work for another. You therefore agree to hold harmless and release from all liability all parties (including without limitation McCurry Associates as well as Hudson and Associates) who are associated or participating with this list for any and all causes of action.
5. This list is operated by McCurry Associates and is not endorsed nor sanctioned by any organization, group or entity other than McCurry Associates. Specifically it is not part of OFA or any other trade association or industry group. McCurry Associates is the sole arbitrator of all issues regarding the operation of this list and may cancel it without notice. All submissions become the property of McCurry Associates and may be reproduced in any form at McCurry Associates sole discretion. Your suggestions to improve this list are heartily welcomed.

We hope you enjoy and profit greatly from this experience,

Bill and Gary

A Sampling of Upcoming Events For Bill McCurry and/or Gary Hudson:

Alberta Horticultural Congress – November 16-18 – Edmonton, Alberta

Ohio Florists’ Association Short Course – The Premier Horticultural Educational Event – Columbus, Ohio – July 8-11, 2006

William J. McCurry, Chairman
McCurry Associates
301 North Harrison Street - Suite 677
Princeton, NJ 08540
email: wmccurry@mccurryassoc.com
(609) 688-1169 or (800) 553-1332
Cellular (609) 731-8389 - Fax (609) 688-1192

Gary Hudson Hudson & Associates
2545 Boatman Avenue
West Sacramento, CA 95691
email: gary@GaryHudson.com
(916) 375-6540 – Fax (916) 375-6543

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