Don’t Take Social Media and Trialing New Plants for Granted

While attending the ANLA Management Clinic last week in Louisville, Kentucky I learned lots, but two statements really rubbed me the wrong way:

“Businesses using social media to market are desperate…”

“People who use Mac computers are doing so because they are too stupid to use a PC…”

Granted, one was actually from a lecture given by a garden center consultant who I feel is totally out of date in his marketing approaches and one was from a pretty drunk 50 something man who runs a PC based IT department… but come on!

I completely understand and agree when consultants tell their clients they need to have their business in order first to properly use and reap the advantages of social media and that social media isn’t going to “save” a failing business, but to call people who embrace one of online marketing’s fastest growing technologies for engaging new and existing customers “desperate” really got my britches in a bunch.

“Social media will not save a failing business, but for a business to grow, it must incorporate online marketing into the business strategy. AND Social media must be a active component of any businesses online marketing strategy.”

This is what Andrew Palmer, online marketing guru to the publishing industry says and he has made businesses millions with this approach. You guessed it, he’s also my husband, so I may be a little biased, but the making millions part speaks volumes.

In today’s market, we need as many ways as we can get to communicate with consumers and prove to them we are worthy of their business.

A study by the global public relations Edelman found “the number of people who view their friends and peers as credible sources of information about a company dropped by almost half, from 45% to 25%, since 2008.” (Thanks to Green Profit editor Ellen Wells for first posting this info in her latest GPbuzz e-letter)

Richard Edelman, believes it’s a sign of the times — and “the lesson for marketers is consumers have to see and hear things in five different places before they believe it.” These results should go hand in hand with an online community building philosophy. Again to quote, Edelmen, “Tapping into peer-to-peer networks is a way for marketers to tell authentic, credible stories to consumers whose confidence in corporate CEOs, news outlets, government officials and industry analysts has taken a beating.”

For more, read the Ad Age article: In Age of Friending, Consumers Trust Their Friends Less.

It’s seems pretty clear – in order to be a visionary in any industry, you need to be visible in many places. Social media, if done well, can increase your visibility to a nearly endless audience, so why ignore the potential power?

I’m tired of people who hate change and diversity calling folks who do accept and even embrace these challenges “not real.” Sound like anything else controversial going on in the country right now?

If someone on the news tells me I’m not a “real American” one more time because I believe something different, I think I’ll just give up being American and move to another country where me and my beliefs, as different as they may be, are accepted.

The marketing and unwillingness to adapt in our industry frustrates me even more.

“The i-generation isn’t real.”

Really? Tell that to Apple, who is making tons of money from this hip, young crowd. Heard of ipods, iphones, ipads? Granted the ipad launch has taken a lot of heat, but not real? You’ve got to be kidding me, right?

“Macs are for the less intelligent.”

Tell that to any graphic designer or businessperson who switched to a Mac because they lost laptop after laptop to viruses that target PCs. And don’t tell me it’s because there aren’t as many Mac users as PC.

That’s a load of crap.

“Facebookers and Twitterheads aren’t real and anything they tweet or post on Facebook is worthless.”

Tell that to Home Depot, Coca-cola, Unilever, and Pepsi who have dumped their traditional advertising budgets for Facebook and Twitter. Pepsi just announced that 1/3 of their marketing budget would be put toward social media. ONE THIRD!

CEO’s of those companies believe. If it wasn’t real, do you think they would be spending any time on this?

And tell that to Sarah Palin, who uses Facebook as her political platform of choice. Love or hate her, each post is taken seriously by the media. Some think she’s the realest “real” there is.

I’m easily kerfluffled these days because I am a bit sensitive when it comes to the word “real”.

Can you blame me? According to what I’m hearing, I’m not real. Heck, those of you reading this might not be real either.

I was impressed to see two very relevant articles posted yesterday on the ANLA News Brief E-letter that comes out each week. One was on marketing to Gen-Y and the other was on social media.

This excerpt is from the article on marketing to Gen-Y.

“To put it bluntly, if you’re uncomfortable with marketing to Generation Y, or refuse to understand our unique demographic, your store will not see 2020. To understand Generation Y is to overcome many obstacles in the retail industry.

“The retailers who are embracing and adapting to our needs are the retailers from which we are purchasing products and services. They also are the retailers we are recommending to our parents, the Baby Boomers. Our generations combined account for more than half of all Americans, and while Generation Y purchases $150 billion in goods a year, we influence another $50 billion of Baby Boomer’s family purchases.”

Everybody say, “Oh…yeah!”

That’s what I’ve been trying to tell people for a while. No one listens to me. Maybe they’ll take heed when they read this targeted article written by a Gen-Y’er. Read the entire article Why Generation Y Isn’t Buying Your Products.

As if that wasn’t eye opening enough, they hit us with another snippet from a well-respected expert on social media. Here’s a teaser for you.

“Social media is no longer a trend for marketers; it is a reality. eMarketer forecasts that social network ad spending will reach $2.5 billion worldwide in 2010 and $1.3 billion in the US. About 64% of US Internet users will interact with user-generated content this year, and 26 million US adults will use Twitter at least monthly. Mobile social networks will reach 223 million people around the world.”

You can’t spell reality without real…can you?

eMarketer is great and they have terrific tips in their e-letter. Still not convinced you need to explore these new mega-trends?

I think you’ll be sorry if you ignore what the experts (outside our industry) are saying.

At the clinic, there was a great session on social media given by Today’s Garden Center Magazine editor Sara Tambascio. Sara gets it and the trade magazine she works for gets it. They are embracing social media and doing a great job. Sara gave lots of great tips, like have a fan page for your business and keep business and personal life separate. This is really hard because, as I’ve found, when people feel they know you from reading your writing or seeing you speak, they want to be your friend.

Should you have two Facebook pages? Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Anyone else have two? Should we all have one for friends and one for business? I thought having a fan page for my business and a personal page was good enough. As if we all need more to do.

That’s the biggest beef about social media. It takes time.

I’m hoping it’s worth it, but I don’t want to be left behind as the world changes. As my husband often says when he sees many of our industry websites, “1989 called… they want their web design back.”

I plan on living and profiting in the Twenty-First Century, thank you very much.

I also learned more about what people want in new plants and more importantly, what they expect of the companies introducing and marketing them. This was invaluable…

I was surprised to hear that garden center buyers don’t trust the marketers. They want to trial new plants too, so they know how they perform in their area. I asked if it would help for them to have results readily available on a new plant that had been trialed thoroughly. They said that information would be helpful, but they still wanted to trial before ordering big numbers.

I can certainly understand since they have been burned more than once by companies saying something was truly hardy (when it wasn’t), or it bloomed all summer (when it didn’t), or a it’s dwarf version (when it grew and grew), or the most overused falsity – that it’s more disease resistant (when it clearly isn’t).

I guess this is “proof in the pudding” and the article above about people not trusting anyone anymore has some truth to it. As former President George W. Bush said, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me… you can’t get fooled again”. Or wait…maybe he was just breaking into a Who song?

Most plant introduction companies are working very hard to gain back the trust they’ve lost by years and years of new introductions that were not properly tested. I mean, come on…how can a company that introduces roses trial their plants for black spot and cold hardiness in northern California or Oregon.

Dost thou think their customers a fool?

We all know EVERYTHING grows well there.

How about testing plants “deep in the heart of Texas” (clap, clap) where everything dies and as Jimmy Turner of the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens says, “My hobby is voraciously collecting, trying to grow, and murdering one of every known annual, perennial and bulb in my search for the perfect plants for our area.”

How about some cold hardiness tests in Chicago where it’s cold and windy with little protective snow cover? How about trialing in Minnesota where they get plenty of snow, but even colder temperatures?

If new plant introduction companies had been truthful and trialed plants in these extremes all along, maybe we wouldn’t have to spend so much time getting people to try new plants now.

Imagine if they trusted us?

I try to trial every plant in the most extreme climes I can find. I’m not afraid to give Jimmy Turner plants. If they live, he promotes the heck out of them. If they die, I know they can’t take the heat. We have a love hate relationship. He loves plants. I love him to trial them. I (although bad news hasn’t come yet) hate to get bad news about my plants, but my company is greater for it. I can be honest and that’s what gaining trust is all about.

Wouldn’t you have loved this warning on all of the lovely new corydalis (Corydalis sp.) selections or that blue Himalayan poppy for which all plant geeks were willing to trade their first born?

“Warning: Not suitable for hot, humid summers.”

Six honest words would have saved many a lot of money and frustration.

There are always gardeners who are willing to push the limits, yours truly included, but we know what we’re in for. Innocent consumers don’t know and they buy new introductions, plant them and watch them die.

Then…here’s the kicker, they think they can’t grow plants and they stop trying.

Talk about losing repeat customers. We can’t afford to let this happen.

Until next time…

Happy Weeding!

Angela Treadwell Palmer
President, Plants Nouveau

P.S. I take pride in the new introductions that come from Plants Nouveau. I love seeing the introductions in gardens all over the world. When a plant can perform in many different garden settings, it truly is worthy of introduction. Take Echinacea ‘Coconut Lime’ and ‘Pink Double Delight’. They have done well in just about every trial garden around the US. I am happy to report that Coconut Lime has done so well that the editors of Better Homes and Gardens have chosen it as one of their top choices for 2010. Because they had it in the trials for a few years, they know how it grows in Iowa. If it can grow in Iowa, I’m told it can grow just about anywhere.

It’s a terrific plant and because it stood the test of time in the trial gardens at BHG, they will now tell their 7 million readers how great it is in their April edition. How’s that for PR?

Coconut Lime was also one of the top white coneflowers and the only double to receive high marks in the Mt. Cuba Center coneflower study. Pretty cool, eh?