The evolution of brands

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Knock Out roses. It’s also the 20th anniversary of Endless Summer hydrangeas. Proven Winners celebrated its 30th anniversary two years ago. So it’s been a while since brands arrived to change the horticulture landscape.

Todd Carnley is vice president of sales and marketing at Flowerwood Nursery in Loxely, Alabama. When he started at Flowerwood, not even 1% of the nursery’s sales were of branded plants. Over the last 25 years, that percentage has grown to 65%.

Flowerwood is co-located with Plant Development Services, Inc., the company behind noted industry brands Encore Azalea, Southern Living and Sunset Plant Collections, Better Boxwood and Butterfly Candy Buddleia. However, Carnley describes himself as brand-agnostic. He’s all for selling whatever the customer is buying. To that end, Flowerwood also grows and sells Proven Winners, Endless Summer hydrangeas and Knock Out roses.

“It’s a lot, but if it’s a relevant brand, Flowerwood wants to make sure we’re offering it to the consumer,” he says.

Carnley says consumers like branded plants because when they see that different-colored container, it indicates that the plant they’re seeing is different in a positive way. “The consumer wants something more well-behaved, offers more bloom power or less maintenance,” he adds.

But are branded plants as popular with growers as they are with consumers? Carnley thinks so.

“Anyone can grow a black pot commodity, but you have to be licensed to grow the brands we participate in, be a good brand steward and make sure the quality standards are there. For the grower, it’s a way to differentiate your mix and have something that is unique.”

Different brands for different regions

Greenleaf Nursery Company grows most of the plant brands: Proven Winners, Bloomin’ Easy, Endless Summer, First Editions Shrubs & Trees, Knock Out and Drift roses, Southern Living, NewGen Boxwood, Gardener’s Confidence and its own house brands, Garden Debut and Homegrown Edibles. If that sounds like a lot, well, it is. Mark Andrews is brand and marketing manager at Greenleaf, so he handles the juggling act. With so many brands, there’s always concern they could cannibalize each other’s sales. To prevent that, Andrews prioritizes different brands based on where he thinks they fit best.

Greenleaf’s headquarters is in Park Hill, Oklahoma, but the nursery has production locations in North Carolina and Texas as well.

“Our crop mixes vary depending upon not only the division but where we sell,” Andrews says. “In Texas, Southern Living is probably the biggest brand. They also do Endless Summer, Drift and Knock Out, but not as much of the other brands. Proven Winners is especially strong in the Northeast, so our North Carolina division is more heavily geared toward Proven Winners. Their plants are strong in the Mid-Atlantic across the upper Midwest. That’s where they fit the best. Same with First Editions from Bailey. The bulk of their plant material is better suited for those areas. That’s where the focus has been. But Bailey Innovations in Georgia is developing for southern material. They’re still working with hydrangeas, but they’re also looking at crape myrtle and lorapetalum to fit into that southern market.”

More work, but greater rewards

From a grower’s standpoint, Andrews says the biggest advantage to working with brands is because of their higher perceived value.

“If you’ve got a plant in a branded pot and the same plant in a black pot, the consumer will pick up the one in the branded pot because it’s perceived as better value, even if the price is different,” Andrews says. “The bargain shopper may think this looks the same as that, they may compare it and say no. But the majority of people go for the perceived value and if it’s got a flashy tag and a different color pot, they’re more attracted to it.”

That leads to more profit, in a win-win situation for the whole supply chain.

“No one loses in the system with a branded plant,” Carnley says. “From a grower standpoint, we’re able to charge little bit more because it’s going to bear more of the cost at retail. So we win because we’re going to make a little more than we do with a commodity. The retailer wins because they’re able to sell that plant for a little bit more and have more dollars per square foot with a branded table than a commodity table. The consumer wins because they are getting a plant that is going to require less maintenance, more well-behaved and going to give a more permanent color. No one loses in that chain when you give them these new genetics that fill the need they have in the landscape.”

Working with brands comes with hurdles. For instance, the grower must use brand-approved containers. Many brands are picky about pots, from the material used to the exact shade of their particular color. The brands may also dictate that their plants are grown in a full 1-, 2- or 3-gallon container, not the trade gallons that are down a half-size.

Also, if you’re growing for a brand, that plant needs to be well-branched, pest and disease-free and looking sharp. It’s a representative of the brand, after all.

Next, the brand you’re working with will make sure you have the correct, branded tags for any plant you’re bringing into the market for them. Tags are a big part of the branded plant experience. Brands put a lot of money and effort into their tags because they are “silent salespeople” that help make the plants more attractive on the bench compared to others, even when they’re not in bloom.

Finally, the brand provides point-of-purchase materials and an advertising program to support the plant wherever it is sold. Support like this is one reason Flowerwood does so much branded production.

“They create the demand,” Carnley says. “It’s very much a choreographed dance that you have with the brands. We need to make sure we put out a high-quality product and make sure our customers — the retailer or re-wholesale nursery — understand the value.”

There’s also a lot of data that goes both ways, Carnley says. Brands often share with their grower partners which plants are selling the best and in which locations. Growers share how a plant is performing in production, both before and after it’s been introduced.

“Whenever I’m talking to PDSI or Bailey and they’re saying, ‘Here are the top sellers,’ it gives me information I need to put it into production so that we’re not missing out on something the consumer is looking for in the marketplace,” Carney says. “There isn’t room to grow everything in a brand’s program, and they all know that, but the cardinal sin is if I’m missing out on one of their top five plants.”

Finding a niche

With so many brands out there, it’s difficult to stand out.

Monrovia the nursery is nearly 100 years old, but the Monrovia brand as it currently exists was created in the 1990s. Chief Marketing Officer Katie Tamony says the California nursery’s brand aesthetic, which includes the Monrovia craftsman logo and “Grow Beautifully” tagline, stands out by staying the same.

“It sounds boring but it’s really important to be consistent and not change all the time,” Tamony says. “We talk about evolving, but you want to make slight changes.”

That’s tough to do in marketing. It’s natural to be tempted to make an attention-grabbing splash and harder to stay consistent.

“With plant brands, most people don’t encounter us every day,” Tamony says. “We’re not toothpaste or Coca-Cola. So people go long periods of time without seeing us and the more that you show up the same way, the more important that is. That helps differentiate you. So this is our pot color. It’s this green, not that green. And not to waver from that.”

Bradd Yoder, president of Star Roses and Plants, agrees that container color is crucial. His marketing team has refreshed the Knock Out brand, including moving from a boxing glove tag to bigger tags with more information.

“You’ve got to tell the story very quickly,” he says. “People want information very quickly. Once our team expanded the size of the tag to get those bullet points on there, that helped the brand grow as well. The chartreuse pot was always there, and that color was picked for a reason. You could know what you were seeing at the garden center from all the way across the parking lot.”

Greenleaf uses its Garden Debut brand to stand out from the plain black pot crowd while keeping its royalties lower than the big brands.

“We try to not be in the same lane as everybody else,” he says. “That doesn’t necessarily mean we won’t go into that lane, but we try not to go head-to-head, because we’re not going to put as much dollar-for-dollar marketing behind the plant. We recognize our limitations in a crowded market.”

For example, he would definitely think twice before introducing a new Hydrangea paniculata into the brand.

“Everybody’s got it in their brand and they all say theirs is the best in the market,” he says. “If we came across one that we really thought was good and we had the opportunity, we’d probably put it in Garden Debut. But we recognize that the only way we’re going to compete from a grower standpoint is by being cheaper with royalties.”

Andrews says Greenleaf cuts costs by using a less expensive container. Garden Debut pots are black with white lip labeling while many other brands use full color pots.

Picking plants for the brand

Last year, Bailey introduced Eclipse, a Hydrangea macrophylla with dark foliage. The family-owned multi-state nursery runs several brands, including Endless Summer hydrangeas and First Editions Shrubs & Trees. There were discussions about which brand should be the new shrub’s landing place. Every Endless Summer hydrangea requires high reblooming and hardiness to Zone 4. Eclipse is being marketed as Zone 5-9.

In the end, the Bailey brain trust decided that Eclipse’s dark foliage would make it somewhat of a black sheep in the Endless Summer family.

“Eclipse being so different gives us the opportunity in First Editions to really stand out and have something unexpected,” says Ryan McEnaney, Bailey’s marketing and communications manager. “That really dark leaf with that cranberry bloom isn’t necessarily what you would expect in an Endless Summer hydrangea.”

Greenleaf picks plants for its Garden Debut brand based on performance.

“Let the plant sell itself,” Andrews says. “That’s how Knock Out really got started. It didn’t have marketing behind it at first, but when the growers saw the plant and grew it, it performed well. It was disease resistant; it was easy to grow and cheap to grow. The plant basically sold itself with the way it grew and the way it performed in the landscape.”

Yoder lived through Knock Out’s origin story.

“We knew we had something special but at that point, rose was a four-letter-word,” he says.

Between fungal diseases like black spot and the reputation for fussiness, consumers were no longer clamoring for the venerable garden shrub. Yoder was in sales for the finished nursery Star had at the time.

“I remember going to my largest customers and just begging them to try this new genetic, but as soon as you said it was a rose, they said ‘no,’” he says.

Finally, he broke through by marketing it as a flowering shrub – notably not as a rose. For the first several years, there was no branding on Knock Out. It was just a strong plant that the nursery was trying to get into the market.

Success in the landscape market pushed Knock Out into retail. From there, marketing kicked in to create a brand to help carry the plant to more people.

When Star is thinking about introducing a new Knock Out rose, the company reaches out to its “early adopters” — 18-20 growers across North America that get the plant three years before its planned introduction. Those nurseries perform their own evaluations and send feedback to Star on whether or not it is a good plant.

“Our former owner Steve Hutton always said the great genetics rise to the top, and the ones that rise to the top probably merit some kind of brand,” Yoder says. “You can have a great marketing campaign and inferior genetics, and you may sell well for one or two years. But the best genetics win.”

Too much of a good thing?

Each new brand is another potential platform for a plant breeder’s creation. This is a positive for creativity, but it can be tough for a grower to keep up with all the new introductions flooding the market each year.

“There are a lot of ‘me-toos’ out there,” Carnley says. “There’s a lot of duplication of efforts, but the consumer votes with their pocketbook, and typically the market corrects any of the over-enthusiasm on particular plants. Still if they want it, I want to make sure Flowerwood Nursery is growing it and that we have it on the table for them.”

With so many new plants entering the market and production space at a premium, trust becomes more important.

“There’s a lot of introductions out there,” Yoder says. “In fact, I think there’s way too many introductions every year. We’re confusing the end consumer and nursery professionals. What the brand brings is consistency and trust that when we introduce a plant that it’s going to fit with the family and it’s going to perform for them. Most nurseries are not expanding. So if they add a plant to their SKUs, that usually means they have to drop one or two. If they trust you and they add a new Knock Out and drop something else that has sales, you can’t go against that trust. You have to make sure what you’re giving them will really perform for them profitability-wise.”

Brands are starting to fight back against the prevailing notion that there are too many new introductions and that there is not enough appreciable difference between them. The marketing materials for First Editions’ latest introduction, FlowerFull hydrangea address the criticism head-on.

“‘You’re introducing another hydrangea?’ We’ve heard it, and we get it. The goal is not to flood the market with ‘just another hydrangea,’” it reads.

Bailey claims it will only introduce a new variety with a truly unique attribute, in this case two to three times more blooms per season than a typical Hydrangea arborescens and stronger stems that won’t flop in the wind or rain. Monrovia is taking a similar approach.

“When we’re looking for a new variety to be part of Monrovia, we’re looking for something that’s not just new, but it has to be better,” Tamony says. “That’s what we’re constantly appraising.”

Kip McConnell, business development director with Plant Development Services Inc., understands the struggle. There are so many plants he’d like to introduce, but they’re too close to another existing plant. He introduced ‘Autumn Kiss,’ the newest Encore Azalea, this summer at Cultivate. It has traits that set it apart from the 35 other azalea in the brand.

Brand evolution

Many of the premier plant brands have been started by wholesale nurseries. These are not companies that have spent a lot of time or money marketing to the consumer.

Star Roses and Plants doesn’t sell any plants to the end consumer directly. It’s a conscious choice because the company doesn’t want to compete with its customers. But as the brand has evolved, some of its marketing budget has shifted to direct-to-consumer. For the last five years or so, Star has been working with social media influencers.

“When our marketing team came to me and said ‘We’d like to take a portion of our budget and get our material out to these influencers,’ I was skeptical because I didn’t really understand the influencer world,” Yoder says. “But it has been the best bang for our buck we’ve invested as far as going after the end consumer, because these influencers just reach so many different people.”

Monrovia has put effort into educational “brand extensions” on its website and social media. Tamony says providing these tools makes it more likely that landscape pros will want to work with Monrovia plants. And these educational tools, like lists of no fuss, disease-resistant shrubs, pulls double duty as a list of selling points. The landscapers will see a list of plants that will be easier for them to maintain, which will pay off with greater consumer success and fewer return trips.

Monrovia also often conducts consumer research that looks at the market as a whole and brands in general, not specific to Monrovia. Its latest research found the group of consumers that are spending the most on plants and buying the most frequently are most interested in branded plants. Tamony says the avatar of this group is the “ambitious gardener,” someone who wants their front yard to be the best in the neighborhood. They’re interested in new varieties; they’re tracking plant brands.

“The goal is to constantly be where these people are and make sure that when they’re thinking about plants, they see Monrovia,” Tamony says. “For every brand, not just plants, the more you can be useful and helpful to people, the more you will stick in their mind as valuable to them.”

Yoder believes the value proposition is there for growers, as well.

“It’s been proven over and over again, but brands do solicit a higher retail price,” he says. “I hope when people participate in our brand, that their profit margin goes up. I would hope that even with the added cost of a pot and a tag, that our customer is getting a better margin in retail for that plant, against selling something in a black pot.”

Andrews firmly believes that brands aren’t going anywhere.

“During the last recession, it seemed like the brands held their value better than some other nursery stock,” he says. “Maybe that’s the perceived value. People think it’s worth more so they’re more willing to spend more because they think it’s a better plant than a black plant. I won’t say they are ‘recession-proof’ but it seems to make a difference, especially in a tighter market. It’s been a slow build in the nursery industry but people have recognized the value of it. They’re here to stay.”