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As you prepare for the coming season and the coming year, it’s never been more important to get in front of your customers and ask them intelligent and targeted questions. And while differences exist from region to region and market to market, there are certain trends that hold true across the country when it comes to what clients want from their garden centers and landscape or lawn care companies.
In this special report from Lawn & Landscape magazine, our editors worked with green industry consultant Judy Guido to craft a list of the top eight things consumers want in 2011. During a period of 18 months, Guido surveyed a group of 450 people—property managers, building owners, investors, facility managers, apartment owners and homeowners—to find out what was important to them.
Follow along and we’ll walk you through the broad trends and perspectives these groups offered, and how you can take advantage of them in 2011.
Someone to help them out
Consumers want to know that the companies they do business with do right by their communities. They’re concerned not only about what you sell and how, but also about how you give back to the community, and what causes you support. Lawns by Yorkshire recently signed up with the New Jersey Nets to plant three trees locally for every three-pointer the team sinks. The program got the company national press attention, a huge spike in website traffic and opened doors to meetings with executives from companies like Vonage and CB Richard Ellis.
A low risk
The economic crush has really made risk a four-letter word. Homeowners facing the prospect of stagnant or slashed incomes and property managers with reduced budgets want you to be a sure thing. Companies are being asked not just for prices, but proof of licenses and resumes of their leadership team. It’s not only that you know how to do the work, but do you have the credentials to back it up? Prove it. One Iowa landscaper won a major snow removal contract because he is a certified snow professional and was able to answer a barrage of specific questions on the materials he used.
Someone to be green
 It’s no surprise that green is a big buzzword for everyone in 2011. Clients want to be sure your products and your services aren’t harming their water supply, pets or children. Researchers call this a save our society impulse. And LEED and the Sustainable Sites Initiative are creating a demand for green projects. While construction design firms have seen a 12 percent drop in revenue over the past two years, green project revenue overall has risen by 16.8 percent (all while the top 10 largest design firms have experienced a 42 percent increase in growth), according to data from McGraw-Hill.
Clear lines of communication
Everyone, it seems, has e-mail, a smartphone and a never-ending desire to be in immediate contact with you when they have a question or problem.
To feel at home
People are spending more time at home with trusted colleagues and with friends where they feel safe. Consumers are reinvesting in their local areas. This helps validate Guido’s predicted 12 percent increase in retro-fitting and renovation jobs that are expected to take place nationwide in 2011.
A good price
Let’s face it, to many homeowners or property managers facing tighter and tighter budgets, everyone cuts grass, or fertilizes or installs irrigation systems the same way. And for some, the only thing that’s going to change their mind about which truck pulls up that week is the bottom line price.
Transparency
 Customers expect a clear message when it comes to information on your company. They may have been burned by fly-by-night contractors and want to make sure you have enough cash to keep the lights on and will stick around until the job is finished. Landscape divisions across the country have been asked by clients to develop intranets and dashboards, so the property managers can follow projects closely and on their own schedule.
Someone they know
 Americans are angry with corporate executives, Wall Street and all things big after the economic meltdown. Farmer’s markets and the home gardening movement have grown dramatically in the past few years. A full-service Iowa company advertises at an affordable price with its local minor league hockey team and gets regular exposure to 4,000 fans (read: potential customers) where they’re comfortable and open to messaging.
Targeting your target demographic
Big Brother is watching, and recording. Marketers, researchers and analysts mine all sorts of data to figure out what makes people tick. Acquire information from your target customer demographic to find out what they do for fun, what TV shows they watch and what they spend their money on.
Visit marketplace.publicradio.org/features/consumer-profiler for 65 profiles of American households. The site is a collaboration between Marketplace, a daily radio broadcast from American Public Media, and mapping and data analyst company ESRI. After a short while you’ll be able to identify marketplace trends and be able to offer products and services that address them.
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