Buy for the looks? Buy for the brand?

Brand Identity—Really?
I see companies spending lots and lots of hard-earned money on everything from sponsoring high-end sporting events to investing in colored pots and high-dollar marketing materials. Colored pots … hmmm. Why colored pots? Do they think consumers look for a signature-colored pot over a basic black one? Like they would a Coke in the signature bottle shape versus a generic cola? Is Coke a living thing?

Will they buy a hydrangea just because it’s in a blue pot? Or will they buy a hydrangea because it blooms and re-blooms like mad?

I could drive myself insane thinking about all of this. I get so irked and confused because I don’t think they know why they’re doing these things. I actually asked why once, and no one could come up with an answer other than, “It’s the thing to do, and we NEED to brand our plants.”

Do we? Really? Do people care what brand they’re buying, or do they buy the healthiest plant they see? Isn’t garden center shopping much like shopping for produce in the grocery store? Can living things be branded?

The Unsocial Social Generation
Oh, sure, they can talk to hundreds of people on Facebook and Twitter, but do they have as many face-to-face or “real” conversations as older folks? Heck no. Sociologists are worried – really worried – that people are lonely these days. They have very few face-to-face conversations – it’s all electronic, virtual communications.

Dr. Larry Rose, a professor of psychology at California State University and author of “Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn” said, “The newest generation, unlike their older peers, will expect an instant response from everyone they communicate with, and won’t have the patience for anything less.”

Is this bad? The jury is out on that, but let me tell you this – if your garden center doesn’t resemble an Apple store – or offer so much educational information that they know they can’t fail – you will have lost them as a customer. If your garden center isn’t chock-full of how-to information and your Web site isn’t bursting at the seams with everything they need to garden successfully, they’ll go somewhere else.