Make sense of marketing

As the winter holiday season comes to an end, we have the opportunity to reflect on the success or failure of the marketing and merchandising techniques utilized and make improvements for next season. It’s a great time to learn more about the ways that you can subtly encourage customers to take their time and browse away among your tables and rows.

But with all of the other options available to them and a long list of errands to run during any season, how do you keep them around your garden center a while longer?

Just try playing to their senses.
 

The brain game

Neuromarketing is the term given to the practice of taking our understanding of how our brains work and using that toward improving marketing, sales and advertising. Science can actually measure what parts of the brain are activated based on a given stimulus. A brain mapping medical technology called fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) can be used to study blood flow and blood oxygenation in the neuron activity of customers when making a purchase.

Basically, researchers are able to see how different marketing tactics subconsciously affect customers. And because of this kind of research, some rather fun and interesting marketing ideas can be effectively used in your garden center to put consumers in the mindset to browse and buy your products.
 

Sense and sensibility

The way your garden center looks, smells, and even sounds can have an impact on your customers’ shopping experiences. Product placement is essential. If you are overstocked on fertilizer, for example, and you want to sell more of it, your first thought might by to put it close to the entrance to increase visibility. But that may backfire.

“What we see, hear, taste, feel and smell all go into our evaluation of an environment or product or an advertisement,” says Roger Dooley, founder of Dooley Direct marketing consultancy and author of Brainfluence. So, having an unpleasant scent such as fertilizer at the front of the store may not be conducive to keeping people browsing in the area.

Studies have shown that using sensory stimuli such as scents can keep shoppers in a browsing mood. This is why some bookstores have coffee shops in them, and some clothing stores have popcorn. These are scents that have been proven to have a positive affect on a customer’s brain activity, and in many cases, increase purchases.

Try highlighting your pleasantly aromatic plants by placing them along heavily trafficked areas, or even adding an artificial scent to boost the impact. Imagine the impact of having the smell of sand near your grasses or succulents, or blueberry muffins near your edibles. Just be sure that if you use an artificial scent, it’s as close to the natural smell as possible. “You want it to be relatively close to the same thing so people don’t simply say, ‘Gee, that’s a really lousy air freshener they’re using,’” Dooley says.

Sound can also be a powerful motivator for your customers. Playing relaxing music may help subconsciously slow them down, so they don’t rush past your displays. The sounds of birds and the outdoors may put them in a planting mood, getting them excited about their garden and thinking of new ideas. And when they’re in that kind of mood, that’s the perfect time for them to be looking at your products.

Subliminal audio marketing has shown to even shape the direction of customer purchases. One study in 1997 showed that when either French or German background music was played in a supermarket, it had an effect on the type of wine a consumer purchased. When French music was played, French wine outsold German wine five bottles to one. Conversely, when German music was played, German wine outsold French wine two bottles to one. Coming up with a creative soundtrack to your store experience may lead your customers toward purchasing specific items. Think - playing Caribbean music to boost tropical plant sales.

Visual cues also help to attract and retain customers. Keep your displays attractive, orderly and exciting to reinforce confidence in the quality of your products. Also, try hanging interesting decorations or signs nearby – once again encouraging shoppers to slow down, take their time and look around.

Having a prominent “Sale” sign above any discounted items has proven to increase purchases of that item. “Selectively focusing attention on sale items is important, and we know that it works,” Dooley says. But he cautions against going overboard on sale signs. “You don’t want to train people that everything should be on sale and they should ignore the other stuff that isn’t on sale.”
 

Proximity matters

Where you place your items - and what’s near them - can have a subconscious effect on your customers as well. If you have an item that is in high demand, try placing it toward the middle or back of the store, or next to items that you would like to increase sales. Having customers walk by products twice - on the way there and back - to get to what they’re looking for can entice them to take a second glance at something new.

In addition, which products share areas of your store make a big difference. “It’s important to be cognizant of what you’re putting on the shelf next to each other,” Dooley says. “You normally wouldn’t put your weed killer on display next to sensitive, live plants.” Likewise, it may be smart to avoid putting insecticides next to your edibles, to prevent your consumers from making a negative connection between chemicals and food.
 

Celebrate the season year round

Whether it’s the holidays, springtime or autumn, you can use all of these neuromarketing techniques to subconsciously attract your customers. Particularly around the holidays, customers are already thinking about gift-giving and family, and they’re in a buying mood.

“To the extent that a retail environment can enhance that mood with appropriate scents, that’s a big plus,” Dooley says. “And then the other part would certainly be using music that would augment that mood.”

Use a pine, roasted chestnuts, or fresh-baked Christmas cookie scents to really get shoppers to stick around and browse. Have visual cues such as holiday displays, red and green colors to supplement the ambiance. And of course, play holiday music in the background.

In the springtime, try lots of natural or artificial sunlight, pastel colors, and the sounds of birds chirping and light, happy background music. Spring is a time for planting, new growth and sunshine. Have a nice display of beautifully colored plants in prominent view.

During the fall season, roasted apples and pumpkin pie scents will keep shoppers happy and thinking of mums and Autumn Joy sedum. Maybe consider engaging a fourth sense by handing out samples of warm apple cider. Keeping the customers comfortable and in a good mood is the key to getting them to buy more of your products.

Using subconscious cues is a great way to not only get customers browsing longer and buying more, but also to keep them happy in their entire experience with your garden center.

To read more about neuromarketing, visit Roger Dooley’s blog at www.neurosciencemarketing.com

Ethel Lynn is a marketer and freelance writer in Lakewood, Ohio.