Profiles in Power: The master marketer

Marshall Dirks, director of marketing for Proven Winners, says his company is spending $7-8 million this year on consumer marketing that will manifest in ads in popular consumer magazines, on radio and in various other venues. The effort should create a buzz for Proven Winners plants and drive consumers to their local garden centers.

Q: We’ve been getting reports of decreased plant pre-bookings from a number of retailers this year. What’s your “crystal ball” take on the plant market circa 2012 from a Proven Winners perspective?

A: We, of course, sell largely to wholesale growers as well as grower/retailers. However, bookings of Proven Winners are up due to the strength of our genetics and our brand message. Regarding the 2012 retail selling season, and excluding the effect of weather, we expect to see a modest increase in consumer garden purchases as overall consumer spending picks up. However, as we have learned, our industry is not recession-proof, and we will need to change how we do business longer-term to continue to convince consumers to participate in gardening.

Q: What advice would you give to cautious retailers who are “hunkering down” and why is that advice the soundest approach you could offer?

A: Take the time now to improve your business for the 2012 spring season. Be sure to take advantage of all the tools that Proven Winners offers, such as our point-of-purchase materials, our free certified garden center training program, our free photo library, our benching systems, our branded containers, and many others, to build your company and improve your store shopping environment. Most of the programs we offer are exclusive to independents. Our friend Judy Sharpton also provides many excellent pre-season tips to retailers in her “Declaring Independents” e-mails. Also, every retailer should be sure to stock the key varieties that we are promoting for this coming spring season—this information is available in our 2012 catalog as well as online (www.provenwinners.com). Focus is also key—retailers may not be able to meet everyone’s needs. Stocking 150 different petunias, for example, adds more visual clutter, versus a clean display of 10 key petunia varieties.
 

Dirks said the lion’s share of Proven Winners’ business still goes through independent garden centers. That’s why the company offers a wide range of promotional programs to help retailers create demand for and sales of Proven Winners plants.

Q: We see one of Proven Winners’ huge strengths is its ability to become one of the more recognizable brands in the market. That market has grown beyond the conventional independent garden center realm in recent times. Is this a fair assessment, and what steps are you taking this year to keep the momentum going?

A: Proven Winners is the most recognized brand. We are spending $7-8 million this year on consumer marketing —more than all other plant marketers combined—to bring consumers into garden centers this spring. We wish that other plant marketers would do the same. Regarding the IGC channel, this remains the key market channel for us—about 80 percent of all Proven Winners plants are sold in IGCs, a fact that surprises many people. We know that some IGCs worry about the box-store channel, but we are encouraged by the many IGCs that are creating additional value for our products with container gardening departments and amazing service—some are even establishing a Proven Winners store-with-in-a-store. We want greater numbers of retailers to look at all of the programs that we have in place to help IGCs grow their business.

Q: What do you see as your company’s bigger challenges heading into the upcoming selling season, and how have they changed compared to what you’ve dealt with in the past?

A: Our biggest challenge is probably to see enough Proven Winners product in stores in 2012. As we continue to create demand, we receive many thousands of e-mails and phone calls from consumers each year, and a great many of these are asking where to find Proven Winners, or telling us that their local garden center does not carry the varieties that we are promoting. As demand increases, the challenge increases to keep enough product on the retail bench and have it merchandised in a way that consumers can easily find the product in a garden center.

Q: What would represent a successful year for Proven Winners in 2012?

A: Most importantly, we’d like to see sales of plants increase for the entire industry in 2012. This means that more consumers are again enjoying the benefits of gardening. As a part of this, we’d like to see more retailers developing in-store promotions and programs of their own to bring consumers into their local garden centers. We try to encourage this with our own local activities: Smile Campaigns, Pink Day Promotions, social media and Outdoor Living events. We’d also like to see more [retailers] take advantage of the programs and promotions that we offer. We need to continue to make gardening easy and fun while making consumers successful with our products.

Send your Profiles suggestions to smartinez@gie.net.