Silent sellers

When it comes to signage, brand consistency is key for Fairview Greenhouses & Garden Center. The Raleigh, North Carolina IGC relies on GardenCenterMarketing.com for signs, banners and bench cards that not only inform customers and reinforce branding, but help make sales all on their own.

The IGC has been working with Garden Center Marketing for nearly a decade on custom signage. The company has even helped Fairview go beyond basic templates with more customized color schemes.

“We have a very cohesive look with a specific color scheme and things like that,” says Heather Rollins, marketing director. “So if a customer searches for us on Google and finds our website, I like the fact that when they come into the store, the signage from the outside to the inside — everything about the experience looks the same from start to finish.”

Although Fairview has used Garden Center Marketing for much of its signage for years, the IGC was reluctant to include bench cards until this year. Rollins says she had been using her own “antiquated” system for creating and printing bench cards for years, and was reluctant to change it because she had so much content saved in her system. It was a high-stakes switch because bench cards are so crucial to sales.

“We try to do a really good job with signage at the garden center, especially on our plants. We call them ‘silent sellers,’” she says.

But as soon as Fairview started using the Garden Center Marketing system, it took the pressure off Rollins’ shoulders as the sole designer. On average, the garden center prints 20 to 30 bench cards a week and 40 to 60 during the spring, so it’s no small task.

“Now each department from perennials to nursery to greenhouse can log in and create their own signs and save them,” Rollins says. Then, all she has to do is print them out on her laser printer and they’re ready for display.

Rollins loves having the option to create custom templates with the Fairview Greenhouses & Garden Center colors and fonts. “So it all looks the same across the garden center,” she says.

The plant library of 24,000+ records and more than 100,000 images allows users to quickly create bench cards, hang tags and adhesive pot labels. “And I do like the fact that you can add your own images and edit any of the plant information.”

Not only is the platform easy to use, the company provides excellent service. “They’re very receptive and they know who I am. They’re always willing to work with us to create new things and come up with new ideas,” Rollins says.