I just happened upon a year-old Nursery Retailer article by Kip Creel, garden industry analyst extraordinaire of Standpoint, about marketing to Gen X and Gen Y. One sentence in particular stayed with me: “We have to stop assuming that if someone buys a plant, they are a hobbyist.”
What he meant by that is that there has been a generational shift in attitudes toward gardening, but not in gardening-related expenditures. When we look at gardening-related expenditures, Gen X and Gen Y fall within known industry norms. However, unlike Baby Boomers, the younger generations don’t consider gardening a favorite hobby. It is instead a necessary element of home improvement.
This shift in attitude will have an increasingly important impact on advertising appeals over the coming years, as the number of Gen X and Gen Y homeowners grows.
