Helping the Garden Industry Thrive
The recent Mailorder Gardening Association conference included an excellent presentation by Robyn Waters, former Vice President of Trend, Design and Product Development for Target, on the subject of designing with heart.
Robyn dramatically illustrated that a crucial element of success is not identifying and jumping on the latest trend, but listening to what’s truly important to your customers on an emotional level.
One of my favorite examples (Click on the headline for more…)
The best copywriting in the world doesn’t do you a lick of good if no one sees it. If your email ends up in the trash bin unopened, all the time you spent fussing over the body of the email is for naught. There are two, and only two, elements that determine whether or not […]
In my last post, I mentioned some of the ways Terrain at Styer’s, the Philadelphia nursery owned by Urban Outfitters, is expanding their market. One of the key elements in their program is events, including those that reach far beyond the traditional gardening how-to offerings. Their July calendar includes the following: (Click on the headline for more…)
At the recent Mailorder Gardening Association conference, I had the pleasure of hearing a presentation by John Kinsella, Managing Director of Terrain at Styer’s, the much-ballyhooed new garden center owned by Urban Oufitters.
I have not visited Terrain, so I have no basis on which to form a personal opinion of it. I’ve heard it touted as brilliant marketing to younger, newbie gardeners, and I’ve heard it panned as overpriced and overmerchandised. Terrain has expanded the traditional garden center and landscaping services to include (Click on the headline for more…)
At this month’s Mailorder Gardening Association conference, Al Bessin of Lenser gave an excellent presentation entitled Managing Your Way to Higher Profits: How to Turn Financial Reporting into a Useful Tool for Managers. He made a potentially deadly dry topic both interesting and actionable.
Al suggested creating a separate management P&L, reorganized to make it more useful. Among his suggestions: (Click on the headline for more…)
