With every Group Gathering, I am excited to see what we will find and what we will learn. It is certainly always the case at The Fall Event. It is also true when we gather at other industry events.
Whether at MANTS, TPIE, Cultivate, or Farwest, the possibilities of new plants, new products and new ideas can bring great excitement!
It is easy to make light of or dismiss a single idea, no matter how small it may seem at the time. What we most likely don't see at the time is the potential impact of that idea.
It could appear just to be a SPARK of an Idea. And, if we are not paying attention, we may miss opportunities.
The answer to that question varies by who you ask, where their Garden Center is located, and of course... the weather!
For a technical answer, we can turn to the Old Farmers Almanac, which says the answer is:
We are just 2 days away from the arrival of the New Year 2025 and in some ways, it has already begun. Just look at Week 1 above!
We have been busy working on a number of changes, tweaks, modifications and leap-forwards in a number of Group programs. Most of these have come through your input and suggestions along with sharp observations by our Service Provider Team.
This time of year, as we greet family and friends and gather for Christmas and Holiday activities, it is the perfect time to count our blessings. Of course, for me, the blessings of faith, our family, our health, our friends, our work, and even our country are on this important list.
Karen and I have served the horticulture industry since 1988, when we first took on the position of managing and leading the Southern Nursery Association in Atlanta. Over the years, the number of amazing people we have met and worked with creates a list that is difficult even to imagine. I have often said:
Were you with us last Thursday for our December GROUPtalk LIVE Session?
We were fortunate to have some of our Centers who received the new Best in Category Awards with us to explore "How are they do it". Tim Quebedeaux began the session by sharing new data on three of the key categories: Annuals - Perennials - Tropicals (be sure to watch the recording for these new data views). And Group Best of Category Award Centers shared ideas on what is working well for them in these categories. There were important details being shared during this 1+ hour session so if you missed it, you can watch the full session recording. It has been added and is now available on the GROUPtalk LIVE Series for 2024 page in The Group WebSystem.
You may remember in the July 8th GROUPtalk; I shared a message titled...
Drilling Down for Higher Performance
In recent weeks, I was asked to share with the Ball Horticulture Team during one of their monthly meetings. My part was virtual with many gathered at the Ball Headquarters in West Chicago, with hundreds more from their locations around the world.
The request was (1) to give a brief overview of what The Group does, (2) to provide highlights of how the 2024 year is shaping up, and (3) any possible glimpse into 2025.
Past:
Years ago, I had a deep realization that quantity never outweighs quality…
If you have been in The Group Experience for some time now, you know how much we have talked about the dynamic shift needed in the way our Centers connect to your audience. While there were some changes identified and discussed pre-COVID, beginning in the spring of 2020, the need for shifting seemed to get kicked into overdrive.
Let's back up a minute here... Our founder, Robert Hendrickson, was way ahead of the curve, as far back as the beginning of The Group itself. Everyone remembers how much Robert pushed you to "tell your story." He pushed to shift from a promotional message (plants or products with a price) to a connection to an experience. The was the first push The Group had to make an emotional connection.
When I first started working with The Group in 2012, I remember hearing from a number of our Owners this comment, "I just can't take on anything new. My plate is full."
It didn't take long for me to realize these were the same Owners who only had one person connected to all of The Group programs. You probably already know where I am headed with this...
If you have been into the flow of information within The Group this year, you know, overall sales year-to-date have been tracking about -5% down from 2023. While early weeks teased us with solid increases, some of the biggest spring weeks just did not keep pace with those same weeks of 2023, and that created the overall deficit we see today. By the way, those same big spring weeks where we fell short, we saw our Weather Rating reflecting downturns. Remember, we have always blamed the weather, but with our new Weather Rating we now have actual data to back it up.
But the sales at -5% is Total Group Average. All the Group Centers that participate in the Weekly Department Review (WDR) can login to The Group WebSystem and begin to explore in greater detail how the average develops, and much more importantly, who is well above the average!
This past week, I have been working on the newest addition to our Group Educational Training content coming from The Fall Event 2024. Two weeks ago, I shared the compiled recording of Katie Tamony's "The Evolving Customer" presentation. It was added to our Group WebSystem for all Group Centers to experience.
This week, we have added Tim Quebedeaux's presentation "Big Profits: Aim Big, Don't Shoot for Average." During this 45-minute presentation, Tim highlighted the 2023 P&L Study and then drilled down into the Top 8 Product Categories.
Having the opportunity to see many of our Garden Centers' messaging throughout the year offers a chance to see unique local and regional differences (as well as similarities) across the country. What I see in Spring seems to be more similarities with only differences in timing based on your location... Southern-most Centers getting kicked off earlier, and other markets follow as spring rolls out. But overall, the message of a beautiful spring ahead seems pretty consistent. And especially with The Group Centers where we have been sharing ideas on the benefits of plants and gardening.
Fall seems to have some differences or at least some areas of uniqueness. Here are some examples...
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What Matters Most... are people. Our families, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. At times like the past two weeks, we quickly realize What Matters Most! Yes, our properties and businesses are important to us all, but most can be replaced. Our people cannot.
I wish to begin this message with a word of thanks and to say we all are extremely grateful to hear from all the Group Centers who have dealt with both Hurricane Helene and Milton over the past 2 weeks. We are grateful to hear their families and staffs were safe and most did not have extensive damage to major structures. While we are hearing them say clean-up and being back to normalcy may take quite some time, all know What Matters Most.
The Horticulture Industry is certainly one where we are accustomed to promoting Certification Programs and earning credentials for you and your staff at retail. Most of our state associations have a program you can and should participate in, and being a Certified Nursery or Horticulture Professional designation can be an important part of building customer confidence. I know you are wondering where I am going with this...
I am not announcing a new Retailer Certification Program.
In the world of science, there are a lot of studies and documentation for combining two or more items to create what is called Synergistic Effect. I guess most simply the results of the combination create MORE than the original parts. Most basic descriptions are something like this:
Synergistic Effect means when two or more items are combined, their overall effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.
One of the major messages we learned at The Fall Event 2022 in Kansas City when Hallmark's Darren Abbott presented to The Group was how important it is to create an emotional connection with your audience. Studying Hallmark's patterns for leveraging emotions gave us ideas on how Garden Centers can create an emotional connection with their audience, not just for plants and gardening, but also for the Garden Center itself.
Consistently sharing the values of the Garden Center throughout its messaging can certainly help. You may remember back in April I shared a blog message titled "Founded with a Purpose" where I told the story of Mayorga Coffee, and supported the message with details of Mostardi Nursery, and Meadows Farms, as well as Renee's Garden, one of our new Fall Event Sponsors this year.
Media Going Wrong
In the bigger picture marketing is much more than advertising. It is more than social media. What is it? Marketing is communication with a specific chosen group of people in language they understand and empowering them to act to support their interests, not ours.
The Marketplace Mantra: “It is the marketer’s responsibility to communicate to our marketplace information to make them want to buy.”