Do The Math

When Ball Horticultural considered launching its Simply Beautiful™ line of annuals as a national brand, Ball's marketing manager, Jeff Gibson , already knew many garden centers operated the way Berns Garden Center of Middletown, Ohio, operated.

"We brand the name Berns first," says owner Mike Berns. "First, our customers come to trust us, and then they trust the products we sell." Berns believes a garden center such as his offers a tool for growers to provide product, and then turn that product into cash.

"Our research confirmed that consumers continue to place their trust in the independent garden center," says Ball's marketing manager, Jeff Gibson. "We can enhance their store brand by developing partnerships and providing effective sales tools." Ball knew consumers wanted a brand they could trust and was certain its Simply Beautiful marketing strategy would increase conventional garden retailing methods. The success of the Wave™ petunia series had proven Ball right before.

"Who would have thought anyone would pay $5.99 for a petunia?" asks Ball's marketing manager, Jeff Gibson. "Now Wave™ petunias are the most popular selling petunia in the world."

To learn what gardening consumers felt about product branding and how they would respond to merchandising, Ball decided to test the Simply Beautiful strategy.

"We set up some good, old fashioned market research, the kind other industries and markets have been doing for decades," Gibson says. "We felt the research would show what we already believed: branding creates knowledgeable consumers who become loyal customers."

Brand conscious consumers are a captive audience in the top five industries -- film, beverage, detergents, health/ beauty and cosmetics -- virtually all consumers - some 89 to 96 percent -- have a brand preference. More importantly, more than half do not switch brands once they find the ones they like. For the green goods manufacturer and retailer, this could translate into legions of consistent and loyal buyers, since currently only half greengoods consumers express a brand preference.

"Our goal was to create a brand identity and a brand message that would grab the attention of what we call the 'Dabbler'," explains Gibson. He defines the Dabbler as someone who is time strapped, information poor, with discretionary income to spend and a desire to spend it on the home, but does not as yet garden seriously.

The brand, Simply Beautiful, incorporates many of Ball's herbaceous seed and plant lines. Its target market is over 80% of the live goods buying public -- educated women between 35 and 55 years of age who own their homes and have incomes of more than $75,000.

"We wanted Simply Beautiful to have real meaning for the gardening consumer and value for garden centers that sell to them," says Gibson. Ball took its lead from consumer focus groups that showed buyers wanted beautiful and reliable products that perform with out a lot of fuss, and simple to understand information that aids the selection process. To meet these concerns, Ball developed the Simply Beautiful Garden Know-How™ System based on four consumer-driven, "need to know" facts for the selection of plants.

Colorful benchmarks and plant tags incorporate: Sun/Shade, Height/Spread, Use, and Color information. It was also important to consumers to be able to see what the plant looks like when full grown. Displaying a big, bright picture of the plant is key to increasing sales.

"Consumers also say they want reliable varieties "Building a brand like Simply Beautiful is a win-win for gardeners and garden centers. Well signed, well merchandised plants sell better, says Gibson. Period. We proved it, and sales at the stores confirmed it."

Creel believes Ball's Simply Beautiful marketing strategy is cutting edge in the greengoods industry because it has utilized market research and merchandising methods to scientifically evaluate whether Simply Beautiful is capable of creating a brand identity and message of its own. Simply Beautiful's in-store promotion is proof positive.

In the spring of 2001, Gibson set up a combination of merchandising strategies in six strategically located garden centers, with one serving as a non-merchandised, non direct mail control center.

Two of the locations displayed equal numbers of 5-inch retail-ready plants from the Simply Beautiful collection in two different places in each store.

One location was merchandised using the Simply Beautiful merchandising kit. The kit consists of the Simply Beautiful Weekend Getaway P.O.P., pairs of Stagecraft green goods display fixtures and mounting hardware from Horticultural Printers. Product mix, product quality and size, pricing and plant tag information were the same in both the merchandised and non-merchandised areas. The program was supported by direct mail marketing. The sole purpose of all the strategies was to simply call attention to the brand.

The results were impressive, to say the least: Bottom line -merchandising doubled sales! Sales in the merchandised areas exceeded that of the non-merchandised area by a margin of 2:1.

The in-store research provided a wealth of additional information regarding garden center consumers, much if not all, will be of extreme value to garden center managers and owners themselves.

Direct mail nets new customers. Simply Beautiful post cards, sent
only to addresses not on the garden center's current mailing list,
brought in a larger than expected amount of first time shoppers the
stores - three times what's considered good for direct mail.
Consumers more brand savvy. Consumers surveyed were aware that plant
material in different retail channels comes from the same sources. What
consumers really want confidence the plants they purchase will "thrive."
Branding builds that trust.
Garden Centers are actually destinations for consumers. People are
shopping some 45 minutes in garden centers, as opposed to 22 minutes in
other retail stores. The appeal of a brand like Simply Beautiful
relates more to a lifestyle choice - it's something gardeners want,
rather than a perception of economics or quality.

What does it all mean?

Creel believes the research indicates the independent garden center is the best place to introduce a premium plant brand geared toward the Dabbler.

The results show that Ball's in-store promotions were successful in reaching its target market. With sales volume up 2:1 thanks to merchandising, and a basketful of new customers as a result of effective direct-mail marketing, savvy garden centers will find spring merchandising, simply beautiful!

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More information about the Simply Beautiful product line can be found at:
www.simplybeautifulgardens.com

Retailers can also register to be included on the Simply Beautiful

product locator database.

You may contact Jeff Gibson at Ball Horticultural for more

information about Simply Beautiful and this research project

Judy Sharpton, Growing Places Marketing

Kip Creel, market research director, PK Data, (770)931-9677