Disruptive Marketing by Commemorating Environmental Events

Have you heard of something called “disruptive marketing”? That’s when a company decides to shake up their marketing strategy by changing customer perceptions. In this post, we’ll give garden centers and nurseries a few ideas of how they can accomplish this.

It’s hard to believe that September is already upon us. With autumn 2019 arriving on Monday, September 23, the calendar year is sadly drawing to a close.

But for growers, they’re not resting on their laurels, they’re thinking ahead to spring and all the opportunities the 2020 planting season will hold for them.

Now is the time to sit back and evaluate your 2019 marketing efforts at your garden center or nursery location. One thing that often eludes management and staff is to tie your marketing efforts into nationally recognized holidays that directly relate to the growing industry. For instance:

• Earth Day is Wednesday, April 22, 2020
• World Environment Day is Friday, June 5, 2020
• National Tree Day is Sunday, August 2, 2020.

What, if anything, are you planning on doing to commemorate these events at your local garden center and nursery?

As they increase in popularity across the country (and the world) how can leveraging these events help with your disruptive marketing and drive new customer growth?

While this post might seem a bit premature to some, The HC Companies is well aware of the need for growers to plan ahead in this time-sensitive industry. Therefore, there’s no time like the present to begin thinking about creative marketing ideas at your garden center and nursery.

It’s easy to simply promote an existing plant, tree or shrub in a traditional plastic container. But for the three environmentally conscious events above, what if your disruptive marketing meant offering them in biodegradable and sustainable fiber planting containers?

Not only does this show your current and prospective customers that you’re environmentally responsible, it also enables you to stand out in the market as a forward thinker in your marketing ingenuity. Some ideas include:

• Offering herbs and vegetable plants in fiber containers suitable for organic gardening
• Planting shrubs, flowers and saplings in fiber containers
• Stocking a full line of fiber planting containers for the home grower starting from seed

Disruptive marketing is one of the keys to good marketing today. While it’s easy for garden centers and nurseries to market to customers on Easter and Mother’s Day, why not tie into nationally recognized holidays that directly relate to the growing industry.