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ON TREND Independent retail consultant, Liam Kelly disseminates the recent Red C report on Irish gardening trends into tangible actions
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t seems that every year retailers are inundated with more and more reports from consumer agencies, government bodies and every manner of guru and consultant that sees themselves capable of producing something of interest. They are full of statistics, numbers and marketing babble. Many of these lie unopened and forlorn in computer inboxes, flagged as ‘important’ but not quite important enough, as they drop below the taskbar on the computer… a little red flag forever condemned to live among the undeleted emails from suppliers who you must order from again and those must-subscribe-to newsletters that don’t get read anymore, but will someday. For garden retailers the problem is doubled, because as well as the retailing reports, a host of gardening sector and plant based articles are added to the already creaking load of must-reads, to the point where all information is either just ignored or suffers the humiliation of being immediately shunted to the junk folder, not even worthy of that helpful ‘unsubscribe’ that the originator at the very least deserves. But it’s hard to put the blame totally on the retailers as many of these documents are too long, too confusing or too full of words such as ‘paradigm’, ‘synergy’ and ‘brand essence’, which immediately cause the reader to tune out and click that little ‘x’ in the top right of the screen. More often, they can contain lots of useful material but the retailer is still left with the head scratching thought of, ‘Great but what do I do with all this information?’. There is a deep gulf between the collection and circulation of that data and the retailers’ ability to apply any of it to their businesses. This year Bord Bia, in conjunction with RED C Research & Marketing, published a report on gardening in Ireland based on information gathered during March and April. At 91 pages it’s quite a long and detailed report that deals with different demographics of gardeners, their purchases and what their thoughts are with regard to different aspects of gardening in general and plant and garden related product buying in general. Those who missed the presentation at Glas have probably received an electronic copy, now flagged and
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forgotten, or have given it a quick look through with a couple of muttered, ‘That’s interesting’ comments before forwarding it to someone else in the business, to which much of the same apathy, lethargy and shoulder shrugging will also apply. This is unfortunate if it happens, as the report contains a wealth of interesting and useful information, but of course that gap between having the information and using the information is not being bridged. This is hardly Bord Bia’s or Red C’s issue as it is not really in their remit. And so it falls on the shoulders of the garden centres themselves to find points they can apply to their business and this can be where we hit another hurdle, providing of course we cleared the one mentally marked ‘I must read this report’. So what can be gained from all of these 91 pages? Well, a lot actually but let’s focus on just five points and see how they can be applied at a practical level in a retail environment.
1 - Container Gardening The report tells us that 87% of ‘enthusiastic’ gardeners enjoy the creation and making up of window boxes, hanging baskets and – we presume – pots in general, and 52% of ‘fledgling and developer’ gardeners want to do so in the future. But from my observations this is an area that many garden centres don’t capitalise on as much as they should, or could. Although there has been visible growth in the sales of pots in general, especially plastic and lightweight ones, for many retailers this is more of a reaction to customers’ requests and the proactive nature of a handful of suppliers than any concerted effort to plan and drive this important category. But here we have black and white figures telling us the importance of this category, and it should make retailers ask the question, ‘Am I doing enough?’ As I see it, the answer is invariably a resounding ‘No’. Look at the range you carry, how and where it is merchandised, what link sales are available – compost, fertilisers, pot toppers, saucers, etc. Especially saucers - a pot supplier recently told me a third of their sales is in saucers.
HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Winter Winter 2017 2017
