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Garden Centre Retailing is Child’s Play By John Stanley
- 10 May 2012
Have I got your attention? Have you looked around a bookstore of late? It is interesting what is being offered in the lifestyle section. There is a large range of books telling me the “1001 things” I should do before I die. This includes parts of the world I should see, food I should eat, wine I should drink and paintings I should admire.
To follow on from this the National Trust in many countries have launched a campaign called “Things to do Before You are Twelve”.
At the same time Jamie Oliver, in the UK, is also trying to set up gardens in every school in the UK.
If there was ever a time as a retailer, to get behind a movement, and encourage children to garden, it is now.
It is not only children we need to engage. Many garden centres are concerned they are not attracting the younger adult consumer who has children. In fact, according to research carried out in the USA by the Garden Writers Association, this market sector is one of the lowest spenders on their garden.
For garden retailers, this is either a challenge and placed in the ”too hard basket” or an opportunity that is waiting to be grasped. I believe it is the latter. Garden retailers have an opportunity to engage with the consumer at a new level.
Children in all societies are being encouraged to move away from the computer and engage in some form of activity; preferably an outdoor activity.
When it comes to gardening, parents today often do not have the knowledge or skills to engage constructively with their children in the garden. This is where the industry can play a part in engaging the community. By relating to children, garden retailers can also engage with their parents, who are often embarrassed to admit that they do not have the fundamental garden knowledge required to engage their children in gardening.
It is time to engage Children in gardening via a Promotion
Many suppliers are now developing exciting products to engage children. This includes garden kits, such as Amber’s Garden in the USA www.ambersgarden.com, Growums http://www.growums.com/ that provides interactive between gardening and video games, plus new ranges of gardening tools for children such as the Twigz Gardening range www.inspirewholesalers.co.nz
The role of garden centres now is to put promotions together that inspire the local children to engage with their local garden centre. The need is for an ongoing campaign rather than a “one hit wonder”.
The need is for a campaign that parents find safe and appealing, with the aim of attracting both parents and children to engage with their local garden centre.
“Things to do in Your Garden Before you’re 12”
We can take a “leaf” out of existing successful campaigns in other sectors and adapt them to the garden scene. This will ensure the idea is more readily accepted by the target market as they will already have an understanding of the concept. “Things to do in Your Garden Before you’re 12” would fit into this type of marketing structure.
Such a campaign could either be organised nationally or regionally, by an existing buying or promotional group or by an individual garden centre . It would definitely fit in with the marketing concepts that are being developed to get children active except this campaign would be focused on gardening activities.
It could be promoted as “12 Things You must do before you are 12 in your Garden”
The challenge is coming up with 12 activities that would be fun and engage the child, parent and garden centre. The activities would range from region to region, climate zone to climate zone and country to country.
My initial twelve would consist of:
- Build scarecrow
- Plant a row of lettuce seeds and watch them grow and harvest them
- Build a cubby house...or ideally a tree house
- Plant a tree or shrub
- Build a small pond for wildlife
- Set up a birdbath and count the different types of birds that come to the garden
- Dig for worms in part of the garden
- Identify five types of insects that live in the garden
- Build a miniature fairy garden
- Plant up a summer flowering bowl or hanging basket
- Grow the biggest pumpkin you can
- Plant some strawberries and watch the fruit grow
As the book “Last Child in the Woods” by Richard Louv has identified, we have a phenomenon many people are aware of, but couldn't quite articulate: nature-deficit disorder. Richard’s book created a national conversation in the USA about the disconnection between children and nature, and his message has started to galvanise an international movement. Now, three years after its initial publication, a tipping point has arrived, with “Leave No Child Inside” initiatives adopted in at least 30 regions within 21 states in the USA, and in Canada, Holland, Australia, and Great Britain. Garden centres have an opportunity to build on the movement and to make gardening a fun and ongoing activity that will appeal to children and their parents.
Source: Garden Centre Retailing is Child’s Play - John Stanley, M.Sc. (Hort) www.johnstanley.com.au
