Talkin' Bout My Generation

My best friend Linda asked me recently who is the target audience for this blogging endeavor - the Baby Boomers who comprise the majority of our Southwood shoppers, or Gen-X/Y readers like herself? (Herself is an arse-kicking 34-year-old mom who follows her passions and makes me laugh simply by being utterly genuine. There, I've flattered you and removed the default condition that you log in before you leave a comment. Also, I have your Girl Scout cookies, and I will eat them ... one ... by ... one ... until you leave a comment. That's the one that will actually get her to do it.)

So. My initial response was going to be both. I am writing for people of any generation. And then I read this blog, which I have linked just below. If you don't want to click over, it's an article from "Garden Center" magazine written by a guest blogger about a generational problem he sees in the nursery industry. But you should click, because really, who else is ever going to recommend an article from "Garden Center" magazine to you again?

Guest blog: What are these 'trend watchers' watchi - Garden Center Magazine

This guy is a Nursery Man. He's worked hard in the industry, and by the sweat of his brow he runs a darn fine nursery. I grew up in the nursery industry. My parents started a nursery when I was a very small child, doing business out of a shed and using a shoe box as a cash register. My childhood memories include many hours of playing on the stacks of peat moss, pine bark mulch, and various soil amendments, and I can tell you that play time is over when somebody breaks a bag of manure on a 100-degree Oklahoma day, and then they'll make you water the inventory.

I know how much sweat pours off your brow when you're building a nursery from the ground up, and running a modern garden center is no easy feat either.  This man is my father's colleague, and although I don't know him personally, I have nothing but respect for this writer.

In the piece, he expresses a dislike of what he calls the Madison Avenue Marketers, or trend spotters, and cites the Garden Media Group's Trends for 2012 report. He explains his reason for disliking that particular report:

"My main beef with the piece from the Garden Media Group is that it is not really an article about trends in gardening at all. It appears to be yet another "rah rah youth piece.". Once again someone is trying to drag the garden industry into the "social marketplace." This article has little to do with what product trends are emerging in this great industry and more about consumers' behavior in the realm of saving the earth with a very biased bent towards Gen X and Y. The mention of fairy gardening and vertical gardening come in well near the end of the piece seemingly as an after thought -- well after the praise of the millenials."

Now, I didn't read the report he describes, but I imagine that his assessment is pretty dead-on. There is a lot of emphasis on Gen-X and Gen-Y shoppers, their preferences and attitudes. The reason for this is that what we call IGCs (Independent Garden Centers) have not captured Gen-X or Gen-Y's business. And there's no reason why we shouldn't have. These are local businesses, selling products that are good for the environment, outdoorsy, healthy and family-oriented. Everything that's ever been written about these do-gooder kids is apparently wrong, because all these kids ever do is come in sporadically and wander around for a while, all the while pounding away on their phones, then leave with a couple of shrubs or a few hanging baskets.

These crazy kids are clearly not gardening with the fervor that their mothers and grandmothers before them did. And what's with the husbands, walking around participating in these grand shopping adventures that don't seem to lead to actual gardens? Husbands of the past were there to push the carts and hand over the Visa. Or to come jogging in three times on a Saturday mumbling, "just two more bags of mulch, and she forgot she wanted some trailing petunias," and sporting OU baseball caps, khaki shorts, dock shoes and increasingly dirty knees. The decision makers for making a house pretty, and therefore having ultimate say in the purchases, as everybody in this industry knows, are the women.

But I think our guest blogger for one of the industry's leading publications (yes, there are more, in fact a lot more, magazines for the garden center owner) very handily demonstrates the reason for this little generational problem that's wiping out 100-year-old, family run garden centers and suppliers. These blustery old capitalists will squeeze every last drop out of a run down John Deere before ever considering the purchase of a new one. At industry events, they will stampede to the free food, and walk a mile for a free beer. I have seen it happen. These are companies that should easily have withstood the recession.

The problem is - the Baby Boomers running these stores DON'T THINK GEN-X AND GEN-Y ARE RELEVANT! They apparently don't want any customers under 40 if those customers are going to think and act like 20- or 30-year-olds. In the old days, they had never heard of marketing! Maybe their hand-painted signs and newspaper ads advertising summer sales wouldn't have impressed the Madison Avenue elites, but they did just fine once, and they'll do it again.

Thankfully, my dad doesn't feel this way, and has recently handed the marketing reins to my sister and me. Hence the practice blog here - because it's going to be added to the new website she's putting together with a great PR group that's run by and for Gen X and Y (I know they're different generations, but that's a topic for another time). So where to go from here .... and who am I really writing for?

We shall see.