Know your customer

As I write this, I have no idea what early-spring weather will be like. And as you’re reading this, you haven’t a clue if, in two weeks, you’ll have a record freeze, floods or even the beginning of a drought.

{sidebar id=42}

As a reporter, I’ve seen a stark change the past three or four years. These days it seems like, whatever the weather condition, we can expect extremity.

I used to think it was all perspective. Because I’m reporting on a national level, of course somewhere in the United States will be having weather problems. But these recent years saw the entire country’s weather patterns creating havoc. We’ve had everything -- flood, drought, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, hail, freezes and blazing temperatures. Sometimes simultaneously.

Things are bad enough that retailers talk more about the good spring weeks instead of the good months.

My point is that weather isn’t something retailers can control. And what if this pattern of extremes is here for another few years?

Take control of what you can

What needs to happen in our industry is to find a way to weatherproof our business.

Consultant and Garden Center Magazine columnist Ian Baldwin wrote an essay on this very topic in our August 2007 issue. He touched on branching out to product categories that don’t rely on weather.

I won’t rehash what he had to say. He says it so much better than I could, and with more experience.

I’ll keep my two cents to what I understand -- magazine editing.

The most important ability for any successful editor is to thoroughly understand the audience. If the articles and the charts don’t connect with the reader, they’ll toss your magazine aside and go on to the competitor’s. And the next time it arrives in the mail, they’re less likely to open it.

Stores have the very same challenge. Retailers must understand what motivates customers. What makes them excited about shopping at some stores, to the point that they drag their friends along and tell everyone they just have to check out a store?

Do you know your customer?

Of course, understanding the customer sounds much simpler than it is. If it were easy, then there would be a lot more Target-like success stories out there.

It’s not easy to keep your customer in mind with every decision you make about the store -- and the customer has to be fresh on your mind for this technique to work.

Take a look at the last ad you put in the paper. Who would be stirred and excited by it? Is there humor? Or a youthful vibe? Is it lush? Or is it pedestrian (a word that describes, you must admit, most garden center ads)?

Even more important, what about the inventory? Part of what makes stores like Target and IKEA so appealing is the products are very fashionable. Yes, price is a major component, but add in true style, and customers feel like they have hit the jackpot. They actually like to have the products in their home. Not many feel that way about Wal-Mart and K-Mart. Those products are utilitarian. They serve their purpose without hurting the purse unduly.

As a niche retailer, you won’t survive by being utilitarian, especially if the weather continues its merry clog dance in the coming years. Why would anyone make more than one stop if the mass merchants are only a short step below the local garden center?

You male owners and managers may dismiss a lot of the discussion on color, design and merchandising as mere fluff. Strangely enough, your future depends on your ability to connect emotionally with your customers. And, I’m sad to say, that means fashion must be part of product selection (even plants!), roadside appeal and interior design.

{sidebar id=3}

- Carol Miller