Today I want to break routine a little bit and talk about something my mother mentioned to me last night when I phoned home. It’s funny how things our mom’s say always stick with us the longest. She was going on about how horticulture and agriculture have changed (my parents have owned a greenhouse/produce operation for over 30 years). She was talking to me about how plants have changed. Vegetables have changed. Everything is changing. Every year new varieties of plants are churned out from breeding facilities each with unique characteristics slightly different than the previous generation of plants. However the rate at which consumers opinions and conceptions are changing is not keeping up with the technological and biological advances in the industries.
That’s when it came to me. Social Media is the prefect media to finally dispel some of these Myths that consumers hold about some products. Social Media is interactive, friendly, and reaches a lot of people. You can literally shove information out there and whereas in a person to person setting in a greenhouse or nursery if you told a consumer something they might think you were lying to make a quick buck or they might simply offended by the confrontation.
For example there are plants being bred every day that defy stereotypes. Thirty years ago you couldn’t find a Petunia at a garden center or anywhere that you didn’t have to pinch the blooms off of when they were done flowering (deadhead). Now almost all commercial varieties have traits that make it so you don’t have to do that. Do people know this? No! They still buy or don’t buy Petunias thinking they have to be deadheaded.
Why not turn this around? If you are a company that produces a petunia that doesn’t need to be deadheaded I would make sure that was all over my product’s Facebook page in peak buying season as a reminder. I would be sure to remind the consumer that they were bred this way and that just because an older variety of the same plant did something, that doesn’t mean the new varieties will.
This concept of confronting myths has many applications throughout the Hort and Ag industries. Seed Geraniums are still thought of as far inferior products to Vegetative Geraniums (Is this always true?). Some people think GMO corn is going to kill them (when undoubtedly they are consuming it and have been for years in some way).
Social Media can be a great way to get messages out to the masses on topics that may be confrontational or controversial. So I leave you today with a slight call to action. Is there any product/process in your business/industry that your potential consumer is misinformed about? Could you use Social Media to help fix this problem? It doesn’t hurt to try. Have a great weekend and if you have any questions or opinions, I would love to hear them comment or email me!
Remember, the customer is always right………..except when they’re wrong.
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