Recently I moved back into my college residence. Yes, I’m
still in college; I hope I didn’t lose any readers who didn’t know this
previously! Things have been pretty hectic around here signing up for classes
and looking for jobs (as I’ll be graduating in December). At the same time I am
coming into this last semester with my eyes and ears open. I am looking at things
differently. I am trying to pick up on the subtleties of my generation that I
may have never even noticed before. If I can gain knowledge about a generation by
being vigilant I can then turn around and share my findings with you and then
as an industry we can move forward and adjust our marketing strategies
accordingly.
The last few days something has become really apparent to me
that we as an industry need to take note of if we want to make gardening “cool”
to Generation Y. Being on a college
campus again reminded me that Generation Y is more connected than any other
generation before. Students no longer have to walk to other students residences
to see what they are doing later – they just send a text. Students no longer
have to call multiple people when they want to hold any sort of event – they just
send an invite on Facebook. Even when students go to a football game or concert
and want to know what other students thought about it they no longer have to
ask each individual person – they simply look up a hash-tag on Twitter.
The bottom line is that Generation Y is used to being
connected at the touch of a button. Through Social Media, millennials can
access millions of members in their generation in a matter of seconds. Here in
lies the problem that our industry faces. How can we start a movement to create
a spark for a generation wide movement to make gardening something of interest?
I understand that there are various movements on the big social media sites.
However we as an industry need to get it out there. I can tell you that there
are very few people on most college campuses that think about gardening on a
weekly basis.
This is something we have to change. The reason why other industries are so
successful is that they introduce products to people at a young age. Lately
gardening isn’t reaching the younger people in this nation. When we think about
marketing we can’t think merely about selling a product. We also have to think
about selling the future of our industry. If our industry can somehow make
gardening cool to kids in elementary school, middle school, and high school we
have embedded gardening into the minds of young people.
I think that this is the main problem with our industry. We
are too reactive and not proactive. By establishing kid friendly garden centers
and sponsoring kid events or even starting gardening websites for kids we have
made it easier on the future of our industry. Currently we are trying to market
to a group of people that are already set in their ways.
Some people will say that marketing to children is wrong,
but believe me companies out there who are doing these same things are offering
a lot worse. We are offering a healthy lifestyle to the future of the world.
Today was really a 2 for 1 post. I’ve had two topics burning
me lately and needed to get them out there. In the coming weeks I’ll be diving back more
into the logistics of Social Media yet again. I just needed some time to set up
my new “office” and get set to continue my research.
Please feel free to contact me for questions or comments. I
return all emails and Twitter mentions.
Email: mday55@gmail.com
Twitter: @mday55
Or find me by searching LinkedIn or Klout!
Also I’ll make a shameless plug that I am currently a gun
for hire. I’ll be graduating this semester (a semester early) so if you know of
or have a job available please feel free to let me know! Thank You!
Mason, well said! We need to spark an interest and share the knowledge of older generations with younger ones who may not be as exposed to gardening these days. And, in turn, they can teach the older generations valuable lessons, too. We have a program that you might enjoy learning about called the Bonnie Plants 3rd Grade Cabbage Program. It's meant to teach 3rd graders about responsibility (in caring for a growing, living plant) and to instill a curiosity and excitement for growing at an early age. We award scholarships in every state. It's a lot of fun and extremely heart-warming. Simple, clean, old-fashioned fun with great life lessons. www.bonniecabbageprogram.com
ReplyDeleteBest of luck to you in your studies! Great to see what you're doing in horticulture. ~Mary Beth, Bonnie Plants
Thank You! I took a look at the cabbage program. I really like what you're doing there. Also the idea of incorporating the Grow-Ums into your marketing strategy is interesting. Great Stuff!
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