Remember back when you were a little kid and you had enthusiasm and excitement about your first day back at school in the fall? That first day is an incredible day for little people, but it's an even more important day to you, the garden center retailer. With the kids back in school, you are faced with a whole demographic of shoppers that perhaps before were too busy chasing children around all summer. Capitalize on this change of season and promote gardening for back-to-school parents.
Browse these tips and see if you can implement them into your garden center to lure parents in during this lucrative time of year:
1. Place yourself front and center in little league and girl scout organizations. When the kids are occupied being at meetings and practice, this is perfect time for parents to slip away and do a little bit of flower shopping. Bonus points if you have a youngster that you actively take to these practices and meetings. Use your child as a spring board to get to know some of the other parents and invite them to visit your garden center.
2. This time of year, the newspapers are full of back-to-school sales, and your advertising dollars will be lost in the clutter. A better investment would be to find a billboard somewhere near a school that parents will have to look at while in the carpool lane or on the way home every day. When stuck in the long carpool lines, parents don't have much else to look at, so why not give them a little reading material?
3. Invite field trips to your garden center and make sure you pay a lot of attention to the chaperones of the group. Although the small children aren't going to be buying large quantities of flowers, they have parents that do. A positive experience of a chaperone will more than likely lead to that person telling another person how great the days field trip way. Cause a positive chain reaction!
4. Offer parents a little discount for stopping by after school. This will entice them with a little oasis of relaxation after perhaps a hectic day. Deal with each school differently, and use certain schools on certain days, such as "Brookwood Elementary Monday", where everybody coming from that school (with a student) would receive 10 percent off, a free plant or even a free set of gloves.
And lure in stay-at-home parents with offerings such as:
1. Terrariums and indoor gardening. Not only will this be alluring to parents that tend to stay in the house, but it will also be an easy small project to accomplish in just one day.
2. Roses! Mothers like to nurture things, and since their little ones will be away at school, they might need something else to nurture. Roses require some attention and the reward of beautiful flowers is well worth it!
3. Vegetable Gardening in containers. By showing your customers that you don't necessarily need 40 acres and a mule to grow vegetables, you might be able to capture an people that live in apartments, townhomes or even small urban lots.
4. Fairy Gardening, for the kid in them. Since the kids are now away at school, your parents might be looking for a good way to spend time with the kids after they get out of school. What better way to bond with them besides playing in the garden?
You don't have to let the malls make all the money from back to school time. Play your cards right and you'll look forward to this time of year every year, just like you did when you were a child.
Nikki Weed is a horticulturist and professional adventurer who uses her experiences and knowledge to manage a successful garden center in Greenville, S.C. She can be reached at pepitaweed@gmail.com.