August 2022 - 28

POHMER ON...
How Long is a
By Stan Pohmer
hat's the scientific response to the question of how long
a customer's memory is? It depends! And the answer
will become more critically important as it's forecasted
Customer's Memory?
W
Staying top of mind between seasons is crucial to keep customers coming back.
that inflation, stagflation and recession will all play a significant
factor in consumer spending behaviors for the foreseeable future.
Most independent garden centers operate in distinct seasons
- spring, fall and holiday (in this case, Christmas). For most of us,
there's little continuity in our offerings from season to season. And
add to our challenge that the average customer will only visit your
operation maybe once per season (our best customers might shop
us two or three times in the spring and once in the fall and holiday
seasons), so your garden center isn't exactly top of mind when
they are thinking about where to shop (unless you've provided
such an exceptional experience on their last visit that they still
remember you, months after - more on this in a minute). Unlike
some other categories and retail venues, we just don't have a high
frequency of shop to stay in the front of customers' memories.
Peaks and Valleys
In most parts of the U.S., our business is start/stop, with high
peaks transitioning to deep valleys and considerable time lags
28 | LAWN & GARDEN RETAILER | AUGUST 2022
between the peaks and the valleys. Most customers don't really
know when you start a season, so it's almost as if we have to
re-engage with the customer to let them know what's going on
in the business, when seasonal product is arriving, and what your
assortments might be. From my experience, we do a pretty good
job of marketing to the consumer in the spring season, but we're
much weaker in marketing in our smaller and shorter second (fall/
harvest) and third (holiday) seasons. We're not leveraging our
spring traffic to benefit our later seasonal peaks, meaning we're
leaving sales on the table in the second half of the year.
Another challenge we face is that, based on the nature of our
products and services, we don't have much residual subliminal
marketing effect; once the consumer takes our products out of the
(maybe) branded container, most of them can't recall what the
plant is or where they purchased it after a few days or weeks. Even
if they are super successful with the performance of the plant,
we don't get much credit for being the provider of the product or
service (but trust me when I suggest that they WILL almost always
remember where they purchased a plant or service they weren't
successful with!).
To understand the power of subliminal marketing, think of
laptop computers where the manufacturers name is engraved in
the cover; every time you open the case, you see their name or
logo - a constant reminder of the brand. Or think about your
refrigerator ... the manufacturer's name is on a small plate where,
every time you reach for the handle to open the fridge, you are
reminded of the brand. Unfortunately, our products and services
don't get this powerful benefit.
August 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of August 2022
