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critical mass
plants are good for you!
Here
are simple strategies for selling customers on the benefits of
indoor plants.
by
Jane Van
Cleave
While many of us are well-versed on the health and well-being
benefits of ornamental plants, your customers generally are not.
Imagine the massive impression and potential sales impact when
all green-goods retailers say the same simple message every day:
Plants are good for you! We have the products, we have
the technology, we have the venues. Just keep saying it to your
customers: Plants are good for you!
The improvement in indoor air quality that plants cause
allows people to have a happier, healthier lifestyle. Plants
thrive on carbon dioxide. Once the carbon dioxide is consumed,
it naturally converts to oxygen. Do your fellow floral and
garden department associates know this? If not, help spread the
word. With a little training, floral staffs will be able to talk
with their customers about the benefits of having plants in
their homes and offices. Use your store associates, signage and
Web site to tell the world this simple but effective message:
Plants are good for you!
know how to talk to customers
One of my favorite things to do is shop. Now nearly a year into
retirement from the tropical-plant industry and clocking mega
laps around the world of retail, I’ve been to numerous floral
and garden departments—from big box to small format and from
upscale to discount. In my travels, I’ve discovered a need for
more education in floral departments about the basics of plants
and their care.
For example, while shopping recently in a high-end store, I
overheard a conversation between the green-goods department
associate and a customer who was about to purchase a lovely,
lush, greenhouse-grown 14” Spathiphyllum that had tons of
lily-white blooms. The customer asked where she should place her
plant. He told her, “You can put this plant right out in the
sun.” I couldn’t help myself and spoke up: “NO, don’t do that.
This is a plant for your indoor space.”
If you don’t know the answer, tell your customer, “I’ll find
out for you.” There are plenty of
 resources for plant-care
information. Check the guidelines that likely came with your
products; call your vendors; or go to the Chain of Life
Network®,
www.chainoflife.org.
And always tell your customers that your company has the best,
healthiest plants available, along with today’s mantra:
Plants are good for you!
use signage effectively
Too often, I go into floral and garden departments and find
unattractive signs with just the plant names (often misspelled)
and price. What a missed opportunity! Use your signage to give
customers additional information that will tell them how buying
your products will enhance their lives. Merchandise plants with
bullet-point, positive messages such as “Awesome Air-Cleaning
Anthuriums!”, “Bold Bromeliads = Better IQ” or “Healthier
Hawaiian Pothos.” Spell out the message: Plants are
good for you!
spotlight your products
Keep it simple when you display your plants. Color, texture and
structure are paramount when grabbing the eye and getting
customers to purchase. Your beautiful plants should be the
center of attention. Today’s plant selections are exciting and
better than ever in quality and standards. The awesome
bromeliads and tropical hybrids being developed in Holland and
Belgium are fascinating. Domestic labs are really getting “out
there” with cool new varieties of Aglaoenema,
Dieffenbachia and ferns—tried and true, good plants. With
new technology in place, tissue-culture reproduction methods
have sped up in recent times, and we should see volume
production of both new varieties and even better vintage plants
going forward.
If you didn’t get to January’s Tropical Plant Industry
Exhibition (TPIE), the only national tropical-plant
event, go to
www.fngla.org/tpie/ to check out the new plants and
products. Get in line and vie for position with the producers
for these new and amazing performance plants. And remember:
Plants are good for you!
Jane Van Cleave recently retired from J Van Cleave Marketing,
the company she founded in the fall of 2007 after nearly three
decades of management experience in the Florida tropical foliage
industry. The company’s mission was to raise consumer visibility
and subsequent retail consumption of live natural houseplants.
Ms. Van Cleave is past president of the Florida Nursery Growers
& Landscape Association (FNGLA) and served as chairman of the
2009 Tropical Plant Industry Exhibition (TPIE), the only
national tropical-plant event.
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Super Floral Retailing • Copyright 2009
Florists' Review Enterprises, Inc. | |
