Idea Exchange - November 2011
 Product Location Matters
From Carolyn Weise with Ecological Laboratories Inc.
When retailers place competing products side-by-side, one always will remain on the shelf. If retailers define and use an ideal location for products instead, the stores benefit.
Supermarkets have spent many marketing dollars to design shelves for product placement. They know the spot with the highest sale potential: eye level.
Eye-level is the preferred place on any shelf. By limiting confusion and setting up products according to manufacturer instead of category or usage, retailers can sell more of each brand, allowing the eye to travel across more of the shelves.
Offering customers promotional items within the manufacturer’s location also will boost sales for that section. This eliminates the overall shopper confusion. Customers learn quickly.
Earn Lifetime Clients
From Paul Holdeman with The Pond Gnome in Peoria, Ariz.
Pond business owners can earn lifetime clients by:
- Offering a maintenance program. This keeps you and your company in customers’ lives and yards throughout the year.
- Returning calls. Be available to help clients with issues, return to their yards as needed and take care of them. Keep a stay-in-touch attitude and be proactive about it.
- Getting over the “once I’ve built it I’m done” mentality. Pond owners usually own three ponds: a starter or DIY feature, a good working pond and their large dream pond. Do not disappear from their lives before reaching their dreams.
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| Maintain a dedicated pond and water garden space in your store. (Sandy Chebat/BowTie Inc.) | Own the Pond Category
From John Stanley with John Stanley Associates
In a crisis, bad companies are destroyed, good companies survive and great companies are improved. In the past, garden centers have not taken the pond and water garden category seriously. Stores must get serious or get out.
Own the pond category by:
- Maintaining a dedicated space. The water feature area should be clearly marked, clean and tidy.
- Creating a water feature hero. Hire or train a staff person who specializes in water features. Direct customers to these “heroes” to save the day by answering their questions and providing solutions.
- Providing solutions, not products. There is no future in selling stuff. Instead, provide customers with solutions. When customers enter the store, do not approach them as a product salesperson. Find out about their problem and help solve it.
- Establishing an online presence. Fifty-eight percent of shoppers start the process online. Develop and implement an online marketing strategy. Be present.
If you don’t go out there and do it, or if you keep doing what you did last year, you will be out of business next year.
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Idea Exchange - November 2011
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