For the first part of this assignment I chose to review the two Nurseries.
Armstrong Gardens -
Armstrong Gardens is an upscale Nursery with over 31 locations vs. Rancho Vista Nursery which has just one location. They are well know and well established and highlight this fact on their website in bright red colors. 130 years in business. The website is both colorful and informative. I like how they display pictures of their flowers and their website layout is well thought out.
Armstrong caters to a wide a customer based. They have individual homeowners that are buying plants, shrubs, flowers, for their landscaping needs. This includes walk in customers and those that are shopping online and looking for more services.
So through their website Armstrong markets their products to homeowners through several methods:
The first is the Armstrong Advantage. Buy signing up for this paid service a customer receives exclusive discounts, pre sales notices, private classes, and the participant becomes part of a private membership group. This would be an example of a call to action by having customers join this service and with the perks create a revenue stream. The more members, the more sales.
Next, Armstrong targets the professional landscaper by offering special wholesale prices to landscapers and gardeners that are in the business of designing and maintaining both residential and commercial property. They attract this type of consumer by advertising a lifetime warranty. Thus, another example of call to action. To make things easier, the customer can order everything online and Armstrong will arrange the will call.
However, there best marketing program they offer on their website is the professional services.
Armstrong has gone beyond the norm of a plant nursery and figured out they can make way more money engaging in professional services to support their customers. This is how they distinguish themselves as a high end luxury horticulture business. They offer free consultations and will design, install, and perform contractor services. They will personally pick up the plants ( personal shopper ) and for a fee do all the work.
By providing this professional advice and services on their web site they have opened a larger target market and figured out how to use the 131 years of knowledge to make more profit.
Rancho Vista Nursery -
Rancho Vista Nursery takes a much different approach and has a much more narrower customer base.
This is a single nursery that specializes in succulents and cactus. I do like the appeal of their farmhouse type of website. Gives off a rustic feel and their message is specific and direct. They offer rare, exotic, succulents and are considered a specialty grower. So if the consumer is looking for this specific type of product then their website presents this in an easy format to follow.
Additionally, this nursery is specific in their customer base. They are primarily engaged in attracting resellers. So their customer base is primarily the contractors performing the work for the end user.
They have a new covid schedule which is under the what's new category.
Rancho's target demographics are resellers and they advertise that they did the work for the succulent gardens at Disneyland.
I think there best call to action would be the pictures of the cactus and succulents on their website with verbiage that their plants are no only beautiful but drought tolerant. Emphasizing drought tolerant in bold indicates that they know their customers are facing drought like conditions and this is a great catch phrase to help sell their plants. Anyone with a yard can relate on how to save money on their water bill.
The psychographics that there succulent plants are great for the worlds most hostile environments is a good usage of attention getting buzzwords. I think they probably help them sell their products.
Visually, the web site is calming and has a nice rural evoking image. They do list both Facebook and Instagram as social media references.
They do grow year around which is helpful and offer free customers.
Overall, I thought this was a good website and definitely targets a specific buyer.
Part II
I am going to try and help my company expand their social media presence. Currently, I run business development but we really suck in this area and need help.
I work for a sole proprietor that owns Durable Superior USA.
We manufacture and distribute casters and wheels. These products are used on equipment in every facet of industry that you can imagine. From the office chair your sitting on to moving airplane parts. We offer a very diverse, and complete line of products. About 50% of the business is wholesale.
We are just under $60 million in sales and aiming to increase our gross sales to $100 million within the next 5 years. So we have great expectations and much of this is on my shoulders.
Business had been excellent with annual 12% growth until the Covid hit around March. Then things slowed down with some peaks and valleys since then. Things are starting to stabilize but its also an election year and this has added to a tremendous amount of uncertainty in our industry.
Typically, I would target both buyers, design engineers, maintenance buyers, and owners of caster distributorships to both promote and spec my casters on their equipment. Historically, this was done in person.
Now with the Covid we need to sharpen our marketing skills and come up with some new ways to attract and expand the customer base. There are a number of competitors and we are all vying to gain new business.
The only social media outlet we are using us LinkedIn and our message is both weak and inconsistent.
So will see if I can come up with some new ideas to help.
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