Selling by the Rule of 7

 Sometimes all we need is a fork

Fact from an internet gardening page:  “Every year there are at least 7 million new gardeners.”  

That brings to mind a famous quote that esteemed garden designer Capability Brown once said, which is: “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet”   

There  does seem to be a lot of new ‘horticurious’  people around though, all wanting answers to age old questions such as slug control, composting, pruning and of course where can we get the best value for money products. 

Yes, this time of year sees a massive increase in sales of tools, plants, chemicals and ideas to make your garden a place of relaxing beauty. It’s a tough market that needs ever changing methods of attracting new and existing customers to part with their money.  

Online sales of horticultural products is a fast growing market and because of the increase in courier deliveries we can get anything from a plant plug to an industrial sized polytunnel or garden shed delivered to the door, usually at little or no extra cost. The choices are endless and many wet evenings can be used browsing the web for products.

With so much online information about gardening the line between actual information and sales pitch advertorials is a very blurred line. If you browse E-Bay then you know you are looking to buy things but how about when you are reading articles?

New gardeners need answers to their gardening questions and will often find loads of information online. This can be a great place for impartial advice but also be a platform for product placements.  Most bloggers now have adverts on their pages (me included on the garden matters blog) and more and more people either have affiliate links to Amazon, gardening sites such as Harrod horticulture or have sponsors for specific items, making them marketers of products as well as offering  both original and much copied information. 

Building Trust

I’ve also noticed a few online resources and organizations offering help and advice in a friendly “Join our Community” sort of fashion, luring us in with trendy graphics and the promise of social interaction.  

Some of these ‘communities’ have strong affiliations with larger companies and tend to put in loads of product placement which can again compromise impartial and accurate information and turn the whole process into an advertorial.  I sometimes feel their agenda is purely about gaining our trust and using us as a revenue stream in their marketing strategy.  I might be in a minority but I don’t really like being sold things.

I’m not having a moan (honestly) It’s just the way things are. As Shakespeare once wrote “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” And I prefer to stay positive and see that behind the marketing there are new and exciting steps forward in gardening.

Rule of 7

The Rule of 7 selling method is something that’s used a lot in all marketing. It’s one of the oldest methods of selling and is used in every aspect of consumerism. The method is about persistence and if we are told we need to buy something seven times, eventually we relent, usually subconsciously. This is how we can be talked into buying things we can’t afford or don’t need. One of the key methods is to gain our trust and for us to ‘get to know them’ which is why celebrity endorsements are so valuable who nowadays are referred to as “Ambassadors” of these community sites .This type of selling is very prevalent in today’s gardening world and very precisely targeted at different times of year.

No thanks

In the past I have been approached by companies who have offered me money to use this weekly article as a platform for selling goods and services. I have always gracefully declined because I felt as though I wouldn’t be able to say what I really wanted and be impartial. It’d be someone else's terms and agendas – I’d have to say nice things all of the time. Perish the thought.

Young Gardeners

Most advertising seems to be geared towards the young gardener with a bit of extra cash. Us old salts just go about with an old spade and make do; realising that it’s the process of gardening itself that is the enjoyable end result and not products that offer quick fixes. Younger gardeners might be looking for things that save them time in the garden.

I garden because I have a bit more time on my hands and it’s a form of enjoyment, exercise, mindfulness and relaxation, but the upcoming generation just don’t have the time to spare in between children and work, so things have to be done quickly. 

In the past the only reason you toiled the land was to feed the family but the garden is now a place of many uses. We also have more choice and thankfully if we are really pushed for time there’s a supermarket down the road where we can buy our provisions.

You can’t get away from it, one way or another, we’re all consumers now.


 ORIGINAL DRAFT

Here is the original draft of the article. I mentioned companies by name and didn't think it was suitable for the local paper.

Fact from an internet gardening page:  “Every year there are at least 7 million new gardeners.” 

That brings to mind a famous quote that esteemed garden designer Capability Brown once said, which is: “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet”  

There  does seem to be a lot of new ‘horticurious’  people around though, all wanting answers to age old questions such as slug control, composting, pruning and of course where can we get the best value for money products.

Yes, this time of year sees the retail outlets bulging with tools, chemicals and ideas to make your garden a place of relaxing beauty. It’s a tough market that needs ever changing methods of attracting new and existing customers to part with their money.

Rule of Seven

As the famous French landscape designer André Le Nôtre once allegedly posted in an online gardening forum in 1650 -

“For the public to buy your new gardening products and stuff every year, you need to apply the rule of 7” 

This Rule of 7 is about marketing persistence. It’s one of the oldest methods of selling and is all around us. It’s very prevalent in today’s gardening world and very precisely targeted at different times of year.

How does it work?

If the buyer doesn’t need the product now, they might do next week. The price might be too high for something but you could be convinced about the value being offered and buy over your budget. You might not know or trust the advertisers so it’s in their interest to let you ‘get to know them’.

Why am I mentioning this I hear you ask?  It’s because I have been watching a few videos created by  a new initiative called GroMór who you might of heard about this year. One tagline for GroMór is “Getting the Country Growing!” which has a pleasing ring to it and is a very noble sentiment. 

GroMór

GroMór in association with Bord Bia, is an initiative of Garden Centres and Nursery Growers, focussing on younger families and first time buyers. Expert  ‘Ambassadors’ Kevin Dennis, Fiann Ó Nualláin, Jane McCorkell and Ciaran Burke are involved too as the face of the project.

On the face of things this looks to be a great recourse of information and community but I have a few reservations. Is the set up really about giving impartial advice about the world of gardening? When I look at the videos they have put up on their site I get a feeling a few of them are not put there to inform us, they are there to sell Westland horticultural products. 

Westland is one of the main sponsors (Bord Na Mona the peat excavators are another) and the video about tree planting I watched, advised using both Westland peat and bark mulch when I feel as though they were totally unnecessary. I did make comments pointing that it seemed to be product placement which could be made clearer that it was a commercial advert. The comments were deleted from the youtube video. 

Westland

Westland are a big employer, with 400 people working for them with a turnover of £100million, buying up Unwins seeds, the William Sinclair brand, Cranswick Pet Products,  distributing Silvaperl products as well as going into the chemical weedkiller market, so it makes sense for the company to find new markets and customers. 

It’s just that I feel things could get compromised if the hidden agenda for GroMór is purely about gaining trust and using us as a revenue stream for companies in a growing market.  I know in the past I have been approached by companies who offer money to use this weekly article as a platform for selling goods and services. I have always gracefully declined because I felt as though I wouldn’t be able to say what I really wanted. It’d be someone else’s terms and agendas.

Impartial

I’m hoping that the collaboration between our celebrity gardeners, company sponsors and food board can all work closely together to offer a full spectrum of impartial advice and without the need to be using the Rule of 7 on us. I understand that initiatives such as this needs sponsors, but I for one don’t want to feel that the only reason I am being acknowledged is because I am a potential customer.

I tweeted a comment that sums it up back in the 1980’s that said:    “You can’t get away from it, we’re all f****** customers now”