I grabbed the New York Times with lunch today and found myself very curious while reading today’s Advertising story about Miracle-Gro’s new campaign focusing on gardeners rather than gardening results. Why, I wondered, would the brand change course and begin trying to grow the total market rather than continue its decades-long push for greater and greater share? What was up?
I have to digress just a second here to explain my connection to this topic. I spent the bulk of my years in Minneapolis doing PR and marketing communications work for home and garden clients such as Weyerhaeuser, the Canadian Peat Moss Association and Toro. I approved the expense to have one of my staff members test for her Master Gardener certificate. I know a couple things about promoting gardening products. Second, I now have a lot of square feet of gardens at my house. ORGANIC gardens. So I decided to dig a bit.
And I dug up a couple clues to the macro trends that might be behind this effort.
Gardening, as a hobby and an expenditure, is growing slowly. The 2013 National Gardening Survey report from the National Gardening Association (NGA) showed a small increase, for the second year in a row, in lawn and garden participation and sales, with national chains continuing to dominate market share. Nationwide, the survey showed a increase of 2 million more households (2%) in 2012 compared with the year before. The study also reported that U.S. households spent $29.5 billion on their lawns and gardens in 2012 with average annual spending flat at about $347 per year. This data alone would lead industry associations to consider consumer campaigns to get more Americans to garden.
But then I found another, seemingly small statistic from 2008 Environmental Lawn and Garden surveys: The number of U.S. households that use only all-natural fertilizer, insect, and weed controls increased from an estimated 5 million households in 2004 to 12 million in 2008. That’s a 2.4x increase.
Also interesting was why they only used natural fertilizers. The top 5 reasons given were:
- it’s better for the environment (73 percent);
- to reduce the risk of exposure to chemicals in my yard (59 percent);
- to reduce water pollution through fertilizer runoff (54 percent);
- it fits my way of life (43 per cent); and
- to produce my own, safe, fresh produce (37 per cent).
The Survey also asked respondents with a yard or garden how likely it is that they will start using all-natural gardening methods in the future. Of the estimated 100 million U.S. households with a yard or garden, 17% reported they definitely will start using all-natural gardening methods in the future, 22 % said they probably will, 28 % said they might or might not Only 10 % said they probably will not with just 2 % reporting they definitely will not start using all-natural gardening methods in the future.
Miracle-Gro does make organic fertilizers and sells bags of organic gardening and potting soil. But to most organic gardeners, natural fertilizers don’t come in bottles and bags. Don’t my word for it, check Wikipedia and read it for yourself. Given that, the gardening trends might be keeping the folks at Miracle-Gro awake at night. Now I understand the push to get more people gardening.
