Inspiration to Innovation

Which would you rather do: Sell a few roses to that independent down the street or sell a whole program that consists of POP materials, double the amount of roses and even some hibiscus? The latter, right? That's exactly what Hines Horticulture is doing with its The Inspiration Guide.

To make an end consumer understand product and purpose, retail needs to understand first. The Inspiration Guide was designed to allow the retailer differentiation in product offerings. And this is why the guide has been chosen as runner-up for this year's marketing innovation award.

Who is Hines Horticulture

Hines Horticulture, a subsidiary of Hines, produces and distributes horticultural products through two operating divisions -- a nursery division and a color division -- that make up the green goods business. A national supplier of ornamental shrubs, color plants and container-grown plants, Hines' commercial nursery facilities are located in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas, where its products are marketed to retail and commercial customers throughout the United States. Hines produces approximately 4,100 varieties of ornamental shrubs and color plants and, since 1993, has added numerous plant varieties to its product line. Apparent in The Inspiration Guide, this expansion has added new products to both the color and nursery divisions.

"We designed the guide with the idea that it would be a sales tool and an educational piece for both our sales team and our customers to help them see not only what products and services we are offering but how they could help them turn more product," says Tom Doll, strategic initiative manager/marketing at Hines Horticulture.

History of the guide

This isn't the first year Hines Horticulture has produced a guide much like the winner, and it won't be the last. In 2001, Hines created a collection of different programs, with a binder full of banners, posters and sell sheets. Last year was the first year of The Inspiration Guide, when the concept was born with Hines' customers and end consumers in mind. "We wanted to develop a tool to help our independent customers be more successful, and that has always been our guiding principle," says Ted Pasternak, contracts and communications administrator at Hines Horticulture. And with their success comes success for Hines by pushing sales of product. "If it doesn't help them sell product, it's not going to help us any," he says.

While the 2002 guide was an innovative idea, there is always room for improvement. This year focused on making programs' features and benefits clearer to the retailer. Hines hired professional photographers to implement clearer and more attractive photos of product, and the merchandising section was enhanced with photo shoots at actual garden centers. And now the inspiration guide is going to be annual, so the improvements will be ongoing.

Inside the Guide

The team begins working on the guide one year prior to its release. "We probably spend a good 2-3 months determining program development and what the new products will be," says Pasternak. "We try to shoot for a release date -- to be printed and in the hands of our reps -- toward the end of June. So, we work pretty steadily from March through the middle of May with a team of about 4-6 people."

About 7,000 guides were printed for 2003, which have multiple uses throughout the year. "We deliver them by hand through our Á sales consultants, and they're handed out at trade shows as well," explains Doll.

The guide is broken down into three sections: Promotional Programs, New Products and Merchandising.

Promotional programs. This section outlines the numerous programs Hines offers, such as Fern Creek, which provides a full-color banner and custom labels for a multitude of fern varieties. For better marketing strategies, customers are encouraged to buy the whole program verses one product, and Hines does have minimums on some of the programs. "We think retailers need to do that sort of quantity in order to have nice displays in their garden centers. And those kinds of displays, along with the POP material that we supply with some of the programs, is what will drive impulse sales at the garden centers," says Pasternak.

New Products. The second section in the guide highlights Hines' new products. With the guide now being done yearly, this section will allow customers to see more of the lines and have more choices. Photos and cultural information of the new products is included in this section.

Merchandising. The merchandising section helps garden centers with display tips from display layout examples to checklists for merchandising planning to the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. This section will encourage customers to keep the previous year's guide for reference, therefore keeping the Hines name constantly visible.

Results

So, how has the guide been accepted? "We have done an actual survey that asks the questions: How are you using [The Inspiration Guide], and is it advantageous?" reports Doll. "We've gotten a gamut of positive feedback indicating that The Guide has been used for everything from product reference for our new products to a training tool, especially for the merchandising section, which [garden centers] actually use with some of their new hires or mid-level management."

"We've had some customers we're very familiar with who we talk to on a regular basis not only express great interest but also relate that the guide has been a helpful tool to them and that they've been able to sell additional product through the promotional programs we've provided in the guide," continued Doll.

In 2002, sales to the customers who worked out of the inspiration guide and participated in the promotional programs was up approximately 11.5 percent. "The feedback we've gotten is that the sales of those categories at independent retailers who participated in those programs, whether they be the rose program or the fern program, increased," added Doll.

Your own marketing

If you are looking to apply Hines' ideas and strategies to your own marketing, Doll has a few suggestions. "Stay very focused on what the end consumer will respond to. It's easy for us as growers to get swept up in the comfort of either what we have to sell or would really like to sell, but ideally, our focus needs to be on what the end consumer is going to respond to in retail."

Hines keeps in mind the thought, "Sell-to has become sell-through." "The days of production-driven planning -- providing plant material that our customers bought because we had it -- has now become, how does the end consumer react to it, what is the demand for it and what are they willing to pay for it."

Doll suggests keeping up-to-date on consumer trends. "Look around; look at your end consumer. According to a National Gardening Survey that recently came out, our primary demographic is a 35-year-old female or male -- the males continue to increase in the demographics -- look at the 35-year-old to 55-year-old female with an average household income of somewhere north of $70,000 a year. Where are they shopping? What are they responding to? What sort of tools are retailers using to cause sales? The green goods industry is still fairly fragmented, and the opportunities are wide and abound in front of us to help organize the consumer into making purchasing decisions."