ELSEWHERE IN THE NEWS 



"Retail Recipes" A New 

 Marketing Tool 



The American Nursery & Landscape 

 Association (ANLA) and its retail 

 division, the National Garden Cen- 

 ter Organization, in conjunction 

 with The Scotts Company, 

 Marysville, Ohio, are proud to bring 

 independent garden centers an inno- 

 vative product showcasing the tal- 

 ented expertise of power merchan- 

 diser John Stanley with the launch 

 of Retail Recipes. The recipes fea- 

 ture an extensive collection of easy 

 to implement merchandising and 

 promotional ideas designed to in- 

 spire customers to buy. 



Retail Recipes, a two-year sub- 

 scription-based program, offers inde- 

 pendent garden centers 10 different 

 card packs featuring dynamic and 

 inspiring four-color photographs of 

 sample displays, complete with step- 

 by-step instructions. The packs ar- 

 rive prior to each major selling sea- 

 son (spring, summer, fall, Christ- 

 mas, winter). Each pack includes 15 

 assorted weather-resistant cards-giv- 

 ing retailers a total of 150 new mer- 

 chandising ideas! Each card is filled 

 edge-to-edge with information, tips 

 and easy-to-follow instructions re- 

 tailers can utilize to create exciting, 

 seasonally appropriate merchandising 

 displays all year long. This merchan- 

 dising training tool will inspire and 

 assist all levels of staff to create 

 more compelling visual presenta- 

 tions. 



"Retail Recipes grew out of a re- 

 newed commitment to create an in- 

 novative product that will help ex- 

 pand the marketplace excellence of 

 the small and medium independent 

 garden centers around the world," 

 says John Connel, vice president of 

 independent business development 

 for The Scotts Company. "The 

 Scotts Company is pleased to part- 

 ner with ANLA and NGCO on this 

 visionary new product." 



Sample Retail Recipe packs are 

 now available from ANLA. A 

 website, www.retailrecipes.com, is 

 coming soon! The website will also 



feature an interactive area where 

 garden centers can share their suc- 

 cessful display ideas. 

 ANLA Press Release January 2003 



Simply Beautiful^^ & National 

 Gardening Association Sprout 

 Affiliation 



With the intent of building brand 

 awareness and driving sales to gar- 

 den centers, Ball Horticultural has 

 created a new partnership with the 

 National Gardening Association, one 

 of the leading sources of home gar- 

 dening on the Internet. 



Under the partnership, NGA will 

 work with Ball to provide expert 

 information and inspiration for 

 Simply Beautiful^^ customers. 

 Additionally, the NGA site — 

 www.garden.org — which attracts 

 some 300,000 visitors a month, will 

 help build a loyal customer follow- 

 ing for the Ball brand of annuals 

 and ultimately drive customers to 

 garden centers. 



"NGA will deliver strong editorial 

 content on our products to users of 

 their website," notes Jeff Gibson, 

 Ball marketing manager. "And this 

 will, in turn, help make Simply 

 Beautiful^^ the annuals recom- 

 mended by trusted NGA gardening 

 experts and the brand asked for at 

 garden centers." 



This new affiliation takes on sev- 

 eral different formats. The NGA 

 Regional Garden Reports, which are 

 customized for the 14 different 

 growing regions, will be featured on 

 the Simply Beautiful^^ website at 

 www.simplybeautifulgardens.com. 



Additionally, NGA experts will 

 personally answer questions asked 

 on the Simply Beautiful^^ website 

 and will provide a searchable data- 

 base of some 1,000 frequently asked 

 questions about annuals. 



"NGA is committing to making 

 every reasonable effort to answer 

 those questions within 48 hours of 

 their transmission," explains Gibson. 

 "Answers will be in the form of e- 



mails sent back directly to our us- 

 ers. We want to make gardening as 

 simple as possible." 



The national garden experts will 

 also write "Learn and Grow" articles 

 containing customized how-to fea- 

 tures using Simply Beautiful^^ 

 flowers and product usage themes. 

 These will be housed on the Simply 

 Beautiful^^ website and will be dis- 

 tributed as press releases to the gen- 

 eral media. 



"Research shows that consumers, 

 particularly those that do not con- 

 sider themselves 'gardeners,' are 

 hungry for more and better growing 

 information," says Ball marketing 

 manager Jeff Gibson. "Through its 

 website and other services, NGA 

 will deliver informational content 

 customized to focus specifically on 

 our products." The site is now live. 



Ball introduced The Simply 

 Beautiful^M brand in Spring 2001. 

 According to Gibson, the NGA 

 partnership is just one of many new 

 marketing tools Ball intends to in- 

 troduce this year to support garden 

 centers, the Simply Beautiful^^ 

 brand and, in the end, the con- 

 sumer. 



Ball Horticultural Company is an 

 internationally renowned breeder, 

 producer and wholesale distributor 

 of ornamental plants. A family- 

 owned business since it was founded 

 in 1905, Ball has introduced many 

 innovative, award-winning varieties, 

 seed technologies, and services to 

 the world of horticulture, including 

 the 'Madness^^' and 'Wave"'^' pe- 

 tunia series; 'Dazzler^^' and 'Super 

 Elfin^^' impatiens; and 'Bingo^^' 

 pansies. 



More information about the 

 Simply Beautiful^^ product line can 

 be found at www.simplybeautiful 

 gardens.com. Retailers can also reg- 

 ister to be included on the 

 Simply Beautiful^^ product locator 

 database. Contact Jeff Gibson 

 (jgibson@ballhhort.com at Ball Hor- 

 ticultural for more information 

 about Simply Beautiful. ^^ 



SPRING 2005 



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