Garden Media Group Latest to Lavish Praise on Gen X and Gen Y

The garden industry at one time was one that did not latch on to the latest trend to round the corner or come down the block. It was an industry made of real people. Hard working folks who put in long hours produced an excellent product that they stood behind with pride. The term marketing was unknown. We relied on the product and the people to do the marketing without even knowing what marketing was. There simply was no need for PR firms to tell us what our customers already knew, no need for focus groups to tell us what color was hot for the next year. We relied on tried and true methods of word of mouth, giving the customer what they wanted without the customer even knowing what they wanted. It may have been boring from the eyes of Madison Avenue but it worked. Boy have the times changed.

As the gardening industry attempts to grasp the changing retail market place we now have marketing firms and social experts telling us what we are doing wrong instead of what we are doing right. The line of distinction behind between the real world of IGCs and Madison Avenue is almost gone. In an instant gardening became a carbon copy of the rest of retailing, a commodity, with goods going to the lowest bidder. Marketers and social media "experts" are now telling us who are our customers are instead of asking us. In what seems to be an organized attempt to rid the market place of baby boomers and the "greatest generation" we are told that the millennials, Gen X and Gen Y will save the planet bring about social justice, end war and ready for this...........be the savior of local business. And to succeed we must grasp this new self aware world in order to survive. 

Not so fast Madison Avenue. While the greatest generation may be getting up their in age Baby Boomers just STARTED turning 60. It was you who told us this it was you who told us 60 is the new 40. The millenials are just turning 20 and thirty. There is a 20-30 year gap you seem to missing in pushing the earth saving fountain of youth upon us. I beg to differ with much of what  the Garden Media Group's trends for 2012 reports in Garden Center Magazine. For instance they write "Generation X and Y are taking up the mantle to protect and defend the earth." Seems to me there a lot more Baby Boomers showing up at protests every time a controversial construction project is announced.

There is a tone amongst  the marketers that claims millenials are not the self centered me, me, me, generation that they make Baby Boomers out to be.“We’ve finally moved from ‘me’ to ‘we’ and consider our earth and each other when we purchase,” says Susan McCoy, a trend spotter (aka Madison Avenue Marketer) and outdoor living expert.  I beg to differ here as well. "As a 23-year-old consumer, I can tell you this: my attention is short, my demandsare great and my purchases are diverse. I live in a day and age where social media apps, slogan tees and even Nike sneakers can be customized to fit my lifestyle" says  

Christine Carter in an article entitled "Why Generation Y Isn't Buying Your Stuff" If this sentence alone does not refute that "me,  me, me", is not alive and well nothing will. Six times in the opening sentence Carter uses "I" and "me" to describe purchasing habits of Gen Y. There is nothing in that statement about saving the earth, shopping local, or even doing the right thing. She will subscribe to Madison Avenue's portrayal only if it fits her requirements is what I read into the opening sentence. "The Times Union" a large newspaper in Albany New York regularly publishes business stories written by twenty and thirty somethings. The same "I and me" scenario runs rampant in almost every one of these pieces. Meanwhile business columns written by more "seasoned" professionals seldom contain the "I" and "me" tone. Instead these pieces talkto the reader instead of at them.

My main beef with the piece from the Garden Media Group is that it is not really an article about trends in gardening at all. It appears to be yet another "rah rah youth piece" . Once again someone is trying to drag the garden industry into the "social marketplace." This article has little to do with what product trends are emerging in this great industry and more about consumers behavior in the realm of saving the earth with a very biased bent towards Gen X and Y. The mention of fairy gardening and vertical gardening come in well near the end of the piece seemingly as an after thought well after the praise of the millenials. 

The Garden Media Group piece goes on to say "Trend watching says our pursuit of health and quality of life is the number one influence on the goods and services we choose". Health? Quality of life? Have these trend watchers been watching the obesity statistics lately. It seems trend watchers are only watching other trend watchers or late night exercise infomercials instead of the real market place. What is healthy about Gen X and Gen Y with their faces stuck to a screen gaming instead of planting gardens like we are being led to believe?

This is not to say it should be business as usual for the IGC. We are after all in the MIS-Information Age. The internet is wrought with bad and downright dangerous information on gardening. There is one "gardener" on the west coast producing hundreds of You Tube videos with advice that will actually kill plants and perhaps gardeners as well. In one video this "expert" says it is OK to eat castor beans if they are cooked properly. Of course in the age of sound bites she does not inform the viewer how to cook them properly leaving the viewer having to search elsewhere for information (even if you could eat them). The result is a patchwork of information gleaned from too many sources. Yet this "expert" has dozens of facebook fan pages!

One of the owners of my company, well into his 70's, reads material printed from direct marketing firms. He said to me the way to get to your customers is "you have to put your message in their hands". He was referring to printed mail pieces. I pulled out my Blackberry and told him that this is the new definition of "in your hands." I think he finally understands.  The message is the same only the delivery method has changed.

While it seems I may have a beef with the millenials it is more a beef against being told by Madison Avenue how wonderful this new generation is. There are millenials who care about local business, there are millenials who are trying to save planet earth and do the right thing. The problem is there are not enough of them doing it. They don't vote like their elders do. They do not sow up at town board meetings or run for office like their elders do. Gen X and Gen Y are as spoiled and self centered as the rest of us. Possibly more so. This is the first real economic downturn they have had to face. Let's face it the western economy has been pretty damn good since the mid 80's until 2008. Gen X and Gen Y are moving back home with Mom and Dad. Meanwhile Mom and Dad are moving in with Baby Boomers. 

Gen X and Gen Y are not alone in the Madison Avenue pampering though. The Baby Boomers are now being called the Sandwich Generation because some of us are caring for aging parents and our own children. Hey Madison Avenue wake up. This is how most cultures in the world have been doing it for centuries. Stop being hypocrites by telling us it's OK to be self centered and then turn around and feel sorry for us when Mom and Dad need our care. 

To get back to the trends that The Garden Media Group totally missed: Miniature gardening, not fairy gardening, is hot. Hydroponics, totally embraced by Gen X and Y, will soon go mainstream.  Hydroponic shops are popping up all over the place. Container gardening, in all it's forms, not just vertical. Indoor farming is my bet for something just entering the radar screen that no one seems to have hit on. Herbs................they missed herbs. How can you call yourself a trend spotter and miss herbs.

Garden advice you can dig!