And that has exactly what to do with plants?

Well, as an industry we tend to think horticulture when selling plants and yet barely 10% of customers in garden centres are horticulturalists - and those that are invariably are more focused on outdoor than indoor plants!

Houseplants are a lifestyle purchase; the majority of houseplant buys are for lifestyle reasons (however diverse they may be), so it is not rocket science to suggest that you will have greater success promoting them with lifestyle images and messages than dry horticultural data.

We strongly believe that if you want to sell more houseplants you need to dump the prevailing horticultural messages and replace them with images and messages that strike a chord with the customer; that stop the customer from walking past the houseplant display; and that are of greater relevance to the shopper than to the RHS at Wisley

FCH
The Flower Council has developed this over the last couple of years with presentations and displays in Rotterdam in 2007, and at the Hortifair in Amsterdam and at the Fernhill Garden Centre in Ireland in 2008.

In each of these we have developed one-off designs and messages, not as definitive ‘right’ ways of doing things, but as stimulants (we hope) to encourage retailers, large and small, to create their own p.o.s along the same principles.  And in case you are wondering what those principles are please remember the mantra – customers must be persuaded to stop, look and buy.  In that order.

Click here to go to a selection of downloadable images, and a document of ideas that follow what we call the Plants are Lifestyle formula.