Business Marketing: You Can Learn from How Garden Designers Market their Businesses.
Garden design is the new rock and roll and garden designers have really learnt how to hit the big time by marketing themselves at no cost. Those that have learnt marketing skills get on the radio, on TV, in the gardening press and the non-gardening press …. And it doesn’t cost them a penny.
One of the most enjoyable parts of my work is writing articles on events like the Chelsea Flower Show. Chelsea is the leading gardening event in the world and it happens every year in the grounds of the Royal Hospital in London. Extravagant gardens are designed and built for the 5 day show and the Chelsea becomes the place that Royalty, celebs and gardeners flock to. It is the place to be seen and to make an entrance.
Sponsors, from international companies to Sheiks and European Royalty pay sponsorship deals of up to a £1million to get their name on a Chelsea garden. Garden designers know this and vie for the design role and profile that goes with it.
Winning a Gold at Chelsea is an accolade every designer fights for. It is a licence to get on TV, become a personality in their own right and charge high rates thereafter. Better still the costs are nil when you are commissioned to design a Chelsea garden.
What Can Businesses Learn from Chelsea Garden Designers?
The first lesson is about the leverage you get when commissioned or sponsored by a name. Their image and glamour is immediately reflected in the relationship and you become an expert and saleable commodity even before you deliver any product or service. All of us can use this principle and win business with individuals and companies that raise our profile.
Secondly, competing is nearly as good as winning. Being a Chelsea garden designer is an accolade in its own right. Only the cream get asked to design for Chelsea and each design is vetted before it is accepted by the Chelsea committee. Just saying you’ve designed for Chelsea is an accolade. A medal, even a bronze, is a bonus.
If you can say you have worked with market leaders you are half way there. So think about how you can do this. It often isn’t as difficult as you might think.
Thirdly, these designers use the media to elevate their position. It isn’t enough to design for Chelsea; you have to let the world know. Modesty doesn’t get the big design jobs. I’m not suggesting a brazen approach but use every media opportunity you can get in business. We all have story to tell and once the media know you they soon start approaching you when they need an opinion on your field of expertise. An expert isn’t always the most knowledgeable person; it is the most knowledgeable person that people have heard of.
The gardeners and garden designers that exhibit at Chelsea have an audience of 217,000 people attending the event and a TV audience of millions. In the UK it is televised every day for a week. When I went into the press tent it was full of international reporters .. the press coverage is worldwide with TV, magazines and radio reports and the high profile designers get incredible profile.
We aren’t all fortunate enough to have an event like Chelsea to raise our profile but we all have similar opportunities, albeit on a smaller scale, if we look for them.
Think about how you can get media coverage on radio, TV, in the printed media, on websites, live at events …. Chelsea presents gardener designers with this prime event each year. For the rest of us we have opportunities every day to get our “story” in the media and in front of millions of people. We just have to be inventive and use the opportunities available to every business.
There are hundreds of marketing methods you could try. USe the search bar or give me a call to discover more.
With the price of advertising wouldn’t it be great if you could get in the national press without paying a penny?
Well it sounds like a great idea that is never going to happen. Or is it.
Getting invited to comment on national stories, by the national dailies, isn’t so far fetched as this PR story indicates. On Good Friday two national papers phoned me within an hour. The first was the Daily Mail who wanted my thoughts on whether the referendum question was in fact a loaded question that had been designed to get the “right” answer. The second was Scotland on Sunday who wanted a comment on branding of the Royal Wedding.
It isn’t often I’m approached for my opinion by two nationals in a day but it does happen… and it could happen to you if you let the media know where your expertise lies.