pruneau

Situation

Like many industries, the wholesale nursery business has become increasingly competitive. Established regional providers offer large selections of plant material, custom ordering services and have a successful history of meeting the unique needs of the trade. These similarities make it difficult for a prospect to discern the difference from one resource to another.

Over the last decade, Pacific Nurseries has made significant investments and improvements in their facilities, operations and marketing communications to position their brand as a leading Bay Area provider of landscape plant material to the trade. The recent challenging economic environment has added pressure on sales volume and growth for every business. Customers and prospects today are looking for resources and companies they do business with that can add value and deliver more for less. In a business category that may have little perceived differentiation between competitors, this has never been more important for survival.

Pacific Nurseries has achieved success by providing highly personalized customer service, expanding plant and specimen capacity, integrating online ordering technology and providing a well organized, facilities that makes it easy for trade professionals to view, select and order plant material for a small order to a large installation. By continually looking at the needs of the professional and responding with new services or specialized offerings, Pacific Nurseries has grown for over 140 years to become a landscape plant materials provider that over 4000 landscape contractors, commercial developers, government organizations, schools and retail nurseries rely on for their nursery needs.

Strategy

Educate targets about new capabilities, features, services and special offers available from Pacific Nurseries. Generate awareness to raise consideration of Pacific Nurseries as a preferred Bay Area provider of landscape plant material for the trade. Create urgency and add value to products and services by rewarding prospects for doing business with Pacific Nurseries. Develop a comprehensive, integrated communications program that delivers customer value with a consistent brand presentation over multiple touch points to support differentiation.

Results

The campaign leveraged the distinctive brand identity and approachable, professional personality we created for Pacific Nurseries over ten years ago. What’s more, management’s continued investment in marketing and outreach efforts have helped to double sales volume every year for over 10 years. Julie Baldocchi, Vice-President of Marketing, added, “Our partnership with Paul and his team is one of the most effective ways we can reach out to prospects, enhance their consideration of our products and services and reward them for doing business with us. These efforts help us continue to grow our business and improve our market position in this highly competitive environment.”