Savvy marketing feeds fertilizer sales

Discount Store News, April 5, 1999 by Debbie Howell

Fertilizer and plant food manufacturers are learning that when you've got a good product that's difficult to improve, the best way to ramp up sales is to create an inviting jungle of colorful, informative packaging and displays that lures the customer into buying at every turn.

This is accomplished at home centers such as Home Depot and Lowe's by positioning a full line of plant foods along one aisle, while scattering the same products throughout the plant department. Among rose plants, for example, a customer might find brightly colored plastic jugs of Miracle-Gro for Roses. Similarly, it's not uncommon to see bloom-booster products near the garden flowers.

Cross-merchandising and educational marketing are the key forces driving sales in the category, manufacturers say.

The outlook for this year's sales is definitely fertile. Market leader The Scotts Company reported retail sales of its fertilizer and lawn food products up 20% in 1998. So far this year, Scotts' lawn fertilizer sales to retailers are up 30% over last year's orders, said Gordon Hecker, vice president of consumer lawn marketing.

"We've been able to experience these double-digit increases really without a lot of new product introduction. It's come through more marketing and better in-store material and displays," Becker said.

Scotts, which also owns the market-leading Miracle-Gro plant food line as a result of a 1995 merger, plans to spend $20 million in advertising this year on lawn fertilizer. That compares to a meager $2 million spent five years ago, Hecker said.

Those ads, as well as informative packaging that helps consumers better identify the right product for their lawn-care needs, have boosted sales, Becker said. Since fertilizers are differentiated by their npk number combinations (a standard measure for the percentage of nitrogen, phosphate and soluble potash in a product) figuring out the right blend hasn't been so easy in the past. But now Scotts and other fertilizer companies are guiding customers with better product graphics and information. For example, tear-off P.O.P. fliers tell consumers that Scotts Bonus S weed-and-feed is for St. Augustine lawns, while Turf Builder Plus 2 Weed Control works best on Bermuda grass.

Home centers have taken the lead in informing customers about such products through vendor POP material and in advertisements. In March, a Home Depot circular mailed to residences in the Dallas area included an explanation of the npk formula as well as good product descriptions of each lawn fertilizer product on sale.

Informative displays are less likely to be seen at Target, Kmart, Wal-Mart and other discount chains although one Wal-Mart Supercenter in Rockwall, Texas, in March had some helpful educational material and, to a limited extent, cross-merchandised products with plants.

But with home ownership and interest in gardening both on the rise, it seems vendors should have no problem selling their products.

A study by marketing research firm Kline & Co. of Little Falls, N.J., revealed manufacturer sales of consumer lawn and gardening fertilizer products rose 2.2% to $656.7 million from 1995 to 1997. Though that's not a huge increase, Kline & Co. projects manufacturer sales will surge to $755 million in 2002.

Scotts, which hopes to increase its market share beyond what it claims is 58% in lawn fertilizer sales, has found that its television and radio advertising is persuading customers to implement a year-round lawn and garden fertilizer schedule. TV spots that ran on Labor Day and in October drove Americans into stores to purchase lawn fertilizer, Hecker said.

"Sales of fertilizer in the fall went through the roof," said Becker. Scotts reported a 50% sales spike, while on an industrywide basis, sales jumped more than 40% for the September-November period, he said.

While advertising was probably the biggest factor impacting sales for Scotts, the company also gave credit to its improved packaging and informative displays. Hecker said all lawn fertilizer products are now in plastic packages, allowing them to be merchandised outdoors.

Despite the dearth of innovative new products in the industry, Scotts did expand its line. Additions for 1999 include Miracle-Gro for roses, Bloom Booster, Miracle-Gro Flower Seeding Mix and three types of tree fertilizer spikes. Miracle-Gro's new foray into the spike business marks competition for Jobe's, previously the sole manufacturer in that area. Also, Scotts has launched its Master Collection line of three-plant foods in resealable plastic bags and plastic jugs.

The shift toward plastic and more informative packaging has also been the biggest change for Peters brand products, owned by United Industries Corp.

"We redid all our packaging this year. We're trying to use a better color-coding system," said Mike Mullin, brand manager of growth products for United Industries.

Mullin said Peters also aggressively promotes cross-merchandising, and this year has been very successful getting retailers to use its wire basket rack display system. "That has contributed in a major way to our sales gains this year," he said.