Lawn & garden

Discount Store News, Oct 20, 1997

Kmart's private label, KGro, came out of nowhere this year and leapt onto the top 10 list-ahead of Wal-Mart's Better Homes & Gardens private brand. KGro has held a steady stronghold in the fertilizer business, and in the past year, Kmart added power mowers to its lineup, as well as gas grills.

Kmart's new private label strategy--scrap scores of minor brands and develop the remaining 10 or so into major players--resulted in a decision to go entirely private label in mowers this year, dropping the MTD national brand and in grills (with the exception of a couple of Weber high-end grills) dropping the Char-Broil national brand. MTD and Char-Broil, however, are producing the mowers and grills that formerly bore their names under the KGro moniker.

KGro snared the No. 6 slot on the top 10 list, with 13% of Kmart retailers citing it as one of their best performing brands. That compares with Better Homes & Gardens, No. 7, with 6% of Wal-Mart respondents giving it a thumbs up.

In addition, Ortho shot up in the eyes of retailers to the top spot, with 33% calling it a top performer, from No. 4, and 18% of mentions last year. Murray, the mower maker that supplies Wal-Mart, came in second at 22%, with Scotts and Sunbeam tying for third at 19%.

Sunbeam has been undergoing a major restructuring, selling off its patio furniture division and slashing payrolls and plants. It also adopted a unified name this year for all of its grill lines, GrillMaster by Sunbeam.

Only two of the top 10 this year deal exclusively in fertilizer and garden chemicals, Ortho and Scotts. Better Homes & Gardens crosses over into durable goods, such as shovels and rakes, from seeds and benign chemicals that won't cause harm if misused.

Ortho, Murray and Scotts have dominated the top 10 list for three out of the four years the Top Brands Survey has tracked L&G, and Ortho came in No. 4 last year. Scotts' 1996 acquisition of Miracle Gro, No. 2 on the consumers' list of preferred brands, helps keep it in place as a leading brand among retailers.

Scotts again was the only L&G brand to rank as a Power Brand, with an index reading of 250 on a scale that measures support from both retailers and consumers. Ortho came close to Power Brand status because of strong retailer support but missed out because of weak consumer preference.

Miracle Gro also came close to achieving Power Brand status, thanks to strong preference among consumers but fell short because it lacked retailer support.

Among consumers, only Scotts and Miracle Gro garnered double-digit support as preferred brands. Three out of 10 shoppers surveyed named Scotts, followed by 12% who cited Miracle Gro.

Ortho was far weaker among consumers, drawing only 6% calling it a favorite brand compared to 33% of retailers who said it was a top performer. After that, consumer citations as favorite brands tapered off to the low single digits.

One-third of consumers named their brand preference as "other," meaning those brands failed to draw even 1% of responses. And close to three out of 10 named "private label" as their favorite.

Also, almost seven out of 10 said they'd be willing to buy a private label product, and six out of 10 said they'd be willing to switch brands if their discount store were out of stock of their favorite brand.

And only three out of 10 consumers said they were "sure" they could find their favorite brand in their favorite discount store.

Consumer preference for Scotts was remarkably uniform among customers of the Big Three: 29%, among customers of both Wal-Mart and Target; but slightly less, 26%, for Kmart. Only minor variations appeared in customer preference for Miracle Gro and Ortho.

Reflecting the presence of KGro in garden chemicals, Kmart respondents gave less support to Ortho, 25%, than did those of Wal-Mart, 35%, and Target, 34%

Murray support varied markedly: 37% of Wal-Mart respondents named it as a top brand, compared to only 6% of Kmart mentions and 3% of Target mentions. Only Wal-Mart carries the brand, which raises the question as to why it received any mentions at Target and Kmart.

Despite competition in KGro fertilizer, 41% of Kmart respondents named Scotts as a top brand, compared to 6% of Wal-Mart respondents.

Its private label, Better Homes & Gardens, dominates the Wal-Mart L&G department, and Sam's Choice is also coming out with more L&G offerings, such as planting mixes.

At Target, 19% of respondents named Scotts as a top brand.

Discounters

Brand           1997    1996

Ortho            33%    18%
Murray           22     32
Scotts           19     23
Sunbeam          19     22
Black& Decker    15      4
Weed Eater       15     14
KGro             13     --
Better Homes      6      4
  & Gardens
McCullough        4     --
Coleman           4     --
Discount Store Shoppers

Brand           1997    1996

Scotts           30%    21%
Miracle Gro      12     13
Ortho             6      2
Burpee            4     --
Hyponex           2      3
Murray            1     --
Roundup           1      1