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[GWL]: Information from trades

At 05:46 AM 11/1/2001 -0800, you wrote:
>That's what I get for bring sarcastic.  As I said before, one of the
>purposes of THIS list was SUPPOSED  to be so that manufacturers, dealers,
>horticulturists and such could tell garden writers about new products/plants
>etc. but almost no one is using the list for that.


Let me bring a bit of business/marketing "reality" info to this 
discussion.  I've been on both sides of the "freebie" debate - that of the 
recipient and that of the giver.

The reality is that when I had/have the responsibility to work on marketing 
programmes, the gwaa list is something we look at. It is not the only list 
you understand but it is one resource.  On the gwaa list, there are folks 
who have more impact on the gardening marketplace than others.  This is a 
simple fact of life.  If you write for 1 small community newspaper or a 
low-traffic website, then your impact on the market is not as great as it 
would be if you were a regular on Good Morning America, editor for Home and 
Garden magazine or a syndicated columnist in multiple locations.

The first freebies go to those folks who have the greatest impact.  Call it 
an A-list or whatever but when marketing budgets are limited, you have to 
pick and choose who gets your product to review.  Remember that 
marketing/sales is looking for the biggest bang for their buck and there is 
a cost to producing and shipping plants/products that has to be assumed 
within a company budget. If you can't produce the eyeballs - why should you 
get the product to evaluate?  Also remember that what you think is a 
significant exposure may not be enough exposure within the list being 
generated by the company and the standards/budget that the company is 
working within. It is not a reflection on your writing, your gardening 
abilities, or your personal worth. It is simply hard marketing economics.

Let me say that I have attended many trade shows in my 25 years in the 
horticultural trade and while the GWAA trade show is one of the 
friendliest, it is also one of the most avaricious.  I won't bother 
reporting on some of the things I've seen but any of the experienced trade 
people can tell their own stories about this group (and won't dare to) 
:-))  Want to have some fun at Orlando next week? Simply stand in the 
middle of the trade show and yell, "Free Plants!"  You'll be buried alive 
under the scrum.

Just because you hear that some of us get free plants/seeds/tools etc does 
not automatically mean that gwaa membership confers that status on 
yourself.  You need to earn those "freebies" by providing data on your 
marketing depth and reach.  "I write for one website and companies should 
give me a free greenhouse." just doesn't cut it in the marketing 
world.  Heck, I write for 60 papers across the U.S. and Canada and 
apparently still don't qualify for some marketing trials.  That's life and 
reality in the marketing world.  If I talked to their customers, they'd 
want me to review their products and report on them.  Maybe. :-)

My .02 this morning - now back to writing my daily bread.

Doug
Douglas Green,
Freelance writing: You've got a story to tell - I can write it.
http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/clips/clipmaster.htm

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