*3.1. Q1: Stakeholder Perceptions and Attitudes towards New-Media Marketing*

When asked to describe how garden centers market to the public, participant responses yielded two themes: (1) Stakeholders prefer to focus on traditional marketing strategies; (2) Although stakeholders see some positives to social-media marketing, they are skeptical of its ability to positively impact sales.

3.1.1. Stakeholders Prefer to Focus on Traditional Marketing Strategies

Garden center owners and employees indicated a preference for traditional forms of advertising which included television, radio, newspaper, and direct-mail campaigns. Owner D (Table 1), who owns garden center D (Table 2), said, "garden centers are used to being in the regular media." She continued, "[the] newspaper is timely ... If I advertise in the newspaper I can get them in here; they will bring the coupon in. No one brings their iPhone in and says this is what I want." Manager B, general manager of garden center B, mentioned, "we do a lot of radio advertising ... we can run radio advertisements, and I can quantify how much I've spend on it because I have the bills to show for it."

The vast majority of strategic planning for garden center marketing also focused on traditional media. President C, of garden center C, talked about his advertising calendar:

[it has] the number, date, the Monday through Sunday, how we would run our dates, and then at the top of all these we have what we want to promote and seminars. It's really kind of like our Bible. It's got what our spot radio's gonna run. If we're going to run a newspaper that week, if direct mail needs to go out.

Manager B also discussed an in-depth level of planning for advertising:

[I will] plan out my marketing for next year. The majority of the marketing will get planned out for next year. [It will include] when I'm going to run ads, when we're going to do this, when we're going to do that.

All participants had some form of presence on one or more social-media platforms, with the most popular being Facebook. This is most likely due to the sampling procedures used in this study that drew upon garden centers with an active Facebook page. Other networks used, although to a varying degree, were Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google Plus, blogs, and Houzz.

Participants at three of the four garden centers identified the preferred method for Web 2.0 marketing was through an e-newsletter. Employee A said, "we send out a newsletter every week to all of our local customers. I like to do the newsletter Friday evening, so I can put the new blog on the newsletter." Describing his newsletter, Manager B mentioned, "the e-newsletter is something we've been doing for several years. That gets [the most] attention. We do that every two weeks year round."

President C talked about the weekly newsletter and said, "it goes out weekly and [CEO C] writes those articles ... He's a good story teller. It's not just a here-we-are company yelling buy our stuff. He'll write a story that's interesting and maybe try to tie a product in with it. It's about a 350-word read." The newsletter has a subscription of approximately 15,000 people and is delivered through Constant Contact, Inc. (Waltham, Massachusetts), which is an e-newsletter program.

Participants varied in the degree to which they used social-media and all were skeptical regarding the ability of social-media to generate a return on investment (ROI). However, participants mentioned the ability for Facebook to facilitate WOM marketing. Discussing why his garden center uses Facebook, Owner A mentioned:

We're too rural. We don't have enough people who could possibly drive two hours here . . . I think enough people will come here from enough distance. When they go home they're going to tell their friends about it on social-media. They'll buy from you online because they won't drive that distance ... It's extremely important to [rural garden centers]. I feel it should be more important to us than people in the middle of the city, because we don't have enough demographics. The population isn't here to support how we want to live ... To support that business we have to attract people from a greater distance. Social-media is one way to attract people from the urban area.

Owner D also spoke of the ability of Facebook to generate WOM marketing and offered the following unprompted response, "there's no difference between WOM, us talking, and social-media . . . It's the same thing. You're just missing the verbal and non-verbal cues." When prompted, President C also identified social-media could be viewed through the lens of WOM marketing and said, "we could do a better job of building that piece. I think if we were to do that, it would bring some value." Participants indicated a passive strategy for facilitating WOM marketing for their customers, and none of the owners or employees mentioned fostering interaction on social-media to create highly engaged customers.

3.1.2. Stakeholders Were Skeptical of New-Media Marketing Return on Investment (ROI)

Although Kansas garden centers are currently using social-media to some degree and believe it could help facilitate WOM marketing, all participants were highly skeptical of its ability to generate a ROI. When asked how her social-media presence affects the profits of the garden center, Owner D replied:

To be able to tell you it has made me one single dime, I can't. I don't have any way to track it ... [Facebook] has just not been the big boom that I need for me to go spend money on it . . . Social-media sometimes is not a help. It doesn't get me stuff sold because the customer is still outside my store ... I'm spending a lot of time on [Facebook], and I cannot justify the amount of time being spent on it for the sales [that are being generated].

Other participants had similar viewpoints. When asked how social-media impacts the garden center, Employee A replied, "there's not often direct sales from [social-media]. If there are, they are really hard to track. It's just generating awareness. [The financial impact] is not much, and it is not direct." Regarding social-media being profitable to his business, Manager B mentioned if you post on "Facebook and you don't sell anymore this week than you did the week prior, then obviously it didn't strike a chord with anybody."

*3.2. Q2: What Barriers Do Participants Encounter when Using New-Media to Market Their Business?*

Participants were asked questions related to the challenges they face and what materials would help them improve new-media marketing of their business. Participant responses yielded the following themes: (1) Stakeholders lack time and training; (2) Stakeholders desire high-touch channels of education from experienced professionals.

## 3.2.1. Stakeholders Lack Time and Training

All participants identified the primary barrier to using social-media marketing was a lack of time. Specifically, stakeholders mentioned other job priorities related to the daily operations of the garden center and the large amount of time educating customers as areas that consume the most amount of time. When asked about her role in the garden center, Employee A stated:

I'm in charge of all the marketing and the advertisements. Other than that, my main role is a landscape designer, which works more with the landscape contractor side of the business. It's all under one head, but it's two very separate branches. We all have other jobs, so

marketing just isn't ... it's more my job than anybody else's, but it's not my only job nor is it my most important job.

Even though Manager B identified that his role as general manager of the garden center is to oversee and supervise all advertising, he stated, "[my other responsibilities] are 110% everything [but marketing]." When asked how much time he believed social-media marketing would take, he responded, "lots of time ... and we just don't have a lot of time with it." When prompted to give a quantitative assessment on the time required to effectively market with social-media, Manager B identified "probably five to ten minutes every day."

Participants at three out of the four garden centers felt they were hindered by the amount of time spent educating potential and existing customers. Manager B mentioned helping customers with questions through the phone or via email "sometimes makes up 10% of the day, or 20% sometimes . . . if I kept track it would probably scare me." Owner A offered similar experiences to those of Manager B. "[Educating the consumer] is what I do all day long. It's my job, my biggest role. It's full time. I do more of that than anything else."

All participants identified a feeling of being lost in an ever-changing world of social-media and felt they did not have the necessary tools or training to keep up. Employee A mentioned her confusion with Facebook advertising and posts not being seen by every follower:

They're pushing more and more in a direction where you're going to have to pay for people to see your post ... It seemed like it costs a lot of money, and we were confused and weren't understanding how it was being used or why we were getting charged ... it didn't seem to correlate. It was confusing.

Owner D also identified feeling confused when it comes to Facebook updates. She mentioned, "[Getting up to speed] is the biggest problem I have with social-media. I still have a slide phone. When it comes to paid marketing, is that where I want to go?"

When asked about their desired learning method for new-media marketing training, all stakeholders mentioned a desire for hands-on, high-touch channels of education. Describing what the ideal coaching situation would look like, Employee A added: "Maybe a weekly phone call . . . First [call] would probably be a long one to discuss the overall plan and then like the weekly communication on, what have you done this week, what are you working on, and should maybe try this or that. Just someone to kind of [give you] feedback and keep accountability with." When asked to describe his ideal workshop, CEO C explained it would be a workshop where participants would, "take your laptop to the class and sit down. Actually go through the steps and build a website or whatever you're doing. The [goal would be] a finished blog or website at the end of the course".

One common characteristic participants desired with regards to learning about social-media was to seek out advice from people who, as President C mentioned, are "fighting the same fight" within the garden center industry. Manager B identified that he preferred to learn from events at trade shows or industry meetings, saying, "I attend trade shows, meetings, and hear what other garden centers do ... If I heard something at a conference, colleagues that are doing something similar ... I would probably connect with that more than anything" President C echoed this sentiment:

I guess there's that sense of trust ... it's people that are fighting the same fight that we are. That we're able to learn from what they're doing ... I don't hold a whole lot of credence for those that call themselves a social-media expert just because it's ... you can't quantify it. I could go out and say that I'm a social-media expert, read a couple books and probably sound like I know what I'm talking about. The people that have actually been there and done that I think to me have more credibility.

## **4. Discussion**

Participants identified a preference and confidence for traditional marketing channels that included radio, newspaper, television, and print media. This proclivity towards older methods of advertising is in agreement with the findings of Behe et al. [6] and Stone [35]. The preference for older forms of mass communication could demonstrate that garden center stakeholders are contrasting the recommendations of Behe et al. [16] in adopting digital marketing trends to reach the upcoming generation, and marketing strategies have remained the same for nearly 20 years. This could also lend additional support to the findings of Doctorow et al. [20], who identified that decisions for MCM campaigns are often the result of tradition.

Garden center employees and owners were also concerned about the lack of ROI in regards to the time spent marketing on social-media. However, stakeholders were measuring the success of their social-media campaigns by looking at a direct and immediate increase in sales after content was posted online. Since they do not see immediate or direct financial impacts, stakeholders indicated that they do not believe social-media can impact sales. This contrasts the recommendations of Paine [28] who states companies that are the most active on social-media are more profitable than their contemporaries which are not using social-media. Although social-media can have an impact on sales, the greatest impact results from encouraging interaction and developing meaningful and symbiotic relationships [25]. Stakeholders of this study were not focusing on, or measuring, the quality of relationships, level of interaction, or the satisfaction of customers online, which is contrary to the advice and findings of Ledingham [36]. This common perception may indicate that stakeholders are practicing PR through press agentry or public information models [26] and not the two-way symmetrical approach recommended. Since the relationship and awareness benefits can lead to profits that are not directly measurable [37], garden centers most likely are measuring the wrong forms of profit or revenue streams and becoming frustrated with the marketing efforts via new-media.

Garden center stakeholders also demonstrated a lack of understanding for traditional media and were not aware of the potential benefits and analytics of new-media marketing. For example, Owner D stated that advertising in the newspaper was "timely". Furthermore, Manager B had mentioned his preference for radio advertising because he could quantify his advertising reach by determining how much he spent on radio advertising and how it affected the sales for the week. However, new-media marketing is much more rapid in its delivery and response than newspaper, and quantifying the dollars spent on a radio campaign cannot guarantee a consumer has noticed a message. New-media marketing offers advanced analytics that extend beyond simple message reach to include multiple forms of engagement along the online consumer pathway. Furthermore, stakeholders focused on what Keller [18] defined as the efficiency of the advertising message and were not actively tracking the effectiveness of such advertising campaigns. Measurement focused specifically on the short-term sales increase and not the long-term brand awareness or relationship.

Employees and owners were also confused about how to track sales to determine advertising effectiveness. None of the participants indicated asking customers where they heard about sales or promotions or giving any type of survey to determine relevant marketing channels or WOM marketing referrals. This could be especially problematic in tracking the effectiveness and efficiency of social-media advertising and the WOM that comes with it. By not implementing such tracking measures, the participants may never know how effective their social-media marketing efforts are nor how to identify profitable marketing channels to efficiently reach market segments. Although small businesses are more apt to practice two-way symmetrical communication [26], the participants in this study believed social-media should be approached from a public information or two-way asymmetrical communication viewpoint.

The employees who had responsibilities related to social-media had, at best, a split role that involved other garden center duties. These responsibilities quickly overshadowed the marketing responsibilities of the employee. Since "success on social-media is contingent on considerable resources being allocated to the proper use and evaluation" [38] (p. 4), it is possible to conclude stakeholders are seeing little ROI on new-media because they have not fully committed the resources vital to success.

Garden centers are approaching new-media marketing from the same lens as mass communications advertising. The stakeholders identified that they were taking a "broad net" approach to new-media marketing where they send a message out to numerous receivers and hope that results in a purchase. However, this approach of treating new-media like mass communications is in violation of Warshauer and Grimes' [39] findings, which state that social-media should be used for fostering individualized communication and interaction.

Employees and owners stated the majority of their time is spent educating customers through e-mail, phone calls, or in-person conversations. This level of personal interaction could indicate that garden center employees and owners are practicing two-way symmetrical communication offline as an organization. According to employees, customers appreciated a high level of service. However, that level of service also prevented participants from effectively marketing the store because educating customers represented a considerable portion of their time. The stakeholders within this study also had a lack of understanding regarding scheduling and publishing tools for new-media marketing. Only one participant mentioned Hootsuite (Vancouver, Canada) or the scheduled posts feature on Facebook, and she did not use these features. Participants were not actively seeking new information but were not opposed to learning about new-media marketing. If they are going to learn, they expressed a desire for high-touch channels of education from seasoned industry professionals.
