*3.2. Marketing Practices*

The extent of marketing efforts, in terms of expenses and hours, was asked in open-ended questions. Reported marketing expenses for 2014 ranged from \$0 to \$1 million, with an average of \$53,050 and median of \$10,000 (Table 4, first column). On the lower end, nearly half (42.9%) reported marketing expenses under \$4,000, almost half (43.5%) of which reported less than \$500. On the upper end, 11 businesses (6.8%) reported marketing expenses over \$200,000. In terms of hours allocated to marketing efforts, the businesses reported spending on average 13.7 h per week performing various marketing activities, with half of the businesses spending four or fewer hours. Six businesses reported spending 40 to 60 h per week, suggesting two individuals were allocating at least half of their time to marketing, while five businesses reported more than 90 h per week, suggesting more than one full-time individual was assigned to marketing efforts.

Given the large disparity in size, businesses were grouped into three sales categories (less than \$250,000, \$250,000 to less than \$1 million, and \$1 million or more) for additional insight. The categories corresponded to intervals used in the Census report, placing 50, 41, and 70 businesses into the respective sales categories. Though the subsamples were too small to establish any statistical significance of differences observed, the categorization offered additional insight.

In Table 4, responses by the three groups are reported in respective columns. The average marketing expenses for the smallest businesses (\$2,844) was 18.9% of that for the large businesses (grossing \$250,000 or more, but less than \$1 million), and 2.6% of that for the largest businesses (grossing \$1 million or more). While there were businesses that spent at least 10% of their sales on marketing, there were some reporting \$0 and zero hours for marketing efforts, even among businesses selling more than \$1 million. Similarly, in terms of hours allocated to marketing efforts, the largest businesses had, on average, one half-time person tasked with marketing, while marketing activities at smaller businesses were mostly carried out by individuals with other primary tasks.


**Table 4.** Marketing efforts of ornamental horticulture industry, in terms of expenses and hours allocated, as reported by respondents in the study questionnaire.

Figure 1 depicts the frequency of use of selected marketing channels for the smallest, large, and largest businesses. Use of print advertisements and personal interactions were relatively similar across the groups. About 35% of businesses used print advertisements one to four times per month, and 17% did not use these at all. Nearly half (47.8%) reported reaching out to their customers with phone calls, emails, and visits more than once a week. In contrast, use patterns varied by sales category for fairs and trade/garden shows and online marketing. Nearly 60% of businesses grossing \$250,000 or more attended fairs and trade/garden shows at least once a year, whereas 58% of the smaller businesses never did. Average proportions of non-users of online marketing varied from 14% among smaller businesses to 5% of large businesses and 1.4% of the largest businesses. Among online marketing users, larger businesses used it more frequently than smaller businesses.

Delving deeper into use of online marketing, Table 5 summarizes the status of online-platform accounts used by businesses. Facebook was the predominant platform, regardless of business size (Table 5). The use of Twitter and blogs was limited among the smallest and large businesses, with blogs being the least popular platform for both size groups. Conversely, more than 40% of the largest businesses were actively using Twitter and blogs. The use of HTML newsletters was linearly associated with business size, currently by 30%, 54%, and 83% of the smallest, large, and largest businesses, respectively. The variation in use of blogs, Twitter, and HTML newsletters, between small, medium, and large business, might reflect that these tools require specific writing skills and a significant time commitment, for which only larger business can afford to seek out and allocate resources to actively and effectively use these platforms.

**Figure 1.** *Cont*.

**Figure 1.** Frequency of use of various traditional marketing venues by ornamental horticulture industry respondents in the study questionnaire: (**a**) print advertisements, (**b**) fairs/trade or garden shows, (**c**) personal interactions, and/or (**d**) online marketing. Categorized by 2014 sales: less than \$250,000 (*n* = 50); \$250,000–\$999,999 (*n* = 41); and \$1 million or more (*n* = 70).

Figure 2 illustrates the frequency of use of online platforms to reach customers. The three charts show similar trends across platforms in all sales categories, with the most frequent activity being on social media, followed by websites, HTML newsletters, and blogs. In general, larger businesses used all platforms more frequently than smaller businesses, except a larger portion of the middle-size businesses were less frequently active on blogs than the smallest businesses. Overall, 76.2% of businesses used social media once a week or more, while 9.3% of businesses (14.0% of smaller businesses and about 7% of both groups of larger businesses) used social media once a quarter or less. Frequency of posting is a difficult concept to manage and depends on the needs of each businesses' customer, but posting once a quarter may make it appear that a business is inactive and/or no longer in business [18,19].



**Figure 2.** *Cont*.

**Figure 2.** Frequency of use of new-media marketing tools by ornamental horticulture industry respondents in the study questionnaire: (**a**) Social media, (**b**) HTML newsletters, (**c**) websites, and (**d**) blogs. Categorized by 2014 sales: less than \$250,000 (*n* = 43); \$250,000–\$999,999 (*n* = 39); and \$1 million or more (*n* = 69).

Specifically related to social media, all businesses that engaged in online marketing reported using some form of social media, with the range of use from one to 15 years, and a median of five years. This may indicate that the sample included more businesses that had a social-media presence. Eighty-nine point six percent of businesses indicated their social-media account was created by the owner, manager, or an employee. Others (6.3%) received free help from friends or family, while a few (3.5%) hired a consultant or third-party company.

Twelve point six percent of respondents hired a third party to conduct their social-media activity in 2014. Social-media marketing expenses through consulting services averaged \$11,700, representing 22% of total marketing expenses. This result indicated that new-media marketing generally received less attention from ornamental horticulture businesses than traditional marketing venues. The Pearson correlation coefficient between the amount allocated to social-media services and the sales dollar amount was 0.58, indicating that bigger firms allocated more resources to social-media marketing.

## *3.3. Perceptions of New-Media Marketing*

To assess perceived usefulness of new-media marketing by ornamental horticulture industries, respondents were asked to rank online-marketing venues based on their perceived impacts on sales. Table 6 reports the aggregated response, because responses were similar across businesses of different size. The new-media marketing tool that received the largest percentage (45.0%) of first rankings was social media, followed by websites and HTML newsletters, which mirrors how intensively these channels are currently being used. The notable exception was HTML newsletters, which was not as frequently used but was ranked as having a relatively high impact. This may be reflective of the tool itself, as HTML newsletters typically follow an editorial calendar with release dates that vary [7].

**Table 6.** Ranking of perceived impacts on sales of ornamental horticulture industry respondents in the study questionnaire (*n* = 131).


Again, specifically on social media, respondents were asked to indicate its perceived importance on various aspects of the business, including customer engagement elements, using a five-point scale (Table 7). The strongest agreement was on its importance "to build a positive community with customers." They also agreed on its importance "to have an active online presence" and "to educate consumers," but the support was less among smaller businesses. This may be a result of smaller businesses investing less time in social media. Notably, it was the smallest businesses that believed in social media's value "to improve sales" and "to increase customer traffic into the store." Among the list of aspects provided to respondents, businesses placed the lowest value on social media as a means "to learn about the marketplace." Results suggested the prevalence of perceptions, particularly among larger businesses, that social media is used only to push their messages out and are underutilizing it as a resource for two-way customer interaction.

**Table 7.** Perceived importance of social media by ornamental horticulture industry respondents in the study questionnaire *<sup>a</sup>*.


*<sup>a</sup>* Average scores: 1 = "not at all important," 2 = "slightly important," 3 = "moderately important," 4 = "quite important," and 5 = "extremely important".
