**2. Materials and Methods**

A questionnaire was developed to collect information from ornamental horticulture businesses. It consisted of 40 questions pertaining to businesses' online new-media marketing practices (we used the term "online" in the questionnaire, which was likely more familiar to the respondents than "new media," but we use the terms interchangeably), including their relationships with customers. Questions were formulated around four factors: (1) Business characteristics, (2) overall marketing practices, (3) online marketing practices, and (4) respondent demographics. The questionnaire was described in the introductory email as covering business characteristics and marketing practices, requesting respondents to collaborate with colleagues, if needed, to complete the questionnaire.

The questionnaire was designed to account for three types of respondents: Those not using any new-media marketing; those using some new-media marketing, but not social-media marketing; and those using new- and social-media marketing. After collecting information about their scope of business, a question asked what the frequency of use of various marketing venues was, including "print advertisements" (newspapers, store circulars, and postal mailings), "personal interactions" (phone calls, emails, and visits), "television/radio," "fairs/trade shows/garden shows," and "online marketing" (websites, blogs, social media, and e-newsletters). Those who indicated that they never used online marketing were routed to answer reasons for their non-use. Those who indicated they had used online marketing at least once proceeded to answer additional questions about their new-media marketing practices. Then, a question asked for the frequency of reaching their customers through different online marketing tools, including "websites," "HTML newsletters" (e.g., Constant Contact and MailChimp), "blogs," and "social-media platforms" (e.g., Facebook and Twitter). Those who indicated some use of social-media platforms proceeded to answer questions related to their experience with social-media marketing, while those who never used any social-media platforms were diverted to answering questions related to their reasons for not using social media.

The questionnaire was designed and distributed using Qualtrics software (Qualtrics, LLC, Salt Lake City, UT, USA), which was compatible for access on computers and mobile devices [14]. Following Dillman et al. [14], respondents could return to previous questions, and forced responses were imposed on 23 key questions, including marketing expenses, annual gross sales, and perceived importance of social media, to ensure that responses were provided. Responses to multiple-choice questions were randomized to minimize order effects [15]. The questionnaire was pre-tested by a nursery-marketing specialist and two other people with no relationship to ornamental horticulture industries. Suggestions made by these respondents were considered for the final version of the questionnaire.

According to the 2012 Economic Census, there were 13,928 establishments classified as nursery, garden center, and farm supply stores (NAICS code 444220) nationwide, and 634 in the North Plains region, including Kansas [16]. (The Northern Plains region is one of twelve regions defined by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service and includes North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas.) Without a comprehensive directory of these businesses coupled with the exploratory nature of the study, convenience sampling was adopted. Distribution of the questionnaire was planned with a goal to reach as many ornamental horticulture businesses, including nurseries, garden-center businesses, and landscape businesses, as possible in the 48 contiguous states of the United States, in both rural and urban areas. Businesses did not have to be new-media users to participate.

After obtaining approval from the Institutional Review Board at Kansas State University, data were collected in two waves in March and September of 2015. The questionnaire link was distributed through 87 regional and national ornamental horticulture associations and trade publications or magazine email lists. Instructions to obtain a paper copy of the questionnaire were included in the email invitation to participate in the study. The link was also emailed to email addresses for ornamental horticulture businesses that could be collected from publicly-available directories of "live plant dealer licensees" in the North Central United States region, followed by two reminders sent at weekly intervals [14]. Participants were invited to enter into a drawing for two \$50 Amazon (www.amazon.com, Seattle, WA) gift cards as an incentive to take the survey, as recommended by Dillman et al. [14]. At the beginning of the second wave, those with postal addresses received a postcard with the link, followed by two email reminders sent at weekly intervals to those with email addresses.

#### **3. Results**

#### *3.1. Sample Characteristics*

Of the 192 responses obtained, 161 were complete and were included in the subsequent analysis at a 95% confidence rate, which indicated a confidence interval of 7.68. Responses were obtained from all USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service regions, with the largest number of responses (40.5%) from the Northern Plains states where the survey was administered, followed by 15.7% from the Northeastern states. Sixty-five responses from the Northern Plains region would represent 10.3% of the establishments identified by the 2012 Economic Census. There were also four responses from Canada. Based on the zip codes of the business location, 42.9% were located in communities with less than 10,000 people.

Respondents represented businesses of various sizes, with a disproportionate number of businesses grossing sales over \$500,000 annually (Table 1), compared to the distribution of horticultural specialty operations in the 2014 Census of Horticultural Specialties [17] across the sales categories. More than half (57.1%) of the businesses in the sample sold \$500,000 or more in 2014, with the median response category of sales being between \$500,000 and \$1 million. In comparison, 8.7% sold less than \$25,000. For reference, the average market value of products sold by nurseries, greenhouses, and floriculture farms, according to the 2012 Census of Agriculture, was \$353,788 [3]. While the Census data are likely skewed to the right, suggesting the average would exceed the median, our sample was skewed to the left.


**Table 1.** Total gross business sales in 2014 of the ornamental horticulture industry respondents in the study.

Most businesses (87.6%) in the sample were well established, having been in operation for more than 10 years. Overall, response categories were represented almost uniformly in the sample, with a small number of businesses having been in operation for more than 100 years (5.0%). Nearly two-thirds (64.0%) of businesses were open year-round.

The primary marketing channel was retail to consumers, accounting for 90% or more of total sales for half of the respondents (Table 2). The second most popular marketing channel was wholesalers to landscapers, other garden centers, and re-wholesalers. "Re-wholesalers" generally do not own production facilities, but instead buy products wholesale from producers to sell at a wholesale price to allied horticulture industry businesses, such as landscapers and garden centers. In contrast, 95.6% of respondents did not sell any of their products through the mass merchandisers' channel. Respondents also reported selling up to 10% of their products through channels not listed in the questionnaire including construction and maintenance firms, municipalities, universities, and non-profit organizations.


**Table 2.** Distribution of 2014 business sales, across marketing channels, of ornamental horticulture industry respondents in the study questionnaire.

Adopting the description of ornamental horticulture-industry products and services by Hall et al. [1], the questionnaire asked respondents to identify products and services their business offered. Consistent with the marketing channels, retail product offering was the most prevalent (Table 3). Within the retail product category, bedding and nursery stock was offered by 73.3% of respondents, followed by lawn and garden products (54.7%), general merchandise (54.0%), and landscape materials (42.2%). Bedding and nursery stock and landscape materials were the most common products among those who wholesaled. According to the 2012 Agricultural Census, nursery stock crops and bedding and garden plants were the highest valued (\$5 billion and \$3.6 billion, respectively) in ornamental horticulture industries [3]. Respondents mentioned various other activities including pottery, gift and jewelry retail, herbs, vegetables, pet shop, agritourism, educational services, and vocational training for individuals with disabilities.

Individuals who responded to the questionnaire on behalf of the businesses were on average 50 years of age, with slightly fewer female respondents (48.5%) than male respondents. More than half of the respondents held a baccalaureate degree (67.1%), with most (88.8%) attending some amount of college. Nearly two-thirds (63.4%) of the respondents were business owners, while 23.6% were managers. Thirteen respondents (8.1%) were marketing managers. This low representation of

marketing managers might suggest that either owners or managers conduct their own marketing activities, including social media, or contract their marketing services to third-party consultants. Other respondent roles included extension master gardener, office manager, sales manager, and search engine optimizer. The majority (62.7%) of respondents had worked at the business for 10 years or more. Only 3.1% of the respondents had joined or owned the business within one year. Most owners (76%) had worked at their business for at least 10 years.

**Table 3.** The percentage of ornamental horticulture industry respondents that indicated they carry these general categories of items or provide these services.

