Gardening is often a seasonal past time- and not often associated with ‘digital’ media. But even those with green fingers are going digital- with some interesting results for marketers. Stephanie Keller, TGI, Marketing Executive and Media Analyst looks at how online and offline marketing can be combined to reach gardeners.
As the saying goes ‘Spring showers bring May flowers.’ The recent wet weather proves as such while Great Britain’s colourful spring life begins to sprout. This time of year is particularly busy for the 12 million British adults who regularly garden, watching the fruits of their labour come to fruition. The latest insights from Kantar Media TGI reveal a great deal about the lives, motivations and online habits of this group and how they can represent a lucrative target to marketers.
Looking at the demographics, those who regularly garden in Great Britain tend to be older and female. They are 67% more likely than the average British adult to be 55 years or older and 57% of them are women.
With an average family income 9% above average, many amongst this gardening group have a disposable income that is appealing to marketers. They should look at this group’s shopping habits to understand what motivates them to buy certain products. This group are 83% more likely to be classified as ‘Empty Nesters’ (55+, married/living as a couple, and do not live with son/daughter), thus not having children at home to be responsible for. They are also 64% more likely than the average to own their home outright, giving them more money to spend since they do not have a mortgage.
Within this green fingered bunch, 67% are main shoppers in their household (i.e. responsible for the bulk of the grocery shopping). Because of their gardening hobby, the origin and type of food they consume is really important to them and translates into their shopping habits. These main shoppers are 47% more likely than the average to pay attention to where their food is grown. They are also 40% more likely to consider their diet very healthy.
Utilising TGI’s shopper segmentation, marketers can view an even more holistic profile of these gardeners’ grocery shopping habits and motivations. This group is 54% more likely than the average main shopper to be characterised as ‘ethical empathisers’, who purchase food based on reasons such as environmental friendliness of the brand, origin and ingredients. These ethical gardeners are also 33% more likely to shop at Waitrose or Marks & Spencer for their groceries.
While the Internet may not be an obvious targeting medium for engaging gardening enthusiasts, this group is highly engaged online with food-related sites and activities. 25% of this group have bought groceries online in the past month. They are also 21% more likely than the average Internet user to visit sites on food and cuisine. We could go further still with Kantar Media’s Ad-Vantage initiative, generating the exact cookies for reaching this target online.
As this group continues to develop their digital skills, marketers looking to reach them online should find this group offline first. Among those who regularly garden and have used the Internet in the past 12 months, they are 57% more likely than the average Internet user to find out about websites through magazines or newspaper advertisements. They are also 35% more likely to find out about web sites from mail advertisements.
By Stephanie Keller
Marketing Executive and Media Analyst
TGI
http://www.kantarmedia.co.uk/businesses/tgi/