What Gardening Can Teach You About Marketing
I like fresh tomatoes.
I like hot peppers.
And I'm just nuts about cucumbers.
I have all three vegetables right at my fingertips and the best part is, I grew them myself in my very own garden.
All I do is provide water and pick the vegetables when they are ripened enough to eat.
I have what can be considered as a low key attitude towards gardening. I'll be the first to admit, the garden is a bit rough looking. The cucumber vine winds it way through the tomato plants in competition with the peppers for the the sunlight. Not to be outdone the pepper plants steal the ground moisture from the cucumber vines.
My wife says I over planted. I say I over planted. We both agree this 6'X6' patch of real estate I call a garden, looks like an experiment gone wild. It's to late to do anything about it now. I'm not willing to sacrifice any of my mad scientist food bearing plants to create a nice looking garden. All I can do is learn from the mistakes I made this growing season in planning, planting, and cultivating a stronger garden, and plan ahead for next year's garden.
If you think about it, gardening and marketing are a lot alike.
Selecting complimentary plants (niches) work much better than two or three plants with different growing patterns. Just like vines not working well with tomatoes or peppers; I can see how a niche on cosmetics would not work well with a niche promoting camping or bass fishing. It would take a whole lot of work to combine the one with the other two..
Some plants (niche products) require larger investments of time and maintenance. Sort of like marketing niches on weight loss,golf,credit repair, pet products, and (my favorite)travel. Due to all the competition, it takes a lot more time and effort to promote the aforementioned niches. if you don't have a lot of time, try something easier like organic chemistry. (I have no idea what that is ..It just sounds good)
Plant according to how large or small you would like the size of your garden to be. Growing too many plants in a small amount of space can result in smaller sizes of vegetables or fruit (money) being harvested. Growing only a few plants will give you larger fruits and vegetables, but the amount of produce will run out quicker. Planting the right amount of plants will produce a larger harvest over a longer period of time.
To sum it all up, gardening and marketing pretty much use the same strategies. In order to have a larger yield of rewards as the end result,
both ventures require a well thought out plan, sticking to the plan as much as possible, and making only those changes that are necessary to be successful.
Now, if you'll excuse me I have a fresh cucumber, jalapeno and tomato salad waiting for me in the kitchen.
Peace..... Barnabus