Does your business have that “drive by” appearance that draws new customers in and makes old customers want to keep coming back? In an increasingly noisy marketing world, there is no substitute for having a front lot appearance that sets the tone for long term profitable business transactions. It is so easy as owner / manager to overlook faded signs, parking lot potholes, peeling paint and similar tragedies as we go about getting through the long work days. Every piece of trash that is left lying on the ground eventually becomes many and our businesses slowly degrade into so much compost. Customers notice new landscaping, upgraded signs, and well-maintained parking lots by coming back and bringing friends. Word of mouth advertising only works if there is something worth talking about.

In this seminar we will discuss just about every aspect of those factors that go into creating great curb appeal. Participants are encouraged to bring good quality digital images of the best looking or worst looking farm market they can find on either a flash drive (memory stick), CD or DVD. We will be looking at both good and bad farm markets and garden centers as we determine what factors go into creating curb appeal in 2009 and beyond.

Discussion(s) will include:

Road Signage: Are your signs part of the image you want to create for your business? Can they be easily read at the speed of the traffic that goes past? How much information belongs on a highway sign? Is your primary road sign an asset to your marketing scheme? Fancy fonts are they an image builder or just hard to read?

Parking lot appearance: Parking lots are one of those areas that always stir the emotions in business owners. After marketing presentations that include the importance of a well-maintained, paved parking area, I’ve been accosted in buffet lines by owners that are trying to avoid paving with arcane discussions on the price of blacktop. Firstly, yes, I know the price of blacktop and have even rented a paving box and roller to lay my own parking lot and pathways. A great looking and well-designed parking lot doesn’t so much add to your curb appeal as avoid bringing it down.

I’ve seen incredibly well designed and executed parking lots with great landscaping providing at least some shaded parking spaces. Even in this case, the sheer need for lots of paving for parking and drive rows effectively dwarfs most attempts at beauty. There is only so much you can do to beautify a parking area, but there are many things you can do to make one look and feel ugly.

Nothing makes a business seem more like it is on the way out than deep potholes, parking bumpers that are rotting and scattered and poorly maintained plantings adjacent to parking. Since most shopping experiences today are at malls, big box stores, grocery stores and the like, good parking is simply an expectation.

Main entrance: There is an old saying something to the effect that there is no chance for a second first impression. Your main entrance should be inviting, tone setting, easy to navigate and adaptable to seasonal shifts in merchandise. It should also be very easy to find your hours and any seasonal variations in said hours. Shopping carts and baskets need to be in easy reach, well maintained and clean. We’ll spend some time in this seminar on evaluating main entrances and what can be done to repair problems.

I have a love/ hate relationship with Wegmans’ grocery stores on many levels, but their entrances are particularly problematic. By the time I negotiate through all the seasonable garbage, I’ve already gotten a bad case of claustrophobia. Our goal is to get people in and then out easily, Wegmans’ in particular has devoted many employee hours to clogging their primary egress.

Landscape: Having come from the landscape / garden center industry probably bias’s my thinking when it comes to landscaping parking lots and entrances, but there are some universal rules for making your landscape work for you over time. One of the greatest mistakes owners make is in factoring in time (or the omission of time) for the maintenance of plantings. I’d rather see nothing but blacktop, stripes and a building than poorly maintained plantings. Landscape areas only work to sell your marketing plan if they always look like the gardeners just left. If you are selling plants, then this is the place to sell them first.

Building appearance: I love talking to farm market owners about how they developed their building. There seems to be 2 distinct schools of thought; 1) This is what I have to work from, so I’m always limited, but doing my best. And, 2) I got really tired of being limited, so went back to the drawing board to create a building that solved all of the problems of my old structure that could be solved on this lot and within my budget. The wide variety of great looking farm markets that are out there is a testament to the creativity of our industry.

Lasting impressions: What is the last thing that your customers see, feel and believe about your business as they drive off? I had the opportunity to speak at a meeting several years ago where there was this tremendous effort by the business owners to create a very impressive agritainment atmosphere. The place looked great, the help was polite, the parking lot was easy to negotiate, but the exit road took you out past the back of the greenhouses. The last thing that I remember about this operation was a huge pile of spent and decaying plastic nursery pots and trays. We must learn to think and observe like our customers. Their last thought should always be who they should drag to your place next.