Undertake simple and relevant practical tasks.
Submit written assignments at the completion of each lesson.
Prepare 72 plant review worksheets.
Research and analyse the operation of garden centres and nurseries.
You can commence the course when it suits you and work through it at your own pace.
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Extract from course notes....
MERCHANDISING SUGGESTIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL PROMOTIONS
What is a Promotion?
A promotion is an activity which produces a change in your customers' behaviour, resulting in extra sales.
How Does It Work?
Firstly, every brand has a price or value understood by customers. A promotion offers extra value or a lower price to the customer.
Secondly, a promotion demands urgency from your customer because of its short availability time ("whilst stocks last").
An attractive product display with a message is often an effective way of increasing sales, but it is NOT a promotion. It should really be called a "display feature: because it does not have the vital ingredient of Added Value.
There are several different levels of promotional strategies:
1. Full Promotion: all sections at full margin plus a planned and sustained program of promotions.
2. Lightweight Promotions: all sections at full margin plus occasional loss leader promotions.
3. Partial Discount plus "Highlights": certain sections at cut price plus occasional loss leader promotion.
4. Partial Discount: certain sections at low price, other items at full price.
Your strategy will depend on:
• Location: are your customers local, or do you need to attract them from a wider area?
• Competitors: what can you offer compared with them?
• Your shop: in particular, its layout and capacity for extra promotional sales.
• Limitation: If normal marketing and advertising have failed to establish the true value of a product, a promotion will not be successful because there is no comparative standard. Within a store, promotions can only work well if the basic merchandising job has been done properly. They are not substitutes for product range, siting and space allocation with well controlled displays.
The Basic Rules of Promotions
a) Your reason for promoting is to sell more products to your customers as quickly as possible. Specials should be regularly changed. To do this, the offer should appeal to their immediate or secondary needs.
b) The choice of promotion depends on what you want to achieve ie. if you want more people in your garden centre, special locally advertised offers or personality backed promotions could be very useful.
c) Your promotion should be unique to attract maximum attention.
e) The promotion should be simple to understand and operate.
e) The promotion must represent value for money and be credible and honest.
f) The promotion should be consistent with your own image.
How To Choose A Promotion
Consider the following:
1. Who are the main users of the product or brand?
2. How, when and why do they use the product?
3. How frequently is it purchased?
4. What are its main competitors?
5. How does the customer see the brand versus the competition?
Use the facts to decide how to run the promotion:
1. Determine, in order of priority, the key problem.
2. Identify the money available.
3. List and cost all the possible alternative options that are open (eg. more advertising, customer promotions, pricing strategy).
4. Having estimated the cost, ask yourself what will the benefit be to you.
Horticulture Tutors
Diana Cole B.A. (Hons), Higher Dip. (Garden Design), RHS Advanced Cert. Horticulture, Cert Admin.Mgt., Dip. Inst. Personnel Management
In addition to her RHS horticulture, garden design, City & Guild construction, NPTC pesticide/legislation and business/management qualifications, Diana has a variety of skills drawn from setting up Arbella Gardens, a landscape gardening business. She also has administrative, management and training delivery experience drawn from her employment in other organisations such as the NHS and other educational institutions such as schools & universities. She has augmented her training expertise having gained the Preparing to Teach in the Life Long Learning Sector qualification. She also has experience gained through working as a volunteer in a number of different roles including amenity style gardening in parks and practical conservation work.
Maggi Brown Cert.Ed.(Environment)
Maggi is regarded as an expert in Organic Growing throughout the UK, having worked for two decades as Education Officer at the world renowned Henry Doubleday Research Association (now Garden Organic). She has been active in education, environmental management and horticulture across the UK for more them three decades.
Yvonne Sharpe RHS Cert.Hort, Dip.Hort, M.Hort, Cert.Ed., Dip.Mgt.
Over 30 years of experience in horticulture, education and management, Yvonne hastravelled widely within and beyond Europe, and has worked in many areas of horticulture from garden centres to horticultural therapy. She has served on industry committees and been actively involved with amateur garden clubs for decades.
What qualification will I achieve for completing this course?
This is an individual module course. The individual module courses are 100 hour long usually and can be taken on their own or as part of a larger program of study.
If you wish to take an individual module course as a stand alone course, you can elect to sit an optional exam at the end of it.
If you successfully pass the exam and all assignments, you will receive a Statement of Attainment. You can take examinations at a time and location to suit you. If you enrol, you will be sent further information on how to arrange examinations at the end of the course. If you do not wish to take the exam, you will receive a Course Completion letter when you have passed all assignments. Find out more information on examinations by clicking here.
There is an assignment at the end of each lesson. So for example, if an individual module course contains ten lessons, you will need to complete ten assignments. Assignments can be sent to us via email, post or fax.
Other qualifications, such as certificates, diplomas etc may require examinations to be taken as part of the overall assessment process.
