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My First-of-the-Season Asparagus Went to Seed...And Why There’s a Good Marketing Lesson There…
For 3 years now I’ve been growing purple asparagus at my organic community garden plot.
The minute I saw it in the catalog I knew this was my kind of asparagus. It‘s tender & sweet –and you can eat it raw. I’ve never seen purple asparagus in stores—not even at roadside stands.
Given the pricey-ness of regular asparagus in supermarkets, I’d imagine the rarer purple strain would cost twice as much. So I really prize my purple asparagus.
Well, ok…maybe this year I took it for granted. I confess to being negligent.
I went out a few days ago to tackle my second major weeding of the season. The first was in early April.
I cut through all of last year’s old woody asparagus growth to find that…
A bunch of stalks had grown tall and thick. They had gone to seed.
Why did this happen this year—but not last year, or the year before?
Maybe because last year I was more attentive to the asparagus harvest cycle. I knew ahead of time when stalks were coming up—and I planned accordingly.
Not this year, people! I let life get in the way. What’s worse…I figured my gardening “memory” would kick in. I would just “know”—at the last minute—when my darling asparagus was ready to harvest.
I imagine the seasoned gardeners among you are shaking your head in disbelief. I don’t blame you.
It occurred to me that something similar happens with many businesses. They don’t plan ahead of time for next season’s marketing. They assume, for example, that last year’s e-marketing campaign will perform the same in this year’s buying climate.
And they never really examine whether last year’s campaign produced the volume of sales they wanted in the first place.
We all know Thanksgiving & Christmas mark the big selling season…and in foodie land, the Fourth of July is not chopped liver either. I won’t include Memorial Day 2009, because unless you already have a well-crafted sales offer in place…that opportunity has gone to seed.
If you plan to do promotions this holiday season that are a bit more bold and ambitious, I recommend you start brainstorming, tweaking & perfecting your concept now.
As for me…I’m off to keep an eye on some new asparagus spears I see peering out of the ground.
Suzanne Ryan
The Gourmet Copywriter
The minute I saw it in the catalog I knew this was my kind of asparagus. It‘s tender & sweet –and you can eat it raw. I’ve never seen purple asparagus in stores—not even at roadside stands.
Given the pricey-ness of regular asparagus in supermarkets, I’d imagine the rarer purple strain would cost twice as much. So I really prize my purple asparagus.
Well, ok…maybe this year I took it for granted. I confess to being negligent.
I went out a few days ago to tackle my second major weeding of the season. The first was in early April.
I cut through all of last year’s old woody asparagus growth to find that…
A bunch of stalks had grown tall and thick. They had gone to seed.
Why did this happen this year—but not last year, or the year before?
Maybe because last year I was more attentive to the asparagus harvest cycle. I knew ahead of time when stalks were coming up—and I planned accordingly.
Not this year, people! I let life get in the way. What’s worse…I figured my gardening “memory” would kick in. I would just “know”—at the last minute—when my darling asparagus was ready to harvest.
I imagine the seasoned gardeners among you are shaking your head in disbelief. I don’t blame you.
It occurred to me that something similar happens with many businesses. They don’t plan ahead of time for next season’s marketing. They assume, for example, that last year’s e-marketing campaign will perform the same in this year’s buying climate.
And they never really examine whether last year’s campaign produced the volume of sales they wanted in the first place.
We all know Thanksgiving & Christmas mark the big selling season…and in foodie land, the Fourth of July is not chopped liver either. I won’t include Memorial Day 2009, because unless you already have a well-crafted sales offer in place…that opportunity has gone to seed.
If you plan to do promotions this holiday season that are a bit more bold and ambitious, I recommend you start brainstorming, tweaking & perfecting your concept now.
As for me…I’m off to keep an eye on some new asparagus spears I see peering out of the ground.
Suzanne Ryan
The Gourmet Copywriter
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