Consumers get better and better at it. They’re sure getting a lot of practice. John Naisbit first predicted “high-tech/high-touch” in Megatrends. Faith Popcorn predicted “cocooning” in The Popcorn Report. She’s now updated that with “uber-cocooning”. Certain things aren’t changing so much as they’re getting deeper and richer. The consumers have become more sophisticated cocooner’s with outdoor living, outdoor living rooms, and even those televisions that pop up out of the hot tub or outdoor kitchen (thank’s Dawn Gower at Ferda’s). Have local owned garden centers kept up with this really, or is the consumer bypassing the local-owned retailer for the greater garden center world? What are we going to do about it now? Are we going to try to play the discount , lower price, smaller size game and hope to keep the volume, or are we going to get serious about this, take the high road, and provide the total value of great product, shopping environment, and service that is becoming of the customer’s desire to “uber-cocoon”?
Read more and see what Faith Popcorn said about cocooning and uber-cocooning by clicking here.
Filed under: Consumers, Marketing, Product | Tagged: backyard, cocooning, Consumers, Faith Popcorn, garden center, local owned, low prices, megatrends, The Popcorn Report, uber-cocooning, volume |
Strategies Blog from Horticultural Advantage 
I heard a term a while back that I really like, and that I think BETTER describes today’s home life: “Hiving.” See, cocooning implies safety and warmth, which, in times of fear (like after 9/11) make sense. But today’s consumers aren’t so much afraid as they are uncertain.
Anyway, “hiving” implies home as a beehive of activity, and we all want commercial-quality entertainment and convenience at home.
Think about it: We all have a home office now. The little TV set has turned into a wide-screen, surround-sound cinema experience. Our simple kitchen now needs restaurant-quality Viking ranges and granite countertops. The disposable grill and cheesy folding yard chairs have become a resort stocked with a built-in $5000 stainless kitchen and furniture worthy of the finest indoor setting. Plus those hot tubs and all-weather TVs of which you speak.
So yes, our stuff should certainly fit into that. We just have to remember that our stuff is an ACCESSORY – it’s not the main deal.