Swanson Russell

The term “green industry” covers a lot of ground. And so do we. From fertilizers to irrigation and mowers to perennials, we’ve amassed a wealth of experience and insights over decades of building brands in this industry. We’re happy to share a few of those insights in the following reports and articles. If you’re interested in receiving the full versions of anything you see here, please contact Dave Hansen at 402-437-6427.

Maximizing Your Publicity in the Green Industry
Product publicity can offer one of the highest returns on investment in a marketing communications program. Publicity can also have a significant impact on corporate positioning. This report outlines key components of an effective approach to media relations as it relates specifically to the habits and characteristics of trade publications serving the green industry. You’ll find specific tips on how to maximize the potential of many tools employed to generate positive press.

Southern Shades Point–of–Purchase & Building Brand Equity
Are point–of–purchase materials in retail garden centers effective? Are they worth the investment of suppliers? Can retailers and growers win more shelf space and create faster product turns using these materials? The debate is tested at the retail garden center by Swanson Russell and partners and our report will surprise you with the results of the study.

From Cause-Related Marketing to Corporate Social Responsibility: Adopting Principles that Benefit your Company and Customers
Normally a subject reserved for board rooms and corporate affairs committees, how your company is perceived as a corporate citizen can have a major impact on how you are perceived by your customers as well as your customers’ customers. What can you do to contribute to the cause of corporate responsibility, and what can you do to help your distributors and how they are perceived in the community? This report explores the issue in detail.

How to Measure the Effectiveness of Marketing Communications in the Green Industry
Green industry advertisers are demanding that their marketing communications become more accountable. This report describes the steps in the marketing communications effectiveness measurement process. It discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the four key approaches to measuring marketing communications effectiveness. The report contains sections that describe special challenges and opportunities associated with measuring different types of communications used by green industry marketers.

How to Maximize the Value of Distributors and End Users After the Sale
Green industry marketers often spend significant dollars promoting their products to end users, but rarely have a formal communication program for their most important customers—distributors. This report discusses the reasons why many marketers fail to devote sufficient attention to current distributors and offers more than 20 ideas for maximizing the value of distributors and end users once they become customers.

Marketing Communications for Uncertain Times
During economic hard times it can be hard just to survive, let alone grow as a company. How do you protect your bottom line and your brand at the same time? How do you battle in a faltering economy and stay intact? This white paper will address these and other questions and provide you with light at the end of the tunnel.

Point-Of-Purchase Advertising, a Green Industry’s Dream...And Nightmare
This report discusses the various types of POP advertising, the situations in which each type is likely to be most effective and how retailers respond to POP materials. The report combines Swanson Russell's many years of experience creating POP materials for green industry clients with information from several POP advertising studies.

Paid Search Advertising
The number one activity on the Web? Searching. Which is why paid search is becoming an increasingly important part of any marketing mix. In this report we explore the benefits of paid search advertising and offer a primer on how to build a targeted, measurable, compelling campaign.

Put Your Mouth Where the Money Is
Penned by our very own Parker Stoner, Put Your Mouth Where the Money Is explains how to refocus your communications. Too often, marketers walk away disappointed from communications strategies that have too little credibility to impact their audience. In this book, we lay out a new Hierarchy of Marketing Communications Effectiveness, and explain how to strategically build and deliver messages that forge a Real Connection™ with your audience.

Harvest Online Intelligence
These days, a company’s frontline is not the salesperson; it’s the Internet. Conversations about your brand and your products are happening, on social media networks, blogs and anywhere in between. And the better you understand those conversations, the more informed your communications strategy will be. In this report, we walk through the concept of “conversation mining,” and how it can help build your brand.

Refocusing Scarce Resources During Tough Times
When Swanson Russell and employee Parker Stoner set out to write Put Your Mouth Where the Money Is in 2007, nobody knew what tough economic conditions laid in waiting. The ideas in the book, however, turned out to be a valuable resource for companies facing tough decisions necessitated by flat or reduced budgets. In this paper, we expound on some of the book’s ideas, and apply them to recession-era situations. We can’t predict the future, but we can better prepare you for it.

Our Approach to Branding
“Brand” has become a ubiquitous term in marketing. While it means a lot of things to a lot of different people, at its core, a brand is a company’s ability to authentically define itself to its core audiences. There isn’t a company on the market that couldn’t benefit from a good brand, which is why we’ve developed this roadmap to the branding process.

Strategies for Social Media Success
Anymore, social media is more than just a planning meeting agenda item. The phenomenon of social media requires constant exploration, dissection and critical thinking. Its benefits are completely unique from any other medium’s, and its capabilities are still being discovered.  In this paper, we’ll walk you through the state of social media, including recommendations on how to decide what social media program is right for you. Read through case studies, measurement techniques and budget considerations and learn how to make social media part of your brand’s messaging mix.

Blending Traditional and Digital Media
In the same way that consumers sometimes feel inundated with marketing messages, we as marketers may sometimes feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of communication avenues we have at our disposal. With so many different forms, how does a brand achieve function? In this report, we survey the landscape of traditional and digital media. We'll show you the work we've done in each medium, and what we learned along the way. We'll also cover eight key steps for blending them all together.