Week 4 Part A: Defining Target Markets

For this week I researched the two gardening brands of Armstrong Garden Centers and Rancho Vista Nursery. These two gardening companies had quite a few differences for the target market as well as marketing aesthetics as well. The basic observations I picked up from researching the websites were web organization/ style and target audience. For Armstrong Garden Centers, I found that the audience seems to be a lot broader than that of the Rancho Vista Nursery, which is to be expected because Armstrong is a much largerr company. 

Some obvious differences I found between Armstrong and Rancho Vista are that Armstrong also has a wider variety of plants and flowers for the consumer than Rancho Vista Nursery. I can see that Rancho Vista Nursery is more community based and specializes in unique succulents and cactus plants only. Another obvious difference is the companies’ websites and photography quality. Armstrong Nursery has a lot of very good high quality photography. Also, Armstrong Nursery has a lot more gardening options for landscape design.

I don’t believe there are many “subtle” differences even though these brands are both plant/gardening related businesses. The crossover between customers is most likely the love for gardening and plants because both are very passionate gardening businesses. So it’s possible costumers would visit both nurseries.

Based off the research I found from studying both businesses, I conclude that the call to action for Armstrong nurseries involves a wide scale of gardening options as well as gardening education. Armstrong offers online class videos for the consumer as well which is a significant addition to a company. Armstrong nursery also utilizes a more brightly colored nature aesthetic with their brand and people of all ages are used in the photos as well. Rancho Vista Nursery’s website also uses very small font which is tough for the reader while Armstrong uses bigger and bolder fonts for the reader. Currently it looks like a lot of the Rancho Vista Nursery is closed for different reasons, Armstrong looks much more open and available to the consumer and that will help Armstrong’s business propel farther than Rancho Vista Nursery at this time too.