I doubt if there has been a generation that has more written about it than this generation. The 15 to 25 year olds are changing the way that we think about the consumer and the market. As I produce this article, the chart topping musician in the British pop charts has not produced a record and the Arctic Monkeys, an unknown group eight weeks ago from Sheffield have just announced that there USA tour is over booked, yet they do not have a advertising budget!

All this due to a Generation Y who thinks and does things differently to the other generations.

What do they think of garden centers, according to my daughter, not much? They are not a cool place to be, Should we ignore them, at our peril, as they are the consumers of tomorrow.

How do you get into there minds?

We need to accept that these are our consumers of tomorrow and that they will eventually get interested in plants as a form of decoration for their homes and gardens. They also find the garden center a place for the older generations. But, how they buy and relate to each other is what we should be concerned with as we will need to attract them to our stores in the future.

This is the generation that does not believe in traditional media advertising, generally they are cynical about it Advertising on the TV or in a newspaper will not get them into your store. They are computer literate and will respond to promotions that come via SMS {it worked for Arctic monkeys} and promotions via the web or other strategies linked to computers .They are often more socially aware and will respond to events linked to charities and support businesses that are proactive in supporting causes that they believe in, an example of this is Tesco supermarkets getting behind Women's support groups to raise money for Cancer charities.

When Generation Y goes shopping they are looking for a stimulating experience. Shopping is generally boring in there minds, hence the rapid growth of online shopping in there generational sector. This does mean you have be to have a web presence for your business and it will not be long until you have a virtual garden center site they can buy pants from you online.

When dealing with this generation it is important to remember what we were all like at that age, we knew everything as we had not got to the stage of knowing what we did not know, this means that when serving Generation Y we need to be aware of where they are coming from and not talk down to them for the result may be that we lose them for life!

I'm a believer in that we should address some of the needs of this generation in the garden center as they were often consumers when they kids and should become advocates again when they become the new generation in the community. This is a generation with a higher spending power than any generation before them and we need to keep in tune with their needs and wants.

They will decorate their rooms with cool gifts and that could include indoor living products, but they will be looked on as living ornaments and this is how we should promote them. We will not get rich selling to this group...yet.

Dos

Have a small collection of Indoor living products for this generation

Get a copy of generation Y

Employ generation Y team members and get to understand there approach to marketing and advertising

Ensure you keep on top of IT technology

Have a web page and develop a Virtual garden center site DON'TS

Don'ts

Use horticultural jargon and talk down to these consumers

Try and act as cool as them if you are not in their age bracket

Ignore this sector of the market completely