Week 4, Part A : Defining Target Markets

       Defining a target market can be straight forward or more of a broad spectrum. For this assignment I chose to compare the gardening set: Armstrong Garden Centers and Rancho Vista Nursery. Both companies sell plants, but are clearly quite different. 

        I looked over Rancho Vista Nursery first. The state right away on their website that they are marketing to wholesale, CA licensed resellers only. An appointment is required in advance. I did see something about a farm stand, which may have been for retail sales, but that is closed due to covid. Overall the entire site was dedicated more to the wholesale market. They did not have very many pages to get lost in and ad a clear cut, simple website. The type of plants they handle is also limited to cacti and succulents. They are specialized in their product line. Rancho Vista Nursery also only has 1 location. 

      I then took a look at Armstrong Garden Centers. This is completely different than Rancho Vista, despite also being in the business of selling plants. Armstrong is a chain retailers with 31 locations within 100 miles of me. They have online ordering available. They also offer services such as landscape design and classes. They handle a much broader variety of plants that include: Flowers, Tropicals, Veggies, and Citrus. They seem targeted towards home gardeners and weekend warriors. 

         At first the size of Armstrong was overwhelming. I found it easy to navigate though. It was exciting to see they offered online ordering with curbside pickup or home delivery. Rancho Vista's site felt more warm and inviting, maybe family owned. The two companies do have different markets and have designed their websites accordingly.