How would you characterise the new and improved brand?

Unwins is characterised by its consumer focus. We looked at how consumers buy seeds, the current offer versus the normal retail environment that consumers face. Consumers are motivated by improvements, performance, value and choice and the current seed offer offers little consumer experience and no opportunity for the consumer to make a value and performance choice. Gro-sure, the new brand from Unwins changes this, for the first time consumers will be offered the better, best choice in terms of performance and communication.

Gro-sure is about giving all gardeners a helping hand through improved germination, vigour, disease and pest resistance, yield and uniformity. Through the £1 million plus communication campaign we can help consumers trade up and in turn deliver significant cash benefits to the retailer. The Gro- sure range represents a new level of seed performance and as such, headlines the new range.

The logo and packaging looks fantastic - how long was it in production for?

The design and communication has been ongoing for the last 12 months and was based on consumer feedback and insight. We conducted extensive customer research to ensure we got the right information, the right feel and the right vibrancy.

The seed category is one of the most inspirational within a garden centre and consumers want to be inspired through communication, style and colour. At the moment gardeners get their inspiration from magazines, we believe a seed company needs to take the lead and inspire at retail - again what the consumers wanted.

What is your target market - are you targeting all gardeners or a particular demographic?

The seed market is split into two broad groups. What is significant is the potential for 15 million consumers within the seed market. Our prospective targets are the older age group and young families - two big chunks of potential seed buyers exist and we can get a much greater portion of marketplace to buy grow your own seeds. The marketplace has the potential to grow by 20 or 30 per cent. Just by communicating with them, telling them how easy it could be, we could engage many more consumers.

How important will point-of-sale merchandising be to the launch and ongoing promotion of the brand?

It's very important - our job is to get consumers to our fixture. Taking a seamless approach to marketing, all POS will link directly with our advertising campaign, which is about real gardeners growing real vegetables. Our aim is to inspire - some of the language that came out in our research -how people talk around subjects, was all about being real and this came into fruition with the campaign.

We wanted to typify the enjoyment in gardening - the ‘I achieved it'.

Do you plan to offer retailers merchandising advice and technical training prior to the launch?

Yes it will be key to the launch. This is as much about trade education as consumer education.

We will be offering master classes to educate key staff. We will also talk about how to promote link sales eg. seeds, compost.

What is your aim for the Unwins brand and where do you hope to see it in 5 years time?

Our aim is to make the growing of seeds or the enjoyment of raising plants accessible for everybody. We are at the forefront of the seed sector, leading innovation, raising performance standards and offering new concepts to the consumer.

We want to deliver a consistently growing seed marketplace. We want more consumers walking into the retail environment - retailers will benefit from this, as will we.

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