Week 5, Blog Post #1

There are a few obvious differences between Myrtle Creek and Armstrong garden Centers. Myrtle Creek appears to be a unique, one-of-a-kind botanical garden/nursery that is meant be visited by tourists for pleasure and recreational purposes. There appears only one Myrtle Creek in existence. On the other hand, Armstrong Garden Centers is a corporate chain of stores that operates exclusively in California, and it is possible for California residents to search for the closet store in their respective regions of California. The home page of Armstrong Garden Centers seems to be aimed at attracting business from prospective customers-especially people who practice gardening in their own homes. It also sees to be aimed at customers who professional landscaping services to be performed at their own homes. Based on the DIY gardening tips that posted on this website, I would say that Armstrong Garden Centers are focused gaining the businesses of customers who want garden in their own home spaces. Going to Myrtle Creek, however, seems like an all-day recreational event all by itself. Based on the pictures of happy people placed on the “Café Bloom” and “Curious Gardens” sections of the websites, it appears that Myrtle Creek is almost like botanical garden version of a local theme park or a local nature reserve.

In terms of the customer bases of both websites, it seems like older men and women who like to garden and enjoy spending time with their families at parks and in nature would enjoy both Myrtle Creek. On the other hand, Myrtle Creek appears to probably appeal most to young children, preteens, and people that do not like gardening on their own, but would still like to spend time in nature. Based on the Armstrong Garden Centers website, though, I would guess that their target audience would be middle-aged or older adults who are more likely to own their homes (or are very likely to in the future). In addition, I would also venture to guess that the majority of their customers live in households making middle class or upper middle class salaries. Based on Armstrong Garden Centers’ sections featuring DIY garden tips, I think that the company is less inclined to target people who live in apartments where they cannot practice gardening as a hobby, and cannot make any physical changes to their living space. Just based on instinctive anecdotes, I would say that the middle class and upper middle class or the income groups that most likely to afford to be able to have gardens, but not rich enough to hire gardeners to take care of their gardens all of the time.

            The most subtle differences of both companies’ target audiences is revealed by looking at which social media sites (located at the bottom of their web pages) are linked to their websites. Armstrong Garden Centers urges people to follow them in Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest, which seems typical of businesses that are focused on marketing and selling products.  Interestingly, though, Myrtle Creek actually has an official page on TripAdvisor, Yelp, and YouTube, which suggests that Myrtle Creek is a physical place that is meant to be traveled to and visited. However, Myrtle Creek does have links social websites that many businesses typically do, including Facebook, Google+, Instagram, and Pinterest. Upon examining these links, it becomes clear that Armstrong Garden Centers is ultimately selling products to gardeners and homeowners that practice gardening, and Myrtle Creek is selling a memorable, fun experience of traveling to an enchanting, beautiful botanical garden to tourists.