Under the Prairie Moon's cover

Prairie Moon Nursery sells “Native Plants and Seeds for Wetland, Prairie, Savanna and Woodland,” according to its tagline. Critiquers Sarah Fletcher, creative director of Providence, RI-based Catalog Design Studios, and Peter Larnish, president of Vienna, VA-based creative firm Larnish & Associates, reviewed the Winona, MN-based mailer's 2008 Catalog & Cultural Guide. Here's what they had to say.

SARAH FLETCHER

At first glance, Prairie Moon Nursery looks like it needs a lot of work. But upon closer inspection, the hard work has actually been done. The problem is, the experts are not thinking like customers, so the customers they attract have to be experts.

Planting a prairie is what I'd call “extreme gardening,” an activity that appeals to a specialized subset of gardeners. There's less information available to prairie gardeners, and Prairie Moon Nursery clearly fills that niche.

The cataloger is an established expert with an encyclopedic knowledge of native plants and grasses. The downside is that its information is presented in a way that is difficult for all but the most dedicated growers to decipher.

The challenge for all companies that position themselves as experts is to establish their authority and to appeal to fellow experts — while inviting a wider audience into the fold. Prairie Moon can increase sales and retention without alienating its current customers. Here's how.

For starters, the cataloger needs to get off the grid. Prairie Moon may fear that its page count will explode if it gives up the product grids with all the plant information.

But while changing to a more copy-intensive format may add some pages, it will not turn the book into a perfect-bound monster. Reformatting the existing charts into narrow columns — as opposed to the current charts that span the width of two pages — will free up space for copy and make the charts easier to read.

Copy is generally straightforward and interesting to read, but the use of technical terms creates barriers to sales. The key is to use terms in ways that establish credibility and appeal to fellow experts and potential new customers alike.

For example, not everyone knows that a “forb” is a wildflower. Saying “This forb is an exceptional choice.” is not as helpful to readers as, “This forb (wildflower) is an exceptional choice.” That one word change can mean the difference between losing and closing a sale.

Prairie Moon can also benefit from consistency in its copy voice. In some places, the catalog uses the more engaging “our nursery” and “we” voices, and in others the more staid “the nursery” and the ubiquitous “it.” Sticking to copy written from the “we” and “our staff” perspective would establish authority and help draw customers in.

And abbreviations are okay for a few things, but if a customer can't read through a copy block without referring to a legend or guide for more than a few terms or symbols, you lose the sale. Customers have to want to buy the plant before they need to know how it is germinated.

Some examples of the catalog's current wetland codes:

• OBL Obligated Wetland — Occurs almost always in wetlands under natural conditions

• FACW Faculative Wetland — Usually occurs in wetlands, but occasionally found in non-wetlands

• FAC Faculative — Equally likely to occur in wetlands or non-wetlands

• FACU Faculative Upland — Occasionally occurs in wetlands, but usually occurs in non-wetlands

• UPL Upland — Occurs almost never in wetlands under natural conditions

Yikes! Not only are customers forced to look up abbreviations, but unless they are botanists, they probably don't know what “faculative” means.

Since the single most important plant differentiator when making a purchase is site condition, most customers are now confronted with either looking up this term in the front of the book, or simply walking away from the sale.

I'd suggest changing the codes to something like this:

• Change OBL to Wet
• Change FACW to Wet+
• Change FAC to Wet/Up
• Change FACU to Up+
• Change UPL to Up

It's the same information, but a much quicker read. In general, when it comes to pagination, this book is what I call a mullet — business in the front, party in the back. Why hide the fun?

The seven pages on how to establish a prairie garden that start on page 52 belong right up front. It would be easy to work in the branding elements from pages 2-3 and the “We've Moved” spread now in the front of the book to kick off the catalog in a way that pulls customers right in.

Some careful editing could also gain a few pages. I would follow that intro section with the seed mixes, and combine the Germination Instructions, Cultural Guide Key, Ordering Information and Order Form into one section.

I would get the order form to land in the center of the book so that it is easy to refer to. Or at least I would add a red border to the edge of the page so it is easy to find.

I would also add a page reference column to the order form grid to make it easier for customers to find and discuss specific varieties they have chosen. Next, I would show the individual plants, then herbicides and books. I would also figure out what the top-three products are and include them on the back cover as a double exposure.

The logo on the cover could be cleaned up a bit, as it looks like it has been over enlarged. (Increasing the size of a jpeg or tiff more than 150% of the original size will produce soft edges.) That aside, I love the cover, and the photography is beautiful and aspirational.

Most important, this catalog has heart, and after reading through it, you can feel the pride and excitement of Prairie Moon Nursery. By implementing the proposed changes, this catalog's bottom line could really bloom.