After years of decorating and redecorating the interiors of their homes, American consumers are turning their energy outside to spruce up the exterior living areas of their homes. This shift reflects a new outdoor living lifestyle that extends family life beyond the protective cocoon of the home's walls. Today's home is a hub for connecting with consumers looking outside to reconnect with their neighbors and local communities. The outdoor living market is the focus of this new research study conducted by Unity Marketing among 1,000 U.S. homeowners.

The outdoor living market, including both outdoor living products and services, reached $62.5 billion in 2004, rising from $60.1 billion in 2003. While the retail sales of plant materials accounted for $19.6 billion or 31 percent of the total market in 2004, the real growth categories in the coming years will be the tools, equipment, supplies and accessories that enhance the outdoor living lifestyle.

Consumer Insights on Outdoor Living Lifestyles and Purchases

For marketers and retailers of outdoor living products and services, consumer insights will play an increasingly important role in strategic decisions. This market segment promises to be among the more rapidly growing sectors in the consumer economy over the next ten years, as consumers increasingly use their homes as a hub for connecting and a place for activity, reaching out and doing things. The emerging connecting lifestage is reflected in the new do-it-yourself trend, where consumers undertake DIY not to save money but to express their creativity and skill. Gardening and landscape design are one area where more people find creative expression. Home is also a place to entertain and be entertained and where the outdoor living spaces of the home play an expanded role.

Topics explored in the research study include:

• How consumers view their outdoor living space, how they use their outdoor 'rooms,' how they decorate them and how they maintain them?
  
  
• What brands are important and what stores do outdoor living shoppers prefer to buy from? How often do they shop for outdoor living goods and how much do they spend?
  
  
• How important is price, style, material, brand and store in the buying equation?
  
  
• What drives the shopper into the store to shop for outdoor living products? Who makes the final purchase decision - husband, wife or both? What factors influence the genders in making purchases?
  
  
• What role do outdoor living specialty retailers and service providers play in satisfying consumers' desires for enhanced outdoor living experiences? How do they perceive the customers in their midst and what strategies are they using to be more successful selling outdoor living products and services to their customer?
  
  
• What new opportunities are on the horizon for outdoor living goods and service providers?
  
  
• How can retailers and marketers take advantage of consumers' passion for outdoor living and grow with this new market?

Also Included Is Garden Retailers' Perspective on this Marketplace

Adding a retailers' perspective on the outdoor living consumer marketplace is a research study among 100 of the nation's leading garden centers. Garden center managers were surveyed about how they perceive the emerging opportunities in the outdoor living marketplace and how they are transforming their businesses to take advantage of the opportunities.

This retailer insight provides key strategic information for outdoor living marketers who primarily sell their goods to the consumer through the garden center channel.

Details about consumer behavior included in this report are:

• Plant Materials - Overall purchase incidence, what products they buy, how much they spend, where the shop, why they buy and brand awareness and preferences.
  
  
• Garden Tools, Equipment, Supplies - Overall purchase incidence, what products they buy, how much they spend, where the shop, why they buy and brand awareness and preferences.
  
  
• Outdoor Living Products, such as barbecue grills, lights, fireplaces, furniture, outdoor decorative accents, ponds, pools, etc - Overall purchase incidence, what products they buy, how much they spend, where the shop, why they buy and brand awareness and preferences.
  
  
• Outdoor Living Services - Overall purchase incidence, what services they buy, how much they spend and why they buy.

In addition to purchase behavior, attitudes and motivations in outdoor living purchases are also explored, including a psychographic analysis of four distinct personalities that participate in the outdoor living market: Lounging Lisa, Happy Gardener Helen, Therapeutic Thelma, and Sylvia the Garden Slave.

This new research study is an investment in the future of outdoor living marketers' and retailers' businesses so that they can stay out in front of their rapidly changing customers.

This research is sponsored in part by the outdoor living industry's most forward-thinking companies, including Nursery Retailer, Scotts and Smith & Hawken.

May 2005 (150+ pages)

Published Price: $2,500

Major Findings

Table of Contents (PDF)

Sample Page (PDF)

Introduction & Methodology

Consumer Survey Questionnaire

To Order:

Paper Copy

Downloadable PDF

Executive Presentation and Leave-Behind Report