During the recession, the decline in home value and home ownership reduced the demand for ornamental plants, lawn and garden products, and related services, which resulted in significantly negative effect on the green industry revenues.Postrecession consolidation in the United States green industry has forced smaller firms to re-evaluate their marketing strategies. New-media marketing has gained attention as a relatively low-cost and high-exposure marketing strategy. This paper utilizes binary logit and interval censored regression to examine the use and the impact of social-media marketing in the green industry. The analysis was based on primary data from a survey of US nurseries and garden centers. The findings reveal that the daily use of social-media marketing is largely driven by the network effect and the managers' attitudes. They also indicate that the small-sized firms receive higher returns from social media use in terms of increased sales compared with larger firms. K E Y W O R D S green industry, horticulture, social-media marketing, technology adoption J E L M31, O33, Q13 Agribusiness. 2019;35:281-297.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/agr

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Agriculture continues to struggle to find enough qualified students to advance the industry. Thus, recruiting practice improvement is imperative. This study assessed the efficacy of message strategies, message channels, recruiting materials, and messages for recruiting students into an academic program with low enrollment. Focus groups were conducted with agriculture students outside of the department of interest to address the following objectives: 1) identify the most effective message strategies and message channels to reach and attract potential students, and 2) conduct testing of strategically developed recruitment materials and messages. Results indicated job stability and positive contextual messages would be effective for recruiting. Participants preferred messages delivered in person, targeted online advertisements, and campus publications. Additionally, findings showed participants wanted full-color materials with pictures; messages with statistics on the industry; online videos that are 1-2 minutes, with videos on a website based on user interest; and testimonials from a range of individuals in the industry. Participants were mixed on the perceived effectiveness of Facebook advertisements. The results of this study indicate an increased need to target recruitment efforts through a strategic communication process. This research has implications for recruiting the millennial generation using both gain and non-loss framed messages.

In recent years, the land grant university has struggled with public awareness outside of its traditional audiences, indicating a potential disconnect between the general public and the media. The purpose of this study was to assess the perceptions and awareness of media with regard to the image and reputation of the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS). A sample of 150 state and local media professionals was surveyed to assess perceptions and awareness of UF/IFAS. The results indicated that the media's perceptions of UF/IFAS image and reputation were positive, but their awareness of the institution's range of program areas was low. Media professionals consider the information provided by UF/IFAS to be credible, useable, and newsworthy. Respondents said the environment, followed by disaster preparation and recovery were the most important topics to their target audience, while the least important topics to their target audience were 4-H youth development and agriculture. Media professionals were more likely to use UF/IFAS as a source for agriculture and natural resource topics than other topics. Other universities should consider conducting similar research to develop a body of knowledge on media relations at land grant institutions.

Ornamental horticulture businesses in the United States (U.S.) face challenges to stay economically viable, particularly in rural areas. Marketing with new-media tools (e.g., websites, HTML newsletters, social media, and blogs) has the potential to increase sales over traditional methods of advertising. A survey was conducted to gauge the extent of the use of new-media marketing by ornamental horticulture businesses across the U.S. Responses from 161 businesses showed that marketing practices varied widely across business size in terms of expenses and the labor hours allocated. A majority of the sample (89%) were involved in new-media marketing, and all new-media users made use of at least one new-media tool. Facebook was used by more than 90% of new-media users, followed by the business’ own website, which was used by 82% of respondents. Respondents’ perception of how various new-media marketing tools affected sales followed the extent of use, in general.

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