How Dickman Farms Used a New Event to Expand Its Customer Base
March 26, 2018 
Attendees of Carve & Brew liked the chance to be at the garden center during off hours for a laid-back gathering with friends.
Last fall, Dickman Farms Garden Center in Auburn, NY, hosted “Carve & Brew,” a new event that was part of Dickman’s series of fall workshops and events. Geared toward adults aged 21 to 45, attendees were able to carve a pumpkin, taste craft brews from two local microbreweries, chow down on grub from a local food truck, and relax with friends and neighbors. Tickets cost $25 and included a commemorative tasting glass, brew tastings, and a pumpkin for carving.
Greenhouse Grower recently caught up with Stephanie Whitehouse, Retail General Manager at Dickman Farms and a frequent participant in Greenhouse Grower’s GROW Summit, and asked her about the event and how it helped the company attract new customers.
Greenhouse Grower (GG): How did the event idea generate?
Stephanie Whitehouse: After Spring madness, our management team always sits down to generate event ideas for the upcoming fall season. Annually, we host a kids-centric event called Pumpkin Fest at the end of September, but we wanted to broaden our events programming for the entire fall season, including an event that would cater to our 21- to 40-year-old demographic. A brainstorming session involving Oktoberfest (touching on the Dickman’s family German roots), a costumed Halloween party for adults, Trunk or Treat for pets, and a food truck caravan morphed into Carve & Brew.
GG: How did you promote it?
Whitehouse: We promoted through our Club Dickman loyalty program weekly e-newsletter, as a Facebook Event on the Dickman Farms Garden Center Facebook page, and through the e-newsletters and Facebook pages of the two breweries and food truck. We used Constant Contact to sell tickets online, as well as in-store at the garden center.
As an early adopter to the Garden Shop program with the app GrowIt!, Dickman Farms Garden Center partnered with the app to trial its event listing service and promotion capabilities. The GrowIt! team created a series of event push notifications, targeting GrowIt! users within a 50-mile radius of Dickman Farms. GrowIt! users who saw the notification were given a promotional code to save on the purchase of event tickets. GrowIt! also created and shared a number of targeted Facebook ads with the same promotional code, target audience, and geographical reach. As a result, 25% of attendees were tagged as GrowIt! users through use of the promotional code.
Through post-event discussions with the garden center team and the breweries, for 2018 we will allow tickets to be sold at the breweries and online through Eventbrite to broaden the avenues for event promotion and ticket purchasing.
GG: What was the feedback from those who attended?
Whitehouse: Attendees of Carve & Brew liked having the chance to be at the garden center during off hours for a laid-back gathering with friends and family. Folks in our target demographic (both attendees and those who were interested in the event but had schedule conflicts) all expressed an interest in seeing an additional brewery or two, an additional food truck, and more activities included for the 2018 event.
GG: How have you engaged with attendees since the event?
Whitehouse: Members of the target demographic for Carve & Brew were all contacted for our Holiday Open House in November, which included tastings, pairings, and mini seminars given by local wineries, eateries, a chocolatier, and a vintage rentals and event planner. We didn’t track how attendees had heard about the event, but sales, attendance, and profit margins were all up for our Holiday Open House as compared to 2016.
GG: Have you been able to turn attendees into new customers, or boost sales from those who were already customers?
Whitehouse: All attendees signed up for or were already members of Club Dickman, our garden center’s loyalty program, which includes a weekly e-newsletter listing upcoming events, our Smart Gardening Tip videos, and additional content. About 25% of attendees of Carve & Brew were new customers.
We have developed all events for 2018 with a more definitive target audience in mind, and with multiple targeted marketing methods in the works to not only reach our existing loyal customers, but also to attract customers who are new to the Dickman Farms brand, the company, and the retail center. We hope to increase our consumer reach and purchase traffic by 10% for 2018.
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