These companies can afford to spend top dollar for proprietary information that drives new product development, packaging innovations, and advertising. The retailers like Home Depot and Wal-Mart are unlikely to spend money on understanding the gardening consumer they would much rather spend their research efforts on identifying the next best store location. Unfortunately, the allied product manufacturers are not about to share their information stronghold. In today s environment, the best competitive weapon is information. Role ANLA s emphasis on market research is to educate and to provide a framework of understanding about the consumer.
Market research can also mitigate some of the risks of making very important decisions in a vacuum.
At its best, this information will be used to craft usable recommendations with the goal of improving ANLA members stature as marketers, merchants, and world class service providers. In the end, we will have our pick of the most profitable of the 70 million households that ritually spend a lot of money each year.