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Strong brands are essential, but not enough

TuinZaken 3, 2026 · 2 april 2026 · 3 min

Strong brands have become part of the furniture in garden centres. They provide recognition, trust and something for the customer to hold on to. A brand works as a benchmark: if this brand is stocked here, the place must be sound. On top of that, brands bring innovation, new materials and new applications to the shop floor faster.

But that is also where the downside sits. The stronger the brand, the more familiar it is to the consumer, and the harder it becomes for you as a garden centre to stand out with it. Online in particular, products are often directly comparable. In the end only one factor is left: price. And that is a race a garden centre rarely wins.

So the challenge is this: how do you make brands work for you instead of against you?

Not more choice, but clarity

Many stores struggle with an overcrowded shelf. Several brands, plenty of variants and stand-alone displays. To the customer that quickly feels like choice overload. It is not always desirable in look and feel either, because it keeps interrupting the consistency of your own identity. What the customer is actually after is an overview.

What the customer wants is not more choice, but clarity.

Own label and A-brand reinforce each other

The real answer does not lie with A-brands alone. A good own label and a distinctive range are what make the difference. That is how you escape pure price comparison and add value that cannot be copied online. Own label and strong brands reinforce each other, provided they are in balance.

Do not forget that as a garden centre you still have to explain the information and communication for the whole category. Then order the range logically: entry, comfort and premium. That is how you answer the customer's real question and give overarching advice, with the strong brand as one of the options.

Entry access to the category

Comfort where the volume sits

Premium where the margin sits

Dare to look critically at your shelf as well. Less overlap, more focus. Build recognisable brand blocks and invest in your own signature. Do that well and you see it back in turnover per square metre, and customers choose with more confidence. That, in the end, is what a garden centre is about.

This column first appeared in Dutch in the trade magazine TuinZaken, and is reproduced with the editors' permission. Translated from the Dutch original.