This week, Bridget continues her discussion with Melinda Knuth, doctoral student at Texas A&M University, about consumer perceptions of the water source for growing plants as well as landscape water use.

This week, Bridget's guest is Melinda Knuth, a doctoral student at Texas A&M University, who has worked with Bridget and and some other researchers on a USDA Specialty Crop Research Grant for the past two years. Melinda and Bridget talk about the consumers who were in drought and did (or didn't) notice it and their perceptions of plants and water use.

Last week, Bridget talked about creating and refining your elevator speech. This week, she helps you understand how to use your elevator speech and then develop some good questions to start a conversation on the trade show floor. Marketing yourself means that you can be an interesting person by asking good questions and learning from the responses.

Marketing yourself is an important part of your career. In this week's episode, Bridget talks about developing and delivering your elevator speech. Your elevator speech is a brief summary of who you are, what you are doing at work, and what you would like to do in the future. It can be stated in the time that you might ride up or down a few floors in an elevator. Listen this week to learn how to develop your elevator speech and why it's so important as you market yourself.

This week, Bridget reports on some more eye-tracking research she and her colleagues have conducted on horizontal merchandising and pricing. It is important what you put on the left side of the display compared to the right side. It makes a big difference about how fast people see plants on the left and which side they tend to buy from more often.

This week, Pat and Bridget discuss their findings on simple and complex merchandising displays. While simple displays (with only one plant genus or cultivar) may attract attention with big swaths of color, it is the complex displays that produce a higher likelihood to make a purchase. Listen this week as they discuss the pros and cons of simple and complex displays.

Bridget's guest this week is Dr. Patricia Huddleston, a professor of retailing at Michigan State. Bridget and Pat discuss some retail changes and challenges for sellers to create a compelling shopping experience. Some keys to success are new and fresh merchandise, knowledgeable sales people, lighting, and merchandising by color. Listen to learn about how important it is to make each touchpoint in the sales process a seamless part of the shopping journey.

Several marketing books have captivated Bridget and changed her marketing perspective. This week, Bridget discusses The Experience Economy by Joseph Pine and James Gilmore. The book sets forth some great marketing paradigms for the 21st century. Many firms can operationalize what Pine and Gilmore set forth about experience realms (education, aesthetic, entertainment, and escapist) to capitalize on the profitability of experiences. Bridget's synopsis of the book may just help you add it to your reading list.

Carl Linneaus devised our system of binomial nomenclature (genus, species) for plants. He was a respected physician and botanist. Bridget recently visited his home and teaching garden in Uppsala, Sweden. She discovered what a great marketer he was. This week, Bridget describes Carl's influence on the industry and many of the names plants have today.

Later in the sales season, retailers are anxious about moving remaining inventory. Even earlier in the season, some may rush to put items on sale, hoping to lure more customers and generate more revenue and profit. Do you really want to cultivate the price-sensitive shopper? This week, Bridget discusses the implications of putting items on sale and the use of sale signs.