and your business. Membership in TPI provides you FedEx Office quality and expertise for the business services you use most. TPI special rates apply to a wide range of printing services and products, including: Lawn Signs, Flyers, Signs/Banners, Pamphlets, Business Proposals ... and much more! Set up your FedEx Office account and explore the options. There are even lawn sign templates that are quick and easy to customize.

Members also have access to TPI’s online photo library filled with high resolution shots, organized by category, for use in developing unique marketing materials.

On-Hold Phone

Messaging Library The “Benefits of Turfgrass” free on-hold phone messaging library also is available on the website. It’s comprised of twenty individually recorded audio files that you can download for playback on your phone system. You can download all twenty recordings in one complete series, with music background. Or, you can select individual audio files that fit your specific needs and put them in the order you choose. Or, if you prefer, you can record them in your own voice using the script also posted online.

The audio files include: Allergen Reduction, Carbon Storage – Golf, Air Pollution Prevention, Greenhouse Effect, Home Value, Recycle Grass Clippings, Cooling, Ground Water Re- charge, Noise Reduction, Soil Erosion Prevention, Animal Diversity, Crime Prevention, Health Recovery, Oxygen, Soil Restoration, Carbon Storage, Fire Barrier, Heat Dissipation, Pest Reduc- tion and Storm Water Runoff.

The Lawn Institute Offers

More Resources TLI’s website, www.TheLawnInstitute.org, is a great resource for information that can be integrated into any marketing materials you wish to create. It also can be used to develop answers to custom-

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ers’ questions or to set up an “Ask the Experts” section on your company’s website. In addition, TLI’s website now offers turf-related infographics and the “Helpful Hints from The Lawn Institute” pass-along pages, as featured in Turf News, in a customiz- able download version—all open-source (free!). You can share them with your customers, community groups and the local media.

For more information on any of these marketing materials or to discuss the additional options also available, contact Anne Footle, TPI marketing and membership manager, afootle@TurfGrassSod.org.

As you fine tune your marketing program, consider how two member companies worked together to develop a new market- ing company to reach across the U.S.

Selling to the End User In April of 2014, two top U.S. sod producers—Bethel Farms, LLLP and BuySod, Inc.—collaborated to form Harmony Out- door Brands, LLC. Now headquar- tered in Sarasota, FL, the company has established a network of top- tier growers that extends across 48 states to supply Harmony Brands turfgrass sod to national home im- provement chains.

As stated on their website www.Har- monyBrands.com, “Harmony’s farm- to-yard model is an ongoing collaboration with the local farm, off-site production managers, retailers and consumers. It

TPI TURF NEWS • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

starts with having a line of best-in-class grass varieties that are grown specific to each region of the country. Each retailer offers the Harmony turfgrass that is best suited for that particular zone.” Harmony turfgrass is sold in the stores, with home delivery avail- able through each store’s pro desk or through each retailer’s website.

Mike Pope is chief sales and marketing officer for Harmony Brands. He shares the marketing strategies they have developed to spur sod sales by reaching out directly to the end user.

The concept, termed “pull-through” in the retail marketplace, encompasses everything from targeted, paid advertis- ing; to direct outreach via mail or social media; to public relations initiatives such as involvement in scholarship or charitable programs on the local, state, regional and national levels.

Pope points to prescription drug companies as a good example of pull through marketing. Their traditional