Sanders GardenWorld - The 'black' fuchsia

One media release - more than £44,000 of revenue

Sanders GardenWorld in Somerset decided to enter the mail order market to help maximise plant sales.

It identified, from studying previous plant sales figures, that rare plants sold quickly and attracted greater media attention. The bedding plant department set about speaking to nurseries to find an unusual, yet easy to package, plant to sell by mail order and discovered the Millennium fuchsia, colloquially described as being 'black', although it has a deep aubergine coloured flower.

In order to make maximum profit from the scheme, it was agreed that the only form of marketing to be used was public relations. Publicity was launched nationally to all the gardening media via only one media release.

Within a few months the garden centre sold more than 20,000 black fuchsia plants, 10,000 via mail order. The revenue generated from mail order sales during a three month period was in excess of £40,000.