Costa Farms’ New Focus: Consumers

Ellen C. Wells

Costa Farms is launching a shift in their commercial strategy to focus on the end consumer. This new focus has called for a rebranding effort and a marketing campaign that’s oriented toward the end users of their plants, and included in this effort are strategies to engage with them and educate them so they all become successful gardeners and plant parents.  

Rather than being seen as the wholesale grower of products that millions enjoy, they aim to become the consumer brand that folks turn to for their plant needs. Said Costa Farms CEO Joche Smith of the change of focus, “With changing demographics and the continued enthusiasm with gardening—particularly indoor gardening—we’re seeing more consumers than ever want to communicate with the team that grew their plants. We’re embracing this opportunity to build relationships with the plant community and putting more effort into connecting with the new consumer.”

How’ll they accomplish that? New branding, a new logo and new visuals for starters. And fresh messaging with bold imagery and an approachable tone, like fun GIFs for example.

They also have some fun, short videos with folks enjoying their plant parenting tasks. These all appear in Costa’s latest consumer campaign, All Thumbs Are Green.

“Everyone can enjoy beautiful, healthy plants—indoors or out,” said Justin Hancock, Costa Farms Brand Marketing Manager in a press release. “We know this is true, and we’re working to create messaging across a wide variety of platforms and channels to reach the consumer so they believe it, too, even if they’ve never owned a plant before.”

Also in that messaging effort is a DTC (direct-to-consumer) site, shop.costafarms.com, where consumers can shop and have fresh plants delivered from Costa’s farms. In fact, Costa Farms set up a seven-acre e-commerce facility that can ship up to 30,000 plants per day.

They’re also launching an experiential platform called Plant Rx that includes a podcast, starting small-clipped TikToks with planting tips and adding a consumer contest to further engage customers.  

“By building positive, inspiring messaging across core channels that appeals to the consumer appetite for plants, targeting their specific pain points and offering solutions, we believe plant parents will feel confident joining a brand that’s had their hands in the soil for such a long time,” said Mari Carrasquillo, Costa Farms Senior Director of Marketing. GP