WEEK 4-PART 1-DEFINING YOUR TARGET MARKET 

Armstrong Garden Center Vs. Rancho Vista Nursery

When comparing these two websites, it's important to consider the scale of each business first.  Armstrong's is a large nursery chain that offers multiple services as well as a wide variety of plants and trees, whereas Rancho Vista Nursery is a small, local nursery that specializes in cactus and succulents.  Both have strong, appealing websites, they just serve different needs.

Armstrong has a vibrant and colorful website.  Their logo is strongly positioned in the left-hand corner of their website and it is constantly visible either on a worker's shirt or in the background of the photos.  Their website is extremely well done in how it's organized.  They have a wealth of information on their site, but it never feels cluttered or overwhelming.  It utilizes everything from drop-down menus, to videos, to links you can scroll through to view a variety of plants and flowers.  They provide an easy to use website that is fun to explore.  I think they did a great job with a consistent feel of their colors and their fonts.  

Rancho Vista Nursery's website is charming and conveys a very home-like feel to it.  It's clean and aesthetically appealing.  There isn't a lot of information on it, but they specialize in cactus and succulents and they make that clear.  Their layout is really nice and I love the fonts they chose.  I also think they did a nice job with the few photos they chose to use.  I really like the use of the whitewashed wood as their background because it gives it that small farm feel, but they aren't so little.  According to their website, 

"We're not just growers but curators of one of the largest collections of succulent plants in the world"

so, they may look small on the outside, but they pretty large on the inside!  There aren't many things to explore or view on their site, but they have links to their Facebook and Instagram page which offers some more visuals that are quite lovely.

It's not easy to compare these two websites because their businesses are on two completely different levels, so their objectives are totally different as well.  I think that Armstrong's website is professional, strong and vibrant and for the number of services and products they offer, they've managed to keep their site user friendly and uncluttered, which I think is hard to do.  Rancho Vista Nursery's website is also professional.  It's just what it appears to be, a small (not that small) cactus and succulent business.  It doesn't offer anything more than that and there's a simplicity to it's site that is appealing.

Personally, I like the Rancho Vista Nursery site better.  Although I like Armstrong's site and I am a frequent shopper there, I prefer the simple design of Rancho Vista's website.  I like their colors better than Armstrong's too.  I think the one thing I would add to the Rancho Vista Nursery website is more photos of their products.  They have some great posts on their Instagram that I think they could incorporate onto their site.  Armstrong's has so much to showcase, and they did that very well with photos and videos, but I just visually prefer Rancho Vista's site better.