Brand new research by Bayer Garden offers the deepest insight yet into the age-old problem of why consumers walk away from the weedkiller fixture without making a purchase – and a possible solution.

Surveys conducted last season and over Christmas confirmed that consumers still find the weedkiller category a source of bewilderment. While it has long been recognised that this confusion deters purchasers, Paul Lerigo, Bayer Garden’s head of marketing, says the new surveys explain more about why.

Lerigo says the key to making the weedkillers fixture work better – for retail staff as well as consumers – is understanding the way people shop. “We ended up creating ‘decision trees’,” he says. “In other words, what do you have in front of mind when you go shopping, what the thought process is before you make your selection?” For weedkillers, he explains, it’s ‘Where am I going to use it and what am I going to use it on?’.

Consumers already have an idea about this when they enter the store – but struggle because the displays are rarely organised in a way that makes it easy to choose. In other words, all weedkillers generally tend to be lumped together and purchasers have to put in the hard yards to decide which suits their intended purpose. Brand and price, apparently come bottom of the ‘tree’.

Two segments of the category work well, Lerigo says. ‘Lawn’ and ‘Path’ weedkillers offer clear propositions. “The bit that doesn’t work is general purpose. What is a general purpose weedkiller?.” It is this ‘segmentation by area’ that is driving Bayer’s proposals to re-map the fixture - for the benefit of the overall category, not just their own products. Homebase are already using the data to roll out their 2013 displays. ”The one they can’t quite let go of yet is general purpose,” Lerigo adds.

The segmentation takes the consumer from weedkillers for lawn, to cultivated areas (where you intend to re-plant), non-cultivated areas (ground clearance products), then paths, patios and driveways. “That flow seems to make sense in retail, so you can start with lawns and exit on , say, moss and algae killer then extend out, for example, into patio cleaners.” He also believes that retailers who have the confidence to multi-site weedkillers – in the barbecues area, to give just one example – will tap into new sales potential.

Surveys found that more than 50% of people buying a general purpose product use it primarily on paths, patios and driveways, despite a plethora of specialised options. “So products not designed for the purpose are being used on paths. Consumers don’t undertand it – and the purchase almost becomes a distress decision: ‘I’ll take the one I know or I’ve used before.’ What we’re trying to do is make the shopper’s journey simpler, based, on understanding the shopper.

“Weedkillers are used by a broad spectrum of users, from keen gardeners to novices, So it has to be simple. Weedkiller is never at the front of a shopping journey. It’s on a mental list, you know you need it, but that is not why you go to the garden centre. It’s about making that selection simpler.”

Lerigo says garden centres can learn from supermarkets when it comes to marketing science. ”But even they know little about how you shop. They can tell you everything you ever bought from them, but not why you bought it, how you arrived at the purchase or in what order you bought it.”

The technique of deliberately putting bread at the back of the store so you have to walk the whole shop to get to it is well known, but there are other little clues that supermarkets are getting better at understanding consumer thought processes. “You find wine and beer next to baby products – distressed parents like to reward themselves!”

In a category in which people are walking away, says Lerigo, weedkillers still represent a big market to aim for.