Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

Are You Ready for a Healthy Housing Market?

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

I just received the latest edition of the NAHB newsletter Eye on the Economy, and the headline is, “Some Good News on the Housing Front.” This is followed by:

Housing starts continue to rise
Some positive house price reports
Inflation remains flat
The financial market remains calm

All this promising reporting makes me wonder if we’re ready to return to an active housing market. Have we learned anything during the crunch that we should be applying to better ourselves, become stronger, more efficient, and more profitable?

For building products manufacturers, the economic pressure of the past two plus years has changed the distribution partners in a number of outlets and capabilities or services being provided. This can be a cause for concern, or an opportunity for the manufacturers if they are prepared. With updated technology and services, the manufacturers can move one step closer to the builders, remodelers, contractors, and DIYers to form stronger relationships. The “multiplication of efforts” argument for distribution is being challenged by those manufacturers that have looked at how they do business, how their business can be done better, and who is making the change to improve success moving forward. Many of these improvements are occurring within their channel programs; specifically, they are conducting third party audits of the following programs:

Lead generation and fulfillment
Co-op advertising
Loyalty

Have you taken inventory of these programs to determine how you can improve them to increase engagement and conversion to sales?

When was the last time you looked critically at your lead program? Ten years ago, twenty years ago, or longer? It’s unusual for any organization to forego a review of process or program for a period greater than three years. Are your lead sources current and complete? Reader service is dead and social networking is producing big numbers of well-qualified leads; are you connected? Trade show attendance is declining, so lead qualification and conversion is even more important to justify this big investment. The sales force, from corporate management to the field reps, need be trained and given a proper incentive to engage and convert these sales leads. Poor leads, plus poor follow-up, produces limited conversion to sales, which accelerates the lack of performance throughout the lead program. Completing a thorough, unbiased audit of your lead program will provide you with much needed insight to update and improve one of your fundamental sales generation tools.

The same critical look of the co-op advertising and loyalty programs will help your company be more competitive and capture greater share of sales as the market improves. Co-op advertising is typically a large budgeted expense that is significantly under utilized by the sales team, distributors, and customers because:

The program does not reflect local market needs
The people responsible for using the program have limited training or experience in using it effectively
The administrative costs are too high for all involved

Even though accounting may like it when the co-op advertising fund is under utilized and helps bolster the bottom line at the end of the year, the top and bottom lines suffer from the lack of related sales. A complete audit of the co-op advertising program can identify the means by which the program can address the local market needs. It can show all parties involved how to best develop and deliver these programs so they help drive sales. The recommendations from an impartial audit can demonstrate new and better ways to make the program easier and more effective in converting the investment into direct sales.

Loyalty programs during the recession have taken a big hit, as it is difficult to remain loyal and engaged when you’re simply looking for work. With the market improving, now is a great time to help your customers and prospects get back on their feet through a simple and effective loyalty program. These programs have changed significantly the past two years with the increased involvement of the web and social networks. These new channels of communication give loyalty programs more access to customers – trade and consumer – outstanding speed, impressive flexibility, and measurement that will make the C-suite happy. New loyalty programs now include stronger, more effective loyalist tasks and assignments that expand the program of “refer a friend” to far greater lengths and return on investment. Pepsi is a good example of how they’ve updated their loyalty program to reflect the times. They’re using location-based marketing.

The use of a third party to conduct these audits and make recommendations is critical to real success. You need an unbiased eye and ear to review the internal and external processes, insights, and results. Conversations with your distributors and builders will yield more open and honest opinions of your programs and create ideas for other programs that may work better. The secret to success (and more reasonable costs) is to work with a vendor that specializes in the home and building industry. They know the marketing, sales, and distribution model, how they all work together, and the importance of a strong channel marketing program. Home and building specialists have the practical experience and credibility you need for success.

If the Eye on the Economy is right, you’re about to get busy again. Are you ready to be more effective and profitable this time around?

Tags: co-op advertising, economy, housing, housing market, lead generation, lead program, loyalty programs, Marketing, residential building
Posted in Marketing | 1 Comment »

Who’s Going to Be the Next to Challenge the Industry?

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

This past Friday I attended the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS). Within the first hour of the show, I saw and experienced one of the more memorable events in my career. I saw a Reed Business Information sales rep standing in the middle of the convention hall in shock over the announcement his employer had closed their business that morning. Seeing him standing alone among hundreds of people made me very sad for him, the great people that made up the Reed team, and our industry.

Now I’m pretty sure he was aware of the impending decision, and I’ve been told the former Reed employees are receiving generous severance packages. Nonetheless, reading an email of your job’s demise while on the road attending an industry event is a brutal thing to experience and a difficult thing to watch. Seeing Reed unravel through hallway conversations, email, Facebook and Twitter during the day left me reflecting on how publishing companies have influenced the industry and me.

During my twenty-plus year career in the home and building business, I have been privileged to work with some of the best people in our industry. Many of them happen to be leaders from publications that serve builders and remodelers. When I was tasked with building and leading the remodeling business for Andersen Windows, our agency account executive, Deb St. John, introduced me to Peter Miller of Hanley Wood and said, “It is my goal to make you as well respected as Peter within the remodeling industry.” Peter, a publisher of information, was so well liked and respected because he took the time to engage and be a part of industry he served. As a result, Peter became an expert in the remodeling industry. I’m not certain Peter could hammer, saw, or design anything around his house or yours. I do know Peter helped give remodeling the respect it deserved by becoming a voice for the remodeling market and remodelers.

No sooner did Peter Miller opt for early retirement than Dean Horowitz, now formerly of Reed, showed up on the scene. Dean is an idea guy. The NAHB Remodelers Council wanted to publish a new magazine, so Dean worked with the leaders of the Council to create Professional Remodeler. The Internet was becoming formidable, so he built HousingZone.com. Demonstration is critical to teaching and learning in the construction industry; Dean built the Show Village at IBS. But the most important thing Dean did for his publishing company was create a team that understood new and big ideas are important to his clients, their agencies, and the industry.

Whos Going to Be the Next to Challenge the Industry?

From BoschAppliances

This leads me back to the floor at KBIS wondering who will be inspiring the industry to embrace big ideas? Is it a publishing company or its publisher? Is it a manufacturer or a service provider? Is it one of the great people that has been forced to leave their jobs? I don’t know. I’m certain of a couple of things. First, any building products manufacturer or publishing company will be well-served by the people Reed left behind. Second, another leader within the building industry will emerge who will challenge the industry, so we can all do more moving forward.

Tags: Building publications, Business, Hanley Wood, KBIS, Publishing companies, Reed Business Information, Remodeling
Posted in Marketing | 1 Comment »

Are You Stuck in the Middle?

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

There are many things that come to mind when you hear the saying “stuck in the middle.” TV shows, the song (because we all love Stealers Wheel), even the famous Paul Simon verse. However, do you ever relate it to your product positioning?

Do you feel like you’re getting squeezed by high and low-end competitors? It’s probably true. You can send your complaints to the attention of the “good enough revolution.” Better yet, you might call it the “no frills zone.”

There’s demand, and discretionary income, for the iPad. However, most are okay “settling” for the Kindle. As James Surowiecki, writer for The New Yorker, pointed out, despite the Apple’s of the world, many companies are succeeding selling things that aren’t bad and cost a lot less – see Flip, IKEA, Ford and H&M.

When it comes to technology, the low-end is at an all-time high. Cheap and simple toys (maybe tool is more appropriate) can be found everywhere. Why? Equal parts, economic restraints and increased demand.

Does this well-priced adequacy strategy apply to the building trades? Hard to say – it depends on the product. Generally speaking, adequate doesn’t fly. Building professionals demand quality but product manufacturers compete for their business on price. Good product engineering has created low-cost, alternatives. Siding, flooring, insulation and other building materials are good examples. The exception? Try tools and equipment. You can go high or low – whatever gets the job done.

For most, it’s hard to get out of the “middle” of the market. You’re competing against companies of all shapes and sizes. But for most, the middle is where they belong. This doesn’t mean mediocrity; it just presents more challenges and opportunities. Like competitor assets, market conditions, customer consumption habits, distribution, etc. What’s the solution? Take advantage of all the resources that are available. Content is king and the Internet is one big publisher. Increase your visibility and your market share by educating and engaging your customers. It’s alot like Survivor – Outwit. Outplay. Outlast.

What’s your take? Can you name building materials or home products where quality can be sacrificed for price without consequence?

Tags: Marketing, marketing strategy
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Evaluating Your Brand’s Character

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

I heard a quote a few months ago that really stuck with me, “The sum of a man’s habits equal his character.” I think that just about everyone I know would rather some of their habits not contribute to their character as much as others. Bad habits might be hard to break when it comes to your own character, but certainly being cognizant of them will help to offset their overall contribution. If you were to evaluate a brand in the light of character, some bad habits are perhaps a bit more easy to remedy. A few habits to keep in mind that could impact the character of your brand, include:

Self Absorption – Think about the last time you got trapped by a conversation dominator at a cocktail party. More than a few brands today still insist on being the dominators in the conversations with their consumers. However, the willingness of a brand to consistently listen has the potential to build greater equity with its consumers in the near term. The social Web provides an outstanding platform from which to listen. There are several well-known online services that allow you to tap into conversations. These results tend to be overwhelming to say the least. I find you are best served if you have a skilled social marketing professional interpret the data in order to get to the key findings and implications of what is occurring.

Not Seeing the Forest For The Trees - It’s easy to get excited about new advertising creative. A new ad, a product launch or a promotion, these are all integral parts of building a brand. It’s important to keep the end goal in mind – sustained engagement. It’s more than an ad placed or a release put over the wire. It’s about staying committed to the big picture.

Close-Mindedness – How many times have you heard “this is how we do it” or “this is how it has always been done?” Maintaining an open mind and willingness to try something new and engage in new ways, not only reaffirms the vigor of a brand, but also assures that the brand stays relevant to the times. Ideas come from many different places. Certainly the Web gives us access to an abundance of possible resources. Some resources that I draw inspiration from are Contagious, Springwise and Trendsetters.com.

Hopefully this perspective will help you approach your marketing challenges and opportunities. In the meantime here is a tool to keep yourself in check in your own life.

Tags: brand management, branding, business strategy, Marketing, public identity, social marketing
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Social Marketing: The Overlooked Victim of the Housing Crash

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

I remember the first time someone asked me if I had tweeted yet. I just stared at them as if they had just spoken to me in Swahili. It’s probably the same way many of today’s C-suite executives look at their marketing managers when they request funds for social marketing initiatives. They just can’t comprehend the recent sudden changes in consumer behavior and communications technology and how quickly these changes have reshaped the marketing universe.

The recent history of the home and building industry is partly to blame. Rewind the clock five years, virtual eons in Internet years. In 2005 the home and building industry was just beginning to realize the full impact of the mass retailer model. Centuries old wholesale distribution networks were in disarray. Manufacturers were no longer the most powerful entity in the channel. The Big Boxes were calling the shots. And speculative real estate was taking off like a rocket. Housing starts began to escalate.

Who had time to notice that high-speed Internet had become a household essential? That streaming video was becoming the norm? That blogs, RSS and forums were seriously eroding magazine market share? Our world was focused on building brands and driving awareness. Reach and frequency. TRP’s. Realigning channels of distribution. Supporting product introductions. Just sell baby!

Two more years of extraordinary prosperity and then the market collapsed. In a single year, housing starts plummeted from an all time high of 2.6 million to less than 500,000. Budgets and staff were cut reciprocally. CFOs were asking their President’s, “Do we really need to advertise?” “What can we cut?” “Shouldn’t you be running sales promotions?”

The boom and bust economy has been a smoke screen for some companies. Intent on retooling their bottom line, the head-honchos have focused on staff reductions and tired sales and marketing gimmicks aimed at generating immediate sales. And who can blame them? They have missed a fundamental shift in market dynamics that is essential to survival in this new conversation economy.

pic from jacobtyler.com

During this same period, marketing managers were tasked to do more with less. We hardly had time to process the multitude of e-mails we were receiving, much less figure out what a retweet was. We all struggled to understand the implications of social media.

So many of us were focused on the channels themselves instead of understanding the value of the conversations occurring in them. We sensed the way consumers were making decisions about brands was changing. We heard the horror stories about educated consumers that knew more about our products than our dealers. We began to see that consumers expected a response to their tweet to our customer relations department.

I have a unique vantage point in that I get to talk to H&B marketing decision makers across the country. Everyone is wrestling with the enormity and complexity of what we now call social marketing. And, in the midst of dramatic budget and staffing shortfalls, most will tell you they’ve had to muster the nerve to explain to their CEO that they need funding for a Facebook page or Web site optimization only to receive a blank response. And most are beginning to realize that this is so much more than a communications initiative.

The companies that have embraced social marketing, and have wrapped their consumer facing operations around these powerful tools, are taking share at an exponential rate. They have torn down traditional barriers to honest, transparent relationships with their customers, and they have measurable results to prove that it is working.

Too many companies still don’t get it. They view social media as a passing fad and don’t understand the implications of doing business the same old way. You see them going out of business on a regular basis. If you are in this boat, don’t give up. Do yourself a favor, seek out educational tools to help educate your senior management team.

Tags: housing market, Marketing, social marketing, social media
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Are You Positioned for Success?

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty

Watching the Olympics on television is fascinating. You listen to the commentators explain how important, or even critical, it is for the athletes to be in the right position during the events. The figure skaters must coordinate their hands, feet, and bodies to assure the success of a spin or a jump. The skiers speeding down the mogul hill need to keep their knees and hands in the proper position. Even the curlers know that the position of the stones is paramount to winning. The importance of proper positioning is just as important for your business, which begs the question, “Are you positioned for success?”

Within the home and building industry, sustainability is the fastest growth segment in a slow growing market. Do you know or understand the position of your company within the sustainability market? The sustainability market place is slated to grow 146% by 2013. In real dollars, this is growth from $52 billion to more than $128 billion. This is nothing to sneeze at. Do you know how your competitors are positioned within the market? What does the market think of your company in the context of sustainability? Where is the opportunity for your company to succeed? Knowing where your business stands within this highly scrutinized industry may mean the difference between a good year or another down year.

http://www.mspmentor.net

Social networking will have a strong impact on your business in the near future. Is your business positioned to take advantage of this sea change or will it wash ashore? The ability of manufacturers and service providers to engage directly with their customers – trade and consumer – and influence their decision making will change your business. You need to decide if your business is positioned to succeed or fail with social networking. Is your business dependent on the relationships your distributors have with your customers? Do you pay a premium because of these relationships? With social networking, you can begin to engage these customers directly, gain first person insight, and reduce your risk of dependence on your distributors.

Finally, it may be time look at the position of your business within the category you historically serve. Is there an opportunity to re-position yourself to reflect new capabilities, services, and products? Has the market landscape changed to the point where your business may be able to differentiate itself based on this change?

At the end of the day, how you position your company defines your business, what’s makes it unique or important or valuable, and why your customers should buy from you. So, “Are you positioned for success?”

Tags: differentiating your business, Olympics, positioning your business for success, social networking, sustainability
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The Blueprint of a Re(Brand)

Monday, February 15th, 2010

One mission we have here is to deliver perspectives on the building industry in ways that can positively impact your brand. So, we determined it might be of interest to take a closer look at what defines a brand and what you should expect if/when the time comes to rebrand.

We sat down with Chris Denney, vice president and creative director of IMRE, to gain insight into his experience building brands – both B2B and B2C. Chris began his career as a photographer, working with top agencies and clients and learning to tell their stories through imagery and advertising. He moved to the marketing and corporate world when he began his branding career at Men’s Health, which was experiencing explosive growth around the world. Next came a stint at Time Warner where he helped brands like Ford, Trane and Andersen Windows find their voice. Now at IMRE, Chris specializes in B2B brand development and appreciates the authenticity that comes with the territory.

BI: How many brands have you worked with and/or helped develop?

CD: I’ve worked with many brands on different levels but helped at least 15 brand from the ground up. I get extremely excited when we work through the branding process. If you’re rebranding or even just reexamining, you get to the core of what the brand is about and start understanding things like personality and vision. You envision how a brand can speak about itself at its root and then ideas are born from true understanding, not assumptions.

BI: How do you define a brand?

CD: To me, a brand is a vision. It is holistic and needs to be looked at holistically. It’s embodied in the vision of what the company or service wants to provide. Underneath vision falls personality; what’s the brand’s promise and what does it stand for? The vision, personality and promise are all embodied in a positioning that informs what goes out to the marketplace and makes up who you are and what you stand for.

A brand is not a communications strategy or a logo; it is not a color palette or a singular CEO. It’s an entity, a force of what it wants to accomplish, and it could be as simple as making widgets and as complex as making airplanes.

BI: What do you see as the key components of a brand?

CD: I have found that a key component is for a brand to be honest and transparent. The emotional part is the hardest; telling yourself “this is what I do well, this is not what I do well,” “this is what I stand for and this is what I do not stand for,” “this is what I want to deliver and promise and this is what I don’t, etc.” It’s about having the ability to put a mirror to your brand and put it out there, and then reflect on the core values of a company and the products/services it delivers.

Exclusive-executive-resumes.com

BI: How would a company recognize the need for rebranding?

CD: There are many business factors that inform the need to rebrand. It could be that there are wholesale changes in the product offering, or the brand has become stuck because of competition catching up to them or copying them. I’ve seen brands own market share and then competitors start copying their success, making them become part of the pack and no longer relevant; the brand goes from #1 to below the radar.

BI: What steps are involved in rebranding?

CD: Everything varies depending on the company and the brand. However, if you look holistically at rebranding there are three modes of intrinsic and extrinsic activity. First, you need to look intrinsically at where your brand stands. Discover what affects your business, like the strengths and weaknesses of your competitive set, the state of the industry and industry forecasting. You really need to look at what the company thinks of itself, identify its challenges, explore the “feet on the street,” and understand the state of the C-Suite. Then, look at where they all converge.

From there you go into extrinsic mode and start to formulate assertions and messaging triggers that get tested. Go to customers and focus groups; ask questions like, “Is this who you think we are? How does this feel to you?” Also, gauge how the assertions resonate internally. If everything’s done properly up to this point, including all of the research, you’ll start to get really great insight. Gather all of that feedback, bring it back to the three pillars – vision, personality and promise – and then create the brand positioning, the messaging and then the creative.

BI: What makes a rebrand successful?

CD: Success vitally depends on insight and approval from the top down, including all key stakeholders. It will fail if there’s no buy-in from the C-Suite at the very beginning to act as ambassadors, and the sales force should be very much involved for most B2B companies.

Metrics for success of a rebrand can vary based on the size of a company and what stage of development it is in. It’s so important to be honest. For a long-term vision to work and convert to sales, you’ve got to look at yourself and be truthful so you can deliver against competition in honest and transparent ways. Then you’ll deliver relevancy to your customers and make people feel good when they put money on the table and give it to you.

Sales are always going to be the ultimate measurement, but awareness is probably the first metric you want to measure right after a rebrand. If you’re getting the message out and it’s resonating, you did a good job in the first stage. Sales ultimately follow.

To learn more about the IMRE (re)branding process, contact Chris Denney at chrisd@imre.com or Denise Kitchel at denisek@imre.com.

Tags: brand development, define a brand, imre, rebranding, successful rebranding
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Where and How to Keep Up With the Industry News

Monday, January 11th, 2010

What do you consider the latest headline – A top story in your daily e-newsletter? A viral re-Tweet? The current cover feature of your favorite trade magazine? The news cycle is evolving and ultimately changing the way that you, your customers and your competitors are consuming the latest industry news. The rules have changed.

According to a recent Hanley Wood emonitoring report, 96% of residential builders, contractors, remodelers and architects use the Internet to keep up to date on industry news and trends. With the “digital news cycle” growing among the building industry, it now takes more than traditional news sources to stay on top of what’s happening.

Whether supplementing or displacing your traditional news usage with Internet news sources, we have a few tools that will help you stay on top of it all in real time.

Google Reader is a news aggregator of sorts that helps keep you up to date, simplify your reading experience, and discover news and new content. The tool consistently searches your favorite news sites and blogs for fresh content and displays everything in one convenient place. If your colleagues are slow to adapt to the changing news cycle, share your favorite items with them through your Google Reader public page. By clicking the sharing icon on any item – the news article, blog post or whatever the content – it will instantly appear on your public page for their reading pleasure.

What else is cool?

Add a customizable clip to your personal website’s sidebar to display your most recent shared news
Download the Google Reader gadget to iGoogle to view update streams
Applicable with any mobile phone browser, access Google Reader in the palm of your hand
Google Reader keeps track of what you’ve already read, so don’t waste time searching for only new content

When it comes to sharing and receiving news updates, Twitter lists provide customizable channels for whom you’re following and who’s following you on Twitter. In a nutshell, it organizes your Twitter contacts, allowing you to create groups. What does this mean for news consumption? You can cut through the clutter and create lists specific to one topic, one industry, etc. Take it one step further and inform your list contacts that you’ve created a particular group that should limit all posts to news.

What else is cool?

Following a user is not necessary to add them to a list
Just like regular Twitter hash tags, you can @mention any Twitter List; just add a forward slash “/” followed by the list name (ex. @<username>/<listname>)

If you haven’t already created Google Alerts for your company, products, competitors, etc., that’s a first step to taking advantage of Google News. Taking it one very useful step forward are Google News custom sections, which allow you to receive news customized to your interests; for example, Solar Energy. When you visit the Google News Custom sections directory, a list of News sections appears with the option to add them to your particular news updates. If you can’t find a section, create one.

What else is cool?

A search capability allows you to easily look for an existing section; if you find one of interest, preview the section and add it to your News front page
Ratings display a level of interest from users, so at a glance you can see if the section will be at all helpful; rate the sections you track and/or preview as well
The Local News section tracks stories from and about a particular city or region

Lazyfeed is another aggregator of live content constantly being updated on the Internet. Based on your topics of interest, Lazyfeed will create a personal “monitor” that features each topic as a tile that updates itself automatically. When more topics are added, thus making it difficult to watch only “new news,” Lazyfeed simplifies your view with its Treadmill mode; this automatically moves updated news to the top of the screen.

What else is cool?

When there’s new content on a topic, the tile will turn yellow for quick reference
Pressing a tile will magnify it to show the live update page for the topic
All contents are sorted by time and the latest contents are always at the top

We’d be remiss to not mention the value of RSS feeds and e-newsletter subscriptions. As online media outlets update news content, RSS feeds will alert you immediately; subscriptions to e-newsletters put you on the recipient list of the latest from industry insiders.

Still too much news consumption at once? Set your homepage to an industry Web site that posts news and updates regularly so each time you open your browser you catch the latest stream.

There are a number of methods and tools to help you consume news. Find out what works best for you and stick with. As new resources are introduced, test them by supplementing your current sources. If you don’t like it, go back to what works. Keep it simple and make it easy on yourself. What do you use to stay up with the industry news?

Tags: building industry news, building industry news sources, building trade magazine, Google News, Google Reader, Lazyfeed, news aggregators, RSS feeds, Twitter, Twitter lists
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Forge Through the Disarray of Distribution to Get Closer to Your Customer

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Building products distribution, in general, appears to be in disarray as a result of the great recession. Distributors and dealers are closing their doors, or at least putting their businesses up for sale. As a result, the relationships with builders, remodelers, plumbers, electricians, roofers, insulation installers, and general contractors to building products manufacturers that rely on them to sell their goods is at risk. Fewer distributors and dealers leads to lost relationships with these key purchasers. Ouch… or maybe not.

Recent reports of conversations with professional building tradesman (AKA research) show they are active participants in today’s social network. This makes sense since they historically rely on references and referral for new products, services, and ideas. Here is the opportunity for the building products manufacturers to overcome the disarray of distribution and mitigate the risk of losing these important trade relationships through social networking.

Manufacturers enter conversations with professionals within the social networks they are using most to begin to build direct relationships. The questions that these professionals once asked their dealer can be answered in a forum. Code updates that affect both the professional and the manufacturer can be shared through Twitter. Special insights and promotions can be shared on a Facebook Page. The same type of things manufacturers and professionals rely on distributors and dealers for can be managed online with an open and/or a controlled network.

Now we know it is not as easy as creating a Facebook account or beginning to Tweet. Research on where these professionals are talking about specific products is required for success. Having the know-how and a plan to be welcomed into these communities are critical. Understanding the legal implications and responsibilities of participating in social networks as a commercial entity requires a commitment just like that of working with distribution. The difference is the direct relationship you can create with the people that often determine your success or failure in the market.

The current distribution model continues to play a vital role in getting the physical products into the field and multiplying the efforts of the corporate sales force in an efficient and effective manner. While distribution works through the impacts of the recession, building products manufacturers have a real opportunity to increase success through developing direct relationships with the professional trade in a low cost, highly effective way.

Shawn Draper is partner and senior vice president at IMRE. For more than 20 years Shawn has been guiding the marketing strategies for national home and building companies, including multi-year tenures, prior to IMRE, with Andersen Windows, Weather Shield Windows and Doors, and Woodcraft Supply.

Tags: building products distribution, building products manufacturers, Facebook, social networking, Twitter
Posted in Marketing | 1 Comment »

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Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

Are You Ready for a Healthy Housing Market?

Who’s Going to Be the Next to Challenge the Industry?

Are You Stuck in the Middle?

The Blueprint of a Re(Brand)

Where and How to Keep Up With the Industry News