Masonry Magazine January 2017 Page. 46
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WORDS: JIM TOSCAS, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF THE PORTLAND CEMENT ASSOCIATION
he 2016 election of Donald J. Trump as President was a true paradigm shift for politics in America, leaving pundits and pollsters to unravel lessons learned and derive meaning from the vote. Regardless of which side of the aisle you were on, one undeniable takeaway from the election is that it is important and often challenging to fully know your audience and what it takes to motivate them.
For decades, concrete industry associations -including those representing cement, ready-mix, concrete and masonry products, and reinforcing steel -have expended considerable energy and resources through marketing, regional outreach, and/or direct promotional efforts to motivate people to build with concrete and masonry. Recent estimates show that total annual concrete industry spending for marketing and promotion is in excess of $40 million, roughly half of which is associated with promotional staff.
While that is certainly a large allocation of resources, its application has been highly dispersed, with each group individually encouraging its audiences to choose concrete for the specific applications it represents. There have been several sector-specific branded campaigns over the years, some more successful than others and some at the expense of others. The result has generally not been satisfying.
Without a unified voice, it has been virtually impossible to effectively address competitive threats, particularly the encroachment of wood and timber products into the buildings segment. By pursuing multiple campaigns promoting multiple (in some cases competing) systems to multiple audiences, we have unfortunately been diluting our impact on decisions to build with concrete.
We may finally be on a path to resolving this problem. Over the past year, the major associations of the concrete industry have pulled together to conduct fundamental market research that will form the basis of a comprehensive platform for effectively promoting all forms of concrete structures, from bridges and pavement to buildings and homes. Through the Concrete and Masonry Related Associations group (CAMRA), the industry for the first time ever is collectively and comprehensively examining the processes, influences, and drivers of decisions about building with concrete and masonry versus other materials.
This important research will seek to identify core attributes of concrete that have universal appeal to deciders and influencers, regardless of whether they are engineers, architects, owners, developers, or code officials. We seek to gain an unprecedented understanding of how and why professionals make the decisions they do, and what our most effective arguments are for motivating them to choose concrete.
As you know, last year the National Ready-Mix Concrete Association (NRMCA) launched the "Build With Strength" campaign, targeting the market for low-to mid-rise buildings in response to aggressive competition from wood and timber. The CAMRA research has been closely coordinated with, and is designed to be complimentary to, the N RMCA effort.
Also, the baseline research includes consumers, which have not been a traditional target audience for concrete. However, including consumers in the research allows us to identify consumer preferences that can be used in turn to motivate professional deciders and influencers.