Thinking big on marketing

The way forward, whether as an industry or as players in the timber industry, is to focus on taking a bigger market share.

It therefore should come as no surprise that in the Medite 2016 Forum’s Forecast 2011-14, respondents saw “innovation” as a key strategy for growth. Innovation and differentiation offer an escape from the downward spiral of a discount war that is usually the consequence of commodity trading in depressed markets.

But how to market innovative wood-based solutions? Who are the key decision makers who can determine timber’s future? How can we influence them?

Traditionally, the timber industry talks to procurement. Sales talk to distributors’ buyers. In turn, timber distributor sales teams talk to buyers at end users. But buyers don’t pioneer new products or new technologies; their primary role is to negotiate the cheapest source for an existing product. Responsibility for sourcing new product solutions lies with specifiers.

So who are these end user specifiers? There are a lot of them. Over 23,000 architects. Throughout the construction sector, it’s estimated there are some 90,000 specifiers.

The timber industry doesn’t have large technical sales forces to call on these specifiers. But specifiers don’t want queues of potential suppliers in their receptions waiting to see them. Specifiers don’t have the time to talk to sales executives.

What specifiers need is advertising and articles in trade magazines to alert them to new product opportunities, then links to a supplier’s website with verifiable performance, technical and installation information.

Advertising and PR are vital because they open up this channel. Websites are equally vital because they are an information resource the specifier can mine. But these are not enough. The timber industry needs to improve direct technical information exchange between supplier and specifier and leapfrog, but not usurp, the sales/procurement relationship.

As marketers, we need to influence the specifier, shape his needs and our offering so that they match. This demands an interactive process. The new era of B2B social media marketing now makes this possible. Social media marketing facilitates this dialogue. It’s both time efficient for the specifier and affordable for the producer.

Social media marketing allows multi-stage communications, initially via Twitter and blogs which enable dialogues between the prospective supplier and many specifiers. Social media makes these easier to establish, manage and evolve into business relationships.

Certainly interacting through social media with large numbers of specifiers is complex, multi-channel and multi-staged. It’s not a mechanical process, but then nor is advertising. As with advertising, the key to the success of a social media campaign is outstanding content that attracts engagement and interest.

B2B social media marketing isn’t just an effective and additional vehicle, it is revolutionary in the way it can initiate technical exchanges between supplier and specifier which is a prerequisite to launching innovative wood-based solutions. Early adopters will benefit hugely from first mover advantage.

Social media marketing may mean marketing suddenly becomes even more multifaceted. But, for a timber industry seeking to launch new product, it is potentially a hugely powerful weapon, one we must deploy if we are to convince specifiers about the suitability of timber’s new product solutions.