The Millwork Industry of CaliforniaA Totatly Unadvertised Commodity

By Jack Dionne

The other day I talked to the millwork industry of California in convention assembled, on the subject of "Merchandising," and I don't remember ever having a more enthusiastic audience.

f declared to their faces that their's is one of the worst advertised industries in the State of California, and they seOmed to agree with me very heartily.

Perhaps f stated the case incorrectly. I should have described it as an "unadvertised" rathdr than as a "poorly advertised" industry, for if this industry is doing anything to create business they have kept that fact most remarkably well to themselves.

fn a state that has spread the gospel of publicity, advertising, and merchandising to the world, one of the most useful, most admirable, and most adaptable (to advertising) industries, is totally unadvertised, and sadly undersold.

The millwork industry of California, viewed from the standpoint of products and of service, takes second position to no industry within this state. fts products are nothing short of marvelous. No other district of the country enjoys anything like the quality and marvelous diversity of millwork products that California does. Here architecture in millwork runs riot. The fine millwork woods of the earth are gathered in these mills; the architectural brains of the nation here vie with each other in proilucing millwork effects of every kind, shape, and description; and the service rendered by these millwork men in the production of these building functions. that delight the eye and appeal to the human sense of desire, is quite in keeping with their production skill.

But there it ends. The most delightful and wonderful and diversified millwork in the whole world is made and offered for use. But the effort to merchandise it is a weak and pitiful one. There is solicitation, to be sure. Plenty of it, and to spare. But solicitation of orders for things already planned, creates nothing. The man who geis the order simply takes it away from the other millwork men, and in turn they are all the more anxious to get the next order away from him, and so it goes. The result is unreasonably low price levels for uncommonly high prohuct values.

Because very, very little is being done to create MORE ORDERS, and only by creating more orders can the general level of the millwork business be improved. More people must know of these marvelous products. They must not only be told, but they must be shown. And they mir'st be both told and shown over and over again, until the impression becomes a desire, and the desire becomes a plan, which finally becomes an order.

These millwork products lend themselves wonderfully to advertising, trade promotion, and business creation, because they inspire the desire of possession when properly presented. These millwork men have translated building materials into a language that the consumer understandsthe language of building things, building functions, building luxuries, that men and women desire to have in THEIR homes, and in THEIR buildings. They can be wonderfully photographed, delightfully illustrated, showing the other fellow what this millwork looks like, what can be done with it, what it means to him in terms of usefulness and enjoyment.

To say just what this millwork industry should do toward creating a market for its product would require a volume, and that volume would be based upon hard and cold facts secured through careful investigation of the industry, and its relationship to the public, to the various districts, etc. It is not a problem that can be solved by a few words of explanation.

But there are fundamentals that can be stated. First, the members of the Millwork Institute of California should create, accept, and put into use a TRADE MARK. It should go on all their goods. The public should be taught to expect it on their goods, should be taught what that trade mark means and stands for, etc. That is a good start. IDENTIFY YOUR PRODUCT. Mark it. Show that you are proud of it. And, put it only on goods that you are 3ur€ to be proud of. That's one step.

Then there should be literature galore, so made and illustrated that it tells and shows a prospective consumer some definite and specific millwork THINGS that can be used in THEIR buildings. This literature should show things, shapes, colors, uses. The public doesn't know what you have to offer. And it's YOUR job to tell them and show them.

This education should go all the way down the line from the architect to the builder and his famity. They all have a right to know the various attractive and useful things that YOU can furnish him for his building, and for the various rooms within the building.

Another campaign could be waged against the large amount of millwork that is made by the carpenter on the job. In spite of all the mills in this territory, the carpenter is still building on the job plenty of frames, and built-in things, to take a great volume of business from the millwork men. This made-on-the-job stuff is more expensive to the consumer than the factory-made-goods, and it does not compare in quality of workmanship with factory work.

It's a long story. Too long to go any farther with right now. The long and short of it is that a wonderful and useful industry whose products lend themselves wonderfully to trade extension work because they are both useful and beautiful, is sadly under-sold, and totally unadvertised.

Barnum said: "Speak well of me if you can, speak ill of me if you must-but for God's sake, SAY SOMETHING!" The millwork industry needs people to know something and say something about it. It isn't criticized, today. IT ISN'T EVEN MENTIONED.