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Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
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October 2020 #12255 Page #104
Have You Become “Marketing” Poverty Stricken? By Gary Fleisher
W
hen we think of poverty, we think homelessness, food banks, and welfare. Chronic poverty was once compared to catching a grasshopper in a jar when we were kids. The jar had a lid with holes poked in it. For a while, the grasshopper jumped up and kept hitting his head against the lid. Then he would only jump high enough to try to cling to the glass and finally he would just stay on the bottom of the jar and gave up all hope of getting out. A lot of builders and suppliers feel that way about doing business during the COVID-19 pandemic. They keep trying to get out of that jar and now that the lid has been removed, they simply do not have the strength or the knowledge to jump back into profitability. Even the outrageous demand for new homes and the lowest interest rates ever do not seem to be enough for many modular home builders to escape the jar. Poverty is a “deficiency in amount.” Many home builders and suppliers surely fit the criteria. So, what are these deficiencies that face the construction industry?
Marketing poverty This is a problem because most of us have neither the resources nor the training to mount an effective marketing program. Factories’ sales reps have not been taught how to help builders get the message out to the home buying public and the factories often do not market their product. A page on Facebook and a good website are just the tip of the iceberg. What is needed to fight the poverty of marketing is someone, either a group or an individual, to step up and begin developing individual marketing plans for builders.
Knowledge poverty Many builders have limited knowledge of the green, sustainable, or energy conservation methods used by the construction industry. The sales reps are supposed to be knowledgeable about these things, but they are also facing the same poverty of knowledge. This is an area that needs to be given special attention by the factory.
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