The Masthead

I can’t imagine that a single theme could not be developed that could work across the country. If we were looking at an “angel promoter” I think we would be unfair to ask for multiple themes. In Oklahoma, we purchased the rights to use commercials developed in the Northwest. I never had a single instance of a consumer requesting to the the house that was in the commercial. 

Is it possible that the commercials encouraged people to go to your website where they chose a different home?  90 some percent of the people looking for a home will start with the Internet. If you really wanted to test this you would have to develop two websites and news commercials or other forms of advertising to use this website. Just a thought.

Schwep

Underwriting a national campaign wouldn’t cost nearly as much as it would have even a few years ago. With social media being the first place people go when they are thinking about a new home, the costs of connecting have come down drastically.

I think we need to have “one voice” so there is no confusion about the message. Having different themes in different areas would just be confusing in my opinion.

The Home Idea Factory decided to get the ball rolling at MHI Congress this year and interviewed some of the leaders in our industry about why now is now the time to consider buying a factory built home – the results can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj3RE1DnnLI

This was done shooting with my iphone and the only cost was my time.

As I stated in my video – Now’s The Time.There is going to be a huge need for affordable housing because of all of the natural disasters – we can show why we are the best choice in housing, or we can let another opportunity pass us by.

Successful image campaigns are not product focused.  They highlight the positive feelings, lifestyle or possibilities associated with a product or brand.  This could be done with one national message easily adapted to different areas of the country.

Factory Built Housing – NOW IS THE TIME!  Let’s tell the country that we have a unique solution to offer and now is the time.  The demand is there.  Yes, so are the problems but we must be ready to offer high quality, value driven homes for the first time buyer, retireees and many others who are not even familiar with the fine products that MH has to offer.  Now is the time.

Why would you keep it to just one State? Yes, change the image. They can be fine homes.

I agree that a national campaign should be universal for all regions.  As for the elements, I believe it should be a two-fold approach.  First, any initial advertising through selected mediums should be a brief ”feel good” message that can capture all potential homebuyer demographics.  In other words, it should simply be designed to get individuals interested enough to seek out a local retailer.   

Phase two of this campaign, and the one that deserves the majority of the investment, should be to provide retailers with professionally created tools to help them market the industry in their local area.  Hopefully these materials would be able to be given to homebuyer responding to a national advertising campaign, but certainly they would help paint the industry in the best light possible to clients responding from local advertising by the retailer. 

It could be of the greatest use of funds if the industry provided indivdual take-away information as-well-as a series of customer driven educational/marketing pieces that could be distribution ready for retailers.  For example, when a prospective buyer leaves a dealership they should walk away with more than floor plans.  Something needs to be given to continue to build excitment about this housing solution.  Further, if it is concluded that a client is interested in making a homebuying decision in the next 3 months, there should be a 6 e-mail or print ready message series that could continue to support their buying decision — helping make the industry and retailer look as professional as possible.  Additional series of messages could be structured around those customers interested in purchasing in the next 6, 9 12, 18 or 24 months.  Each marketing/sales program strategically developed to help lead the customer toward their purchase. 

If the materials were electronically developed, there would be no printing costs.  Retailers could download them, insert their logo and contact information on the material and either print or e-mail them to their clients.  It is nice to help drive interest but we also need to support retailers in being more successful at marketing the industry once a prospective buyer actually walks in their door.  An 1/4th of the battle is getting someone interested - 3/4 is continuting to support that buying decision over a period of time so the sale can be realized.

I think this could be the most effective, far reaching and longest lasting use of these possible financial resources.  These materials would far outlast the advertising that may be purchased accross any airwaves or web advertising.  Let’s provide an active marketing program that can help the small retailer afford to put professionally developed material in front of their customers.  Sales will improve rather than just creating industry awareness.   

I know this would help me at the retail level more than a commercial on ESPN, CNN or AOL.  The factories don’t provide any “industry” marketing materials and this is where I think there is a shortfall.  I hope this gives some food for thought.

It’s not an either or situation. National campaign to brand image and quality. Many local campaigns that are geographically specific for thier market demographic and buyer profile.

In major marketing campaigns – whether it’s manufactured housing or pizza – the media advertising can have the same national message. PR outreach should be local, especially on social media, news reporters and public officials. I recall a client, a county assessor,
once made an unsolicited comment to me about manufactured housing. She indicated she would exercise any influence she could to prevent more manufactured housing in her county.

A small war chest is not the salient reason for defeat. It isn’t necessarily how much you spend. There are 14 reasons for marketing failure of a campaign.

They include:
1. Inadequate analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
2. Drawing incorrect conclusions from the analysis (leading to ineffective overall strategic planning)
3. Unrealistic budgeting
4. Ineffective testing of ideas and messaging
5. Arrogance – over confidence
6. Poor coordination with centers of influence
7. Not developing effective teamwork and communication among stakeholders
8. Targeting the wrong market
9. Lack of job descriptions – who will do what and when?
10. Wrong people in many key positions
11. Poor positioning in attributes and benefit statements
12. Ineffective allocation of promotional funds – wrong mediums preventing top-of-mind awareness in customers, or voters
13. Unproductive evaluation of the campaign and return on investment
14. Unsuccessful responses to negative surprises and failure to capitalize on opportunities

Two basic rules include: “Know thyself” and “Know thy audience.”

Not to over-simplify, in essence, the key is to properly plan but only
after you perform a strategic analysis.

Identify your centers of influence and strategic partners, quantify your goals, make a budget, identify your target audience, test your messaging, implement your plan, create a positive image, create a call for action, continually evaluate your progress, and respond to
challenges and create opportunities.

No detail is too small: In collateral, from colors to font choices, or in developing centers of influence for the multiplier effect. But don’t get paralysis from analysis.

Plan your campaign to reach each person in your target audience with a positive message for a minimum of five times. That’s the magic number for optimal results. And be consistent to develop trust.

Remember the difference between marketing and advertising, and developing the
right message. Broadcast advertising is all about frequency, reach and cost per thousand. Internet advertising is concerned about CPM, pay-per-click, pay-per-lead, and cost-per-action. Don’t go the pay-for-impression route.

Yes, despite what you’ve heard about social media, TV, especially, TV news remains the most powerful of mediums. Radio is still strong. But marketing is not simply creating a radio, TV or Internet advertisement or harnessing social networking tools. Advertising is
merely one component of marketing.

Marketing pertains to the big picture. Marketing is the understanding of your target audience for the cost-effective process of selling the right product or service at the right time and at the right price. It’s a systematic development, coordination and implementation of a myriad of initiatives – proactive events to establish a dialogue – not just a bunch of advertisements.

Make certain to orchestrate and synergize your advertising with public relations, videos, word-of-mouth and social media. Thanks to the new Digital Age, consumers are in charge. Set up a dialogue, not a monologue.

For example, if you’re targeting young adults, it’s sad to say, but they are getting their “news” from their social media.

Your communication plan should contain timelines. Press kits are helpful, but in this green age, they are not necessary. Regarding relationships with journalists, here’s a hint: Reporters like to deal with experts. So portray yourself as one.

Choose wisely. Insert and distribute effective videos and provide the right motives for people to share. The right content has to be presented in right place.

Follow the trends to see how to get the most attention. For example, Digg.com can be helpful but remember it’s mostly a fickle, young audience – big on tech and off-the-wall stories.

Just like reporters, every generation likes experts and stories. Storytelling holds great power for you. So tell a good story, write a good headline, deliver on your promises, and cite outside participants for proof in your claims.

In marketing, whether its products or political candidates, people base their buying-decisions on emotion.

To keep things simple, the following explanations refer to business but are applicable or transferable to politics.

About 18 percent of people – blue-collar and professionals, alike – will only buy your products and services at the cheapest cost in the marketplace.

The most-valued prospects are the people who are affected by their five value perceptions – motivating them to positively respond to your call-for-action.

The five perceptions and their percentage of importance in decision-making:

Employees, Spokespersons – 52 percent. The key characteristics are integrity,
judgment, friendliness and knowledge.

Remember, about 70 percent of your customers will buy elsewhere because they feel they’re being taken for granted. And customers normally will not tell you why they switched to your competitor.

Image of the organization – 15 percent. They are concerned about the image of your company in the community. Cause-related marketing is a big plus in forging a positive image. So is cleanliness and good organization.

Quality of Product or Service Utility – 13 percent. The customer is asking the question – “What will this do for me?”

Convenience –12 percent. Customers like easy accessibility to do business with you. That includes your Web site, telephoning you, and the convenience of patronizing your business.

Price – 8 percent. Price is important, but it’s the least concern among
the five value-motivating perceptions.

Terry Corbell
Business Columnist at The Biz Coach
info@bizcoachinfo.com

Some of the top minds in the industry spent hundreds of hours formulating plans for an National Advertising Campaign several years ago at MHI.  Materials from that effort would certainly be a great starting point. 

I agree a national campaign should be the focus.  With the national campaign we need to focus on education of the modular product and differences between a site built product and the modular product.  There is a total disconnect with most architects and developers on what we can do in this industry.  We have salesmen on the road in the Mid Atlantic and the Northeast educating Architects and Developers with a lot of success.  We are not selling but educating and with the education it is bring Arcon Group, Inc. many

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opportunities that we might not have had by traditional campaigns.  Education will be the key to our success.

Don, you gave a great interview about how powerful our industry is.  The longer version of yours is at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg77fZZdBc4
and a highlight is in the “Now is the Time” video.

In the Pacific Northwest we have experienced significant success with the Northwest Pride campaign “Manufactured Homes. Built for Living – Built for Life”.  The TV commercials ran in 3 states and could run nationally.  The website is maximized for generating leads.  The program has been funded by a $150 per home manufacturer assessment, listed on the invoice (passed onto the retailer and ultimately the customer).  A similar funding mechanism for a national campaign would be easy, but it takes the cooperation and support of the major manufacturers and so far they have resisted. The website is: http://www.todaysmanufacturedhome.com and the commercials can be seen at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/todaysmanufactured

Greg

We have tried througha dealer group to go local and even with a major manufacturer licling in a lot of money and effort it was disjointed and probably helped noone. National would be better, a theme something like” Go RVing” could be a good start…our industry remains a well kept secret. Maybe some of the smart folks I see in here could change that.

Terry – makes some great points.  The key one is Know Thy Self.  We still have a lending problem and that is important as the worst thing you can do is to generate phone calls only to tell the caller sorry we can’t help you… the other side of the coin is there should always be a national campaign regardless of market conditions for our industry.  That is the bigger problem.  Like other initiatives we look to do something big once in the hopes that it helps…that is not how promotion/branding works.  There needs to be a consistent effort, an evolving but controlled message and the ability to respond to the leads that have been generated.  Is there a need?  Yes.  But you need a plan to address that need and that always seems to be the problem with this idea…everyone wants some kind of national campaign but we don’t have the wherewithal to get it done…just my pessimistic two cents…

I served on the MHI task-force a few years back, so have more than a few thoughts on this subject. I believe a National campaign would be the best approach, focusing on the overall benefits of our products. Highlights should include, but not be limited to, afforability (not ‘cheap’, rather money well spent), lifestyle, ‘green’ benefits, quality of product, and the employment of thousands of hard working Americans.

I also believe that an image campaign can be started straight away, on an individual basis, with all of us. Be the change you want to see. Educate those around you…staff and customers alike, on the benefits of factory-built housing. Challenge misconceptions that people have and that are presented in the media. Have a clean and modern community or sales center. Write editorals and blog pieces. These things can all be done today, and will further the benefits of a National campaign when one is started.

Thanks for the opportunity to discuss this Tony, much appreciation to you and your team.

A successful park owner once told me, ” you don’t sell homes, you sell a lifestyle”. Beginning in Jan. 2011, 10,000 people per day will become retirement age. This will happen for more than the next decade. This segment of the population will have to decide to continue working, or live on their income. Some of which has taken a big hit from the market downturn. This generation grew up believing that their homes  were their safest investment. We see that investment continue to dwindle. At some point, the boomer generation will begin to downsize and look for an affordable product that they own, rather than the home owning them. A home they can afford on their retirement, once thought to be plenty. The home will need to be energy efficient and low mait. Well built and able to be a home they can age in place with. Go RVing sold a lifestyle across America that everyone wanted a piece of. We have the product. While there are many things we may not agree on, let’s focus today on what we do agree on, and move forward with a National Campaign for Affordable Housing, while the site built housing industry is floundering. A few years back, while grazing thru the channels, a Nascar driver was being interviewed in front of a large two story home, really nice. He laughed and said his home was built in a factory. I wondered home many people had an image changed in their mind at that very moment. It’s time. The only time you fail is when you fail to try.

1.  Campaign should be local not regional.
2.  Demonstrate the value to the customer (provide examples of retail and resale statistics for manufactured home communities vs ‘traditionally’ built homes in the local area.)
3.  Define potential areas of concern and address them specifically (safety, convenience, access to services, etc.)
4.  Identify and demonstrate the benefit of ownership vs renting in the applicable market.

I love the “concept” of an image campaign.  However, until we get financing and decent appraisals for our homes, we can bring in customers that cannot get financed.  Some Wisconsin retailers have discussed the fact that they have sold the same home three or more times and the finance does not come through.  Until we fix that, we need to wait a while.

Tony

I’m not an advertising expert……my first disclaimer! Our industry is so diverse that I think it should be done more regionally.  For example the industry in the Northwest is so different from the Southeast that I think the campaign has to reflect the market and the products actually sold in that market.  Once our homebuying audience becomes more familiar with our homes then a more “lifestyle oriented campaign” showing the diversity of our homes can be coordinated for a national campaign. While I think we need a campaign I think we made a mistake by trying to emmulate the GO RV’ing model.

The reverse mortgage industry has had success with a national awareness campaign to combat negative press about reverse mortgages.  In this campaign, the industry trade association commissioned a research firm to gather data showing the overwhelming consumer satisfaction with them.  That concept could possibly be used here as well.

[...] is why an image/PR/marketing campaign is so important.  In every puzzle, one piece is as important as the [...]

My opinion is that done consistently, a national image campaign would be the way to go.  By coming together I can only assume the cost would be lower for all and the thought of consistent and prolonged ads could become a reality.  I believe with image ads, consistency is the key.  Furthermore, I think the Pacific Northwest seems to be all over this.  The utube commercial posted here by Greg Harmon is a fantastic starting point that could easily be turned into a national campaign.     

[...] We see interest and motivation for a national image campaign. [...]

[...] his article A National Industry Image Campaign Discussion Starter, Editor and Publisher L.A. ‘Tony’ Kovach initiated a discussion on a nationwide [...]