Marketing muscle: leveraging big-time corporate assets for local marketing gains, 84 Lumber, Carter Lumber, and ORCO Construction Supply back their brand and relationship-building efforts with consistent customer service to become titans of contractor marketing

Prosales, Feb, 2005 by Chris Wood, Katy Tomasulo

Catering to every contractor's entertainment whim, though, is just the beginning of 84's marketing recognition, acquisition, and retention tactics. According to 84 reps and their builder customers alike, any marketing program--be it national branding or small-town oriented--needs to be backed up by basic block-and-tackle service. "Daily service execution is the biggest thing we can compete on," says 84 COO Bill Myrick. "You show contractors that you care about their business--that's the biggest competitive advantage in marketing you can ever have."

Says Marshall, who was invited to Statistics Company: 84 Lumber * Year founded: 1956 Headquarters: Eighty Four, Pa. * Number of locations: 500 Number of employees: 8,000 * 2004 gross sales: $3.4 billion Pro sales percentage: 85 percent spend four days at Nemacolin on the links with pro John Daly, "Without a doubt [it was] an unbelievable experience and I don't know of any other supplier that can offer that, but that is not what keeps us with them. They deliver product on time where it is supposed to be when it is supposed to be, and as a result, we have not blown a closing yet." That type of service has kept Marshall an 84 devotee for five years, including sourcing 100 percent of his lumber packages, framing services, windows, and doors from the pro dealer.

Those types of purchasing commitments don't go without notice at 84, which uses internally developed databases to track builder purchasing dollars along with marketing budgets that gauge marketing dollars invested in a specific customer versus any improvement in their purchasing activity. "'That's a rough measurement," Kmiec says. "'But we primarily measure our success in terms of our overall market growth. At the end of the day, are sales improving? Is the company growing'? That is ultimately the marketing plan litmus test."

In addition to preparing for the 2005 84 Lumber Classic, the company's latest marketing initiatives involve a team effort with the Pittsburgh Ford Dealers Advertising Fund (PFDAF) that ran in October and November of 2004 and awarded contractor prizes of a 2005 Ford Super Duty truck and ten $500 84 Lumber cash cards. "We have many of the same customers, so it's only natural that we build a partnership that benefits our local dealers. 84 Lumber, and our customers," says Frank Dellaria, president of Jim Dellaria Ford in Burgettstown, Pa., and chairman of PFDAF, which is comprised of 100 Ford dealers across western Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland.

Ford and 84 also coordinated a private sale in conjunction with the promotion, awarding $1,000 84 gift cards for contractors that did not land the grand prize but opted to purchase the truck on their own. 84 is currently evaluating the program to see if they want to take it nationwide.

For 84 corporate marketing strategists, the national branding effort that partnerships with the PGA and Ford provide is just another part of ensuring local marketing flexibility and success as the company continues to grow. "People [are beginning to know] who 84 Lumber is, and that gives a definitive advantage.'" says Myrick. "We are going to open 52 stores next year, and we are going to open them in markets where we don't have stores today. So when our salesman goes to the jobsite, that builder is automatically going to know who he is and why he is there. It's instant credibility."