Replacement Window Market Savvy

Selling replacement windows rn the South used to be a really hard sell. Not so anymore.

"Consumers are much more educated these days," says Herb Anderson, president of Prime Marketing Group, a retailer based in St. Petersburg, Fl. "Although energy-consciousness is not a major reason homeowners replace their windows, as it is in other areas, they know that replacement windows can cut their air conditioning costs."

Prime Marketing Group sells aluminum, primarily, and vinyl replacement windows. Business has increased about l0o/o in the past year, Anderson reports. "There's still a lot of potential in the replacement window market in our area," he says. "People are just catching on about their benefits and vinyl windows are really a new thing in the South."

Bill Wilfong, Cur-Low Co., Memphis, Tn., agrees. "Just a couple of years ago, few people knew about vinyl windows. Now they're in demand." A full-sur- vice remodeling retailer, his company which sells both vinyl and aluminum windows, is optimistic about this year's business. ln Salem. Va.. business has also benefitted as a result of homeowners' frustrations with the windows that were originally installed in their homes. "Our customers want windows that are easy to clean and simple to operatefeatures their old windows don't have," says Bill Snead, president, Southwest Virginia Window Company, Inc.

"We already see replacement window business picking up," he says. "The cheap windows that were originally installed in many houses are failing. We're getting the calls from homeowners looking for quality low-maintenance, aesthetically appealing windows to take their place."

In his market, Snead says there's more awareness of vinyl windows than there may be elsewhere in the South. Although he sells both vinyl and aluminum replacement windows, sales of aluminum units exceed vinyl. "We sell more aluminum because our competition doesn't have quallty aluminum windows," he says. "'Many customers come in asking for vinyl but change their minds when we explain the pluses of thermal-break aluminum windows."

All three dealers agree homeowners do their homework. "They shop more," says Anderson. "They're more aware of the options."

Wilfong adds, "The consumer knows there's more variety of window styles and materials than there used to be. He's looking for something that's new and improved."

Snead notes that consumers are more cautious, too. "They ask more questions. They're wary of the fly-by-nights they've heard so much about."

To attract today's homeowners, gimmicks don't work, they agree. Instead, the dealers rely on their reputation in the community and a blend of good, aggressive advertising in newspapers, radio, television and the yellow pages plus occasional extra incentives such as trade-ins on old windows and free tinted elass.

A ALES of wood doors and win! Oot"s will continue an upward trend for the rest of this year and on into 1990 as homeowners and builders use them as the hot buttons of architectural and design status.

With the housing mix still strongly in favor of single family, detached homes (700/o of the total housing market), demand for windows in new construction will increase by 60lo to 47 million units. Patio doors will follow the same pattern, according to F. W. Dodge/LSI forecasters, reaching a demand of 5.4 million.

"Both wood and clad wood windows have made strong gains in the new construction market," said John W. Shoemaker, executive vice president of the National Wood Window and Door Association. "This trend is expected to continue with the upswing in new housing forecast for 1990."

Demand for interior and exterior doors in new construction will follow the same pattern with more than 43