Western lumber industry organtzes marketing push

market" in helping to move commodity lumber products by presenting ideas in concept, as well as with actual plans. During the recent "depression," inventories of past materials were virtually exhausted. "Some of these would be replaced in any case," Barrett reported. "But if Impetus flies, we'll have a magnifi-

Story at a Glance

Western lumber marketing campaign aims at specific regions and consumers. high involvement for retailers . .new promotional materials.

cent bank of extraordinary merchandising materials in tune with the retailing opportunities of the 1980s, and tied-in with structured programs which capitalize upon them."

The biggest item, however, would be an innovative marketing strategy to pull more common grade boards out of the West, according to Barrett.

One of the major campaigns would concentrate on storage and storage rooms in remodeling or new construction which would utilize common board lumber as well as dimensional lumber for framing.

"This will be based upon the fact that Western producers are America'sprimary source for boards, and boards are automatically ideal by size and characteristic to be utilized in storage areas. Indications are there is a great shortage of residential storage in America, and a major focus of Impetus would be to satisfy that need. If we can accomplish that, a lot more Western lumber will be needed by retailer customers."

The plan sets out specific programs for "user category" audiences, including retailers, builders, remodeling contractors and consumers. Theretailer-oriented segments of Impetus have roles tied to virtually all other audiences, since retailers are key to the overall distribution of Western lumber.

Barrett, who directs lumber sales for Champion International, has led the plan's development from its beginning in January 1982.

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and that makes them partners-not policemen- in the lumber inspection process."

That's the working philosophy of the Western Wood Products Association Quality Standards department and its chief lumber inspector, William R. Spannaus, who's responsible for administering the quality control procedures that in a normal year cover some 12 billion board feet of lumber.

WWPA is both a rules-writing and an inspection agency, certified bythe Board of Review of the American Lumber Standards Committee. The WWPA gradestamp is a familiar sight nationwide in retail yards and building sites.

WWPA is authorized by the ALSC to write rules for Western lumber, and it does so through the WWPA Quality Standards Committee.

In this role it develops, writes and publishes grading rules covering species and species groupings dominant to the Western woods region. It also provides engineering support and research into wood properties, to assist in development of working stresses. It also writes rules and conducts research for quality control programs for such special products as machine stress-rated and glued lumber. Inherent in the rules-writing process is obtaining building code approvals for official WWPA rules.

Direct oversight of the ruleswriting function at WWPA is provided by its Quality Standards Committee, representing grading mills from throughout the 12-state Western Wood Region. William Ford, BoiseCascade Corp., Portland, Or., is the committee's current chairman.

As an inspection agency, WWPA serves mills that produce 4ou/o of U.S. lumber production in a normal year. It does so with a team oftrained lumber inspectors positioned