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BILL FISHMAN : Bill Fishman & Affiliates 11650 lberia Place San Diego, Ca.92128

A LONG Madison Avenue they frlcall it the hat trick. When an account executive or a copywriter is stuck for an approach to the sales promotion of a consumer item he puts on his hat, leaves his ivory tower'and visits the point of purchase. It is here. in the real world, that he is able to take the pulse of the buying public and of the retailer who has the responsibility of making all the markerine elemehts come tostther. There is morE to be leamed by-the marketeer in the few hours out there where the action is than in weeks of reading market analyses and in ceiling gazi-ng wair ing for that creative brainstorm that will make the public beat a path to the retailer's door. I still use the hat trick.

When I find myself in a market where one of my retailing clients has a store unit I allow at least half a dav to drag the store manager, and as many of hiJ deparfrnent heids as possibla trom competitive store to store. As a matter of fact, I also drop in at those retailers considered only fringe competition.

I've also become conditioned to the reluctance of some of the managers to make the tour. Most admit they haven't set foot inside a competitor's showroom in over a year . . some in over 5 years. But, they claim, they've been *atching the cbmpetition's ads, and telephone shopping periodically to determine their price points. That's not good enough. When they are coerced into the hat trick, most of these managers are shocked by what they've learned.

Here are some of the incidents that caused shock reactions durins our 1980 shopping hips.

o The large contractor customer that our manager thought bought exclusively in his store. . shopping at the independent just 4 blocks away.

Competition doing a bang up job with d-i-yers after remodeling his showroom (in 1979) and joining a buying group.

o Evening and weekend shopping hours now being offered by competition.

. Contractors buying take-with dimension lumber and plywoods from the gal at the K-Mart building material counter.

o An expanded paneling department at the competition helped explain why our paneling sales were off.

o The discount house showins a larger selection and lower priies on a brand of ceiling tile that our manager thought we had exclusively in the market. A houseful of windows on our competitor's loading dock ready for shipment to a builder who promised, but never gave us, the oppormnity to bid.

o Our great "special" buy of light bulbs available at almost every other competitor's store.

o Good old Joe, who told us last year he was leaving to go into the contractins business with his brother, *orling as a counterman behind the competitor's counter.

Our line of power tools priced below our cost at a competitor. A product line showing better value in fireplaces at the competition.

Competition offering after hours clinics for their d-i-y customers. Delivery policies that are much more stringent at the competition.

The visits to fringe competition can be very informative. Shopping the local furniture and carpet stores confirms or allows us to question the market acceptance of the colors and types of floor coverings that we stock. The department store merchandising helps us keep a handle on what's happening in home fashion on the local front.

I try to have a tour end with a visit to the newspaper office. It's sometimes helpful to reestablish the company goals with the publisher, editor and advertising director. (Many times the same guy wears all 3 hats.) I am surprised at how many times the newspaper has positioned the building material retailer as a "contractor yard" and how helpful the editorial department and make-up man can be in^changing a store's image. Given

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Hyampom Tumber Company

Dry Kiln & Milling Division 23fl) Moore Rd. (P.O. Box 4754) Redding, Ca. 96099 (916) 243-2814

New Plywood Assn. Officers

New officers of the Hardwood Plywood Manufacfurers Association are into the 198 I term with the annual spring meeting on the calendar for April 29-May I at the DeSoto Hilton Hotel. Savannah. Ga.

Robert T. Renfro, Weyerhaeuser Co., Chesapeake, Va., is the new pres. with Michael L. Speltz, Speltz Plywood Corp, Memphis, Tn., lst v.p.; Bradford Mills, Champion International Corp., Stamford, Ct., director-at-large; Douglas Morgan, Birchland Veneer Ltd., Thessalon, Ontario, Canadian director.

Diane Montoya, pres., States Industries, Inc., Eugene, Or., represents

The Merchant Magazine the prefinish division on the board; Dick Kiphen, Birchwood of Los Angeles Inc., Commerce, Ca., stock panel div.; Dick Crutchfield, Whiteville Plywood, Inc., Whiteville, N.C., cut-to-size div.; Frank Sheridan, Gross Veneer Sales, High Point, N.C., veneer and affiliate div.

Retiring pres. Jim lrster was honored at the election meeting which was held at The Pointe Resort, Phoenix, Az., under the chairmanship of Bill Rodewald, pres. of Birchwood of Los Angeles, Commerce, Ca. Honorary memberships were presented to George Lester, president. 1954: Robert OrDonoghue. president, 1972; and Will Kornegay, Jr., president. 1973.

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