The West Coqst Lumbermdn's Associotion Storts Crocking the Whip on Wood Promotion

,_ Back_ed by a 25/o increase in membership dues, the West Coast Lumbermen's Association has undeitaken the most far-reaching promotion campaign in its history, it is announced by Robert E. Mahaffay, WCLA advertising and promotion manager. Foundation of the campaign, Mafiaffay said, is an aggressive effort to increase the number of homes bui!1 and sold throughout the nation.

' "The man who can afford two Cadillacs and a $50,000

;home.doesn't need any encouragement from us," Uanaffay

"but there are hundieds of thousands of other 'people who do.

"We are after ihe man who could buy a home but is over- booklet has already been shown bv home builders and savings-and-loan institutions on a iegional basis, and it is probable tliat distribution through fhese organizations will also be substantial.", powered by advertisilg fo{ automobilei anil a host of other powereq Dy aoverrlsrng ror and a host items which prevent him from doing so. We are trying to make him and his wife want a home more than thev .riant

Mahafay stated that all of WCLA's many services to retail lumber dealers will continue duiine 1958. These include free newspaper mats, radio commlrcials, te-levision-spots, motion pictures, and some 90 pieces of promotion literature which reach a total distriltution of more than two million copies a year.

'i' 'anything else in the world-and then show him 6ow to , go about getting one."

I]qi"g the theme, "Live Better in a Home of Your Own," WCLA is carrying a heavy schedule of full-oage. full-color ., WCI, A ' ads in such magazines as Better Homes - and Gardens,

; American_Home,_House Beautiful, Living for Young lfome- ' makers, New Homes Guide, House Beautiful Buildine Book and House and Garden Buildine Book. Total circula-, tion of these publications is nearly tJn million.

"The ads ire designed to emihasize all of the heartwarming things that have made- the American home the , Fey to a- b-etter way of life-a place of security, a place of ttop. and freedom, a'better plaie to raise childien,"'Mahaf- ', lay said. "We sell homes first, then we sell wood homes, and finally we sell West Coast lumber to build them with.', Most important piece of literature in the program is a , new, eight-page, full-color booklet entitled ,,Fiow-you Can . Own a Home."

{l., "This combines beauty rvith extreme practicality," Maf,i haffay poin-ted out_. "It intrigues the potential hom'e buyer ii,: and then shows him very slmply-the advantages of home :i ownership, various metliods of - financing, h;w much he , can afford to pay for a home, and how to sive for the neces:- sary down payment.

'., "Our own free distribution of 'How You Can Own a New Home,' through our national advertising and through retail Iumber dealers, will run to several hundred thousant copies '- during the next twelve months. Very great interest in'the

WCLA is also expanding its promotion effort in the farm field. Primary item,-being otrer,id exclusively through retail dealers, is a series of "packaged" utility farm buitairigs, with shop. a_nd machinery storage adaptations. Competingltrong- ly with meta-l buildings, this modernized type of firm coistru_ction is being heavily advertised in firm publications. _

'l9rr approach-to architects is also being expinded," Mah9ftay said. "In the architectural magazines our advertising shows the most striking new developments in architectura-l design,-indicating. that wood is as modern and exciting as any of its competing materials.

"Our prornotion program for wood schools-important to retail dealers in their own communities-will be getting into high gear within the next few months. 'We are piesent-- ly gathering case history data which will be translated into articles, news releases and the most comprehensive promo- tion material yet developed in behalf of lumber.

"We are participating as rvell in the 'Building America' series of television films, which is supported by the Producers' Council. The expected 300 showings of -this series during 1958 will add to the total of more t-han 3,000 showings our lumber promotion films have already received on television.

"And we will continue also to display West Coast lumber at some twenty-five regional retail conventions as well as at the national retail and NAHB shows.

"Altogether, the lumber promotion outlook for 1958 is highly encouraging. The National Association of Home Builders has urged that other building material suppliers adopt an adveriising approach simila-r to WCLAk, and we hope they will. Working as a unit, we can create the mightiest force which ever has been brought to bear on the building industry," Mahaffay said.

"lDecline to Agree"

By Robert E. Mohoffoy,

Other Associations have done likewise.

Advertising

Associqtion

qnd Promolion Monoger, Wesf Goost Lumbermen's

I ca_nnot go along with the current theory that wood is in a desperate position promotion-wise.

I submit that allof us in the industrv should know within an _eighth of an inch what is already being done. I submit-that the past ten years have seett a phen"omenal increase in wood products promotion by individual firms and associations, and that lhis increase may logically be expected to continue'

Ten years ago the Southern Pine Association rvas spending comparatively little in the lvay of advertising; today its program has advanced to national magazines.- fn front of me is the February issue of House Beautiful. Let's examine it page by,page.-We are looking for advertisements of wood, editorial mentions of wood, pictures of wood. Any kind of wood.

Ten years ago the West Coast Lumbermen'J Association was spending a mere handful of dollars on advertising and promotion; today it is spending close to one million dollars a year.

The Western Pine Association budget has been substantially increased.

The California Redwood Association recentlv doubled its dues to add to its advertising and promotion program.

Weyerhaeuser has done good advertising for many years; today it is doing much more. Within the past decade such powerful firms as Simpson arrd Georgia-Pacific have initiated stro-ng and expensive national advertising programs. Other firms in the South, Northeast, Midwelt -ani[ elsewhere have done the same.

Let's boil this down to one specific example. For the past s,everal months f have been going through magazines page by page, ad by ad, illustration by illustiation.- Looking for every mention of wood, every pictorical representa- tion of wood.

Try- it sometime. Try the Saturday Evening Post. Try any of the home service magazines such as Belter Homei and Gardens, American Home, Sunset, or Living for Young Homemakers.

To begin with, the cover shows a wood wall, wood table and a small wood cbbinet. On the inside cover the.re is a

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