Deqlers, Editors See

based on a tightly administered, mutually supported system of industry-wide quality control to assure absolutely consistent performance of pl;rwood with DFPA grade trademarks.

2. The program is supported by 133 mills accounting: for close Io 90% of total output. Of some 16 mills expected to come into production during the balance of 1960, nearly all have indicated they will join DF'PA.

3. The program is backstopped by continuing and expanding research and engi- neering development providing new structural ideas,.new products, new finishes and new applications for plywood.

Starts at Foundatlon point-of-sale material in every form from do-it-yourself plans to technical brochures. Much of this material is keyed to lumber dealers.

4. DF PA's promotion program starts at the foundation with trade buyers, builders and key specifiers. Only after the market bases are fully covered does the advertising and promotion get into blanket consumer mediums.

According to THOMAS C. SIAS, DF.PA publicity director and conference chairman, the meeting was organized to help the Dtr'PA assess the most effective means bv which the association can assist dealers iir exploiting this new market.

"We wanted a clear idea of what might be needed in advertising, merchandising, point-of-sale promotion and other areas by dealers who are already participating in the field and by those who are thinking about getting into it," Sias explained.

The first day's session of the recent Second-Home conference sponsored by the Doug:las Fir Plywood Association was devoted to giving the participants a close look at how the association's comprehen- sive scientific and promotional piograms work together to build expanding markets for plywood.

The session was devoted to a close Iook at DF PA's overall prog:ram to build expanding markets for. plywood, which west coast manufacturers are supporting this year alone with close to $6 million.

In sumrning up the session, Advertising

5. The DFPA stamp on a panel of plywood means far more than good quality. It means this pl5rwood is easier to sell. More important, it states in effect that the manufacturer has put a substantial amount of money into helping his trade buyers resell to the end user. No other agency in the plywood field is doing this for its suppliers.

"For moro than 20 years, DFPA has actlvely sought the support of lumber doalers to broailen plywood sales," Bltchle sald. "Today this group sells about 6O/o of the manufacturers' output, Anil toilay we &re pourlng all the resources wo ha,ve into continulng to earn thls support."

Capaclty Outpaces Sales

Ritchie, who had just returned from a nationwide speaking trip where he addressed jobbers and mill salesmen in nine key market areas, traced the growth of the industry and told conference participants how each dollar of the 91.25 million advertising budget is stretched.

"It takes only four days now to equal total production for 1905," Ritchie said, "and we are expecting an increase over last year-our t2th record year of production in a row."

Estimated sales for 1960 is 8.6 billion square feet (figured on a /s-inch basis) and, Ritchie said, production capacity always is larger than sales volume.

Two Stories to Tell

The association's advertising programs are carefully planned so as to get the most from every dollar, he said. Advertising telling builders how to build "more house for the money" with speciflc examples of how it can be done with plywood is backed up with consumer campaigns aimed at showing the buyer that "better homes are built with flr plywood."

A new campalgn promotlng marlne plywood already ls ilrawing wlde response, Ritchlo said, and material tlirected toward the farrn market ls betng prepared ln greater quantltles.

"We have two stories to tell." Ritchie said. "One, of course, is that pl5rwood delivers more performance for the money in nearly every logical application. The other is quality. We try to show the advantage of using' a product with known, constant properties that is kept that way by a scientiflc program."

1. The plywood industry's promotion is

Making it easier for the lumber dealer to use these campaigns on the local level is part of the job of DF PA's Merchandising department, which produces and supplies

Department head DAN B. SEDGWICIi and staff a,lso have worked extenslvely ln related ffelds, helplng ffnd new areas where lumber doalers can increa"se thelr saled.

"Some new components were designed by our technical department with the idea that these might be things dealers could be expected to produce to use in buildirg themselves or for sale to other builders," Sedgwick said.

Experts Help Sell Plywood

An expert sales force that works for every pl5rwood seller in the country is financed entirely by the industry.

STANLEY

A. TAYLOR, director of field promotion, outlined the duties of his 74-man stafr.

"Our men all are architects or engineers or have enoug:h equivalent experience to make them experts in some field of building or industry," Taylor said. "Their job is to make personal contact with major users and specifiers of materials and sell them on the use of plywood-specifically, DF.FA plywood."

Taylor's force is equipped to give adviee on uses of plywood and helps spread information on new products and techniques. These men also work extensively in the

(Continued on Page 45) home and you can't even tie it back becaule. it is s0 ;;-;;te,';o;d of mouth, that tvpe of thingr."Did vou.see iiii-ii6oiii at ttre rair?" "well, no'" "well, here I have i:'iirrii'irirri.'r-vdu-don't know it but those people came to vou from the Fair.

'--wi' cnd itrat in order to get people to buy these cot' taiei. even with the virtually free land' yog nave t0 .very iiiiii pioi;e ii is goitlg.tg be worth more five vears from iiii- inin-it is nowl I think every one of the dealers knows this. -"'fr" n.ue people that are looking Jorward- to retire.ment out ihere. even with the lack of water' and we.oevelopeo iuite a business in water storage tanks and pressure iii"is. ano- it could be adapted to many other areas' V6ii''iitt-iti-nr-wittr a pressure svstem., and that. iust iios -to your come'along. And we have just opened our iiw hiro'ware store, and are going to be in the lumber 6usiness proper as a materials source' because we- nave

,. f,ii"l1i-m?d-;f our 5,000 ex'customers come back and il-a-nt-io"f,o'tneir own {inishing, or pick up a piece of sheetrock or something' -"iriirei; itiin'itrat, wi are using correspondence'.Begin' nins about the middle of last year' we staneo.rnls proira-m. We feel that the small-tract business. ls orylng. up' ind we are hoping to have a complete..networx ot .lranitrGtred oeaterS throughout the areas that..we worx,.ln' ili;"';; ;;-i,iE ielii6ii uecause thev are tie. ones that i-ontadt tne irost people. We have found that. when you i-o'illi;'reriioi'vbu nave to raise your..commission well i6oii-wi"i-v,ju n'ormally pav, becadse they are so used ' ii-i"ttiiii--s6l'ot a $ro,0bo'beal. Working over the vast iou-nirv ie do, we were able to have different prlces In iiidiiitt ".i.aii pteoicateo on construction costs -in those iiiii.'ino' p-rihi'caieo on what our sales costs for those areas will be. -'-rii.'Silsi'wtren it comes to selling, Mike svmons has ueCii ooing a little trac,klng down concerning ownersnlp 6ilino. rtis business ol ch-ecking the court.House could be Dretty helpful to people scouting out leaos' - --f[i.-'iYmotis' Sonora, calif., the town l gin ffom -ald *rriiii i-iibr-i. is i sm'all town. The populatibn is about 5,ooo people.'we have been in tie- cabin.Dusiness slncs ' ibzs or '30. when the roads started up into the-vacatlon ;e; ihei;: oui sates are actually centered about beiween 30 and 35 miles from where our headquaners.ls' i-iii;e-io-ipeno a considerable amount of time on the ioatl, due td the fact lhat I cover our county ano tne counfy a llttle north oflhere. --bd-ricdrning our contacting.customers, again.l,stress t am from -a small town. I know all the people In .tne boiii iio-Ge, and I go up to the Countv. Recorder's office anO see who has filed building permit6. I get their names iiii i-o'ariiiii'iiorn- tnai t wiite ttrem a little letter tell' triiittrem auout the services we ofrer. "'"w;ii.';A;id;i iJ oone, I wait about .a month ard if I i;1t i;i-; iepiv t have this second letter I send .out' ;'dJii-sir'-l itrirri time ago vou received.a letter from ma concerning your mountain home. would it De conli-nierit'toi rie'[o call on you, at yollr lot, sometime ln ADril or Mav? lf so, kindly place the date tnat you - will be at vour lot on the self-addressed postcaro"' "'iiow, iiri's is invaluable In picking up leads' beca!se peirriii' sl'J-tnat iirlng in ttrere' and lhev will,sav,"w-elll i witl wrlte them back whether I can see nlm or nor' ioiiiiiririiJ-tti'"v don;i indicate this vear but thev will call us next Year. *rfi;.';iie'iih;t is done, I take in tle oth-er wavs. of coriiliiing'ttiem. Tlrev comri in to our 9{rt-c.e' f-1 -wq1-lyst mlntioneii concerning word of mouth, people have Jriends ibii;n'-iiiiow. ano' ai oon said, the snobbish feeling of orn:nr a cibin; well, they see the other {lllow has one ind s-o they want one, too. I have devisgd tnese con' iii'-uction-cn-eci lists foi people who like to do their own oti,lrllltin,, thins peopte have a.su.ide to so bv, sjartjni with the toundation and going all the way up t0 Dullr'ln re use containeas in the baJk )ard.

Now. these fellows from do/,/n in George s alea .nave a mol.el home; well, so do we have this model nome llR. SYMoNST when they file the building permits. ilR. STRAWBRIoGE: In talking to customers over the last five years, I have found some people that say, "ls this a prefabricated cabin?" And you never know quite whether to say Yes or whether to qualify it, because some of them think this prefab lends itself to quality, some ot them think they are getting a shoddy article. I am wondering if, in your fabulous merchandising and advertising, you can insert just a little bit ot education in there concerning the upgrading of the word "prefab."

? month. Let's assume it was $1,200 and take that over a six months' period, and they would pay $200 a month on it rather than pay the whole thlng. That way we collect one per cent per month interest on the declining balance that is left from the sales. over a period of a year you are getting 12% on your money.

The last thing is title to the person's property. The lots, incidentally, run from $2,000 up to 97,000. lf they show us that they have title to that land, we will take a first deed of trust on the property until the house is completed, and then turn it over to the bank. Naturally this is all done with the bank's approval.

MR, BR0WN: Do you check building permits, or do you check when people buy land?

MR. DAVID GlBSOl{r That is a real good point.

MR. SIAS: lt may be that if you say, "No, it is not a prefab, it is assembled, it is based on panelization and components," or in terms of those words.

MR. DAVID Gl8Soll: The best article we have had from the DFPA was the mobile. In our showroom we would welcome a good mobile with maybe two homes in it, or something that would have some visual impact. It would be a better key piece than something like this.

MR, STRAllrBRloGEr lt says, "Second Home," too, but it doesn't tell me why the heck I need a second home!

MR, R0BERTS0N: one thing about the counter space in our yard. we are cutting our counters in half. We don't want oeople to sell behind the counters. We are not using it for'diaplay space. I think in oul area you will find it as a general trend. Most of the people have their plans in racls, in a special place now, peg-board racks. You micht have it out there for a little while. but if vou want it -neat and clean. then chances are it will be on the peg-board racks. ' llR. SlAs: Regardless of how it might be displayed, is general information relating to cabin plans such as Mr. Mcouilkin is talking about a useful sales aid to have around, regardless of how you might display it? tn. STRAWBnIDGE: Yes, and I will go clear back lo this first design again and state that without the words "Leisure living," but with a little cut of trees and a lake or something, that you tyould do fat more with it, because this puts a better picture in people's minds than do words lile "Leisure livin8," l{f,. ilceUlll(lll: Let me ask you thisr lthat about a cabin design? As far as the cabin itself, do you think you would get too many inquiries if you didn't have plans? tR, STRAwBtrIDGE3 | would prefer it also, though, with the surroundings. tR, lrlcCUlLl(lll: Any more comments on this particular unit. this contalner? ilh. STnAWBnIDGE: The printlng is not decipherable from a long enough distance, I would say. Stores are big, and you rvant them to see across the room, don't you? ilR. ilceulU(|il: (nods affirmatlvely.) Tho next item is a merchandising kit which we have prepared for your use. It contains direct mail ldeas, display ideas, ad mats, radio commercials, publicity. and so forth. lt is for your use to promote your program to your consumer. iln. SYlroNS3 Does DFPA have a llt slmilar to the United States Gypsum Company? lt is a deal where you fllp through these pages and it shows you how t0 build a patio table, and how to build this and that. There is a rack and you have these sheets of paper, tegular stock plans, on how to build these things. We get a heck of a lot ol turnover tor that stuff. People use it iust for buildlng benches, picnic tables, and things lile that, MR. ilceUlU(lil: We have, of course, some 250 or 300 delt-yo0rself plans. ilR. STnAWBnIDGE: We ran into quite a felv pro0lems some time back in our area. The word "Cabins" had a very lorv acceptability to people In the desert. we changed it io "Cottages." we upgraded the same cabin by $500. I had people ffom the Chicago area come in and say, "what is this thing?" because they are used to a cottage down on Lake Michigan or some place that was a shack. At Big Bear, we use "Cabins." plus others in thls booklet. We haye six new DFPA cabins in this booklet. Now, we have six more.'The question is, shall we go to another booklet, or should we combine all cabins in one unit? which would you rather have, another single booklet containing six new plans, and then be able to order these individually, or would it be better to have all the plans in one package or publication?- t{R, llAVlD GlBS0l{: Rather have them in one publication, even if it costs more. Storage space is at a premium. You can find two books maybe some of the time, or you can find three and not the fourth. We would much prefer to see them in one package. lll, SIASr Dave Gibson also has some comment that might be worthwhile. tllR. SYM0NS: That is right. tllR. R0BERST0I{: In-store, fine. lrln. StAS: Dave, how about your operation? l{1, SIAS: In other words, then, regardless of the com' plexities of determining iust whlch, we should pay attention to the potential tor inslde-store material. That an' swers the question. l{R. T0RREIIGE: You couldn't get much copy that they could see. iln. DUllGAl{ 0lBS0l{: You wouldn't want much copy. All you want is "A Second Home for Leisure Living." That is what we are talking about,

Irlfl. SYlrl0l{S: Do you have them in just sheets of paper? iln. ilceullKltl: They are iust sheets of paper, and about so big (lndicatlng).

MR. SIAS: Let's get something else to the extent that the stuffers are general, that is,0n how to make a dream come true? ls this better, or do you think they can be keyed to specific plans that may be available?

MR. STRAWBRIIIGE: I believe that would be too broad. I had had people come in with that thlng (indicating). It is vague enough in the background that it could be in the desert.

MR. JAEi{ICKE: Do you find these brochures are helpful to you to create interest in cabins, and then they still buy your minimum 12 by 16 unit?

MR. BEATTY: Yes. lt gets them enthused a little bit. ono thing we pass these out for is to tell them to l00k at the floor plans. Mainly, we give them out for a floor plan. Then we run a couple of cuts of yours to come in and get one of your catalogs free. We have used that and had some of the people come in and pick them up.

MR. DAvlll GlBS0l{: We found in those loose-leaf things that the difficulty is there will be one or two plans people particularly like, and they come in and take those and remove them. and the third fellow that comes in looks through the book without having the two best plans, say, in the book to look at. We would rather keep them together, at the expense of being a little wasteful, and make sure all the plans are available to all the people.

MR. SYMoNS: With that USG thing-you could use the same situation, you could have a real nice glossy-finished paper book for them to glance through. lf they say, "l like this cabin," you have got the thing up in back and you can pull them out.

MR. SEDGWICK: Combine the two.

MR, SIAS| Kind of a pitch book directoty of plans available in the yard.

MR. McqUlLKlNr Would something like this be of value in your yard?.Do you use window banners, or is this an item you would rather not be bothered with?

MR. SIAS| Now, you know, that is an interesting thought. I don't think we have ever really considered a window banner as being something that should attract the guy going by in the car. we have thought of pedestrians and people entering the yard, but not drivers going by in cars.

MR. R0IERISoI{r Look at your supermarkets.

MR,.3lAS: I would like to asl GeorSe and the rest of you a basic question. An awful lot of elements go into a selling job, materials, or a package cabin built on iis lot, and how important is inside-store display in that total program? ls that the key element?

MR. SfRAWBRIDGE: Well, here I am off base again, b€cause in our particular buslness, we are selling in the home a lot of the time, and then we are selling ofi actual models, whereas.the lumber dealer is working at a slight disadvantage on surtounding scenery for his model.

]tR. DAYID GlBSOlft A lot of people come in to ask about cabins, come in specifically knowing beforehend what the:y want to ask about, but we get a heavy trafiic at our place, and a lot of the people wouldn't know about the cabins. and this would serve to introduce them. we would welcbme a class display.

XR. STnIWBnIDGE: I wonder if the time has come tor our type of business to start thlnking in terms of adver' tising in other places than ou, own buslness establishments, like having one of those revolvinS things in a drug store ltat gets a lot of foot traffic, or some such thlng, with your company address and buslness and stuff below it. iln. ilceulll(lll: Any comm€nts about these ltems or any othcr ldeas you might have?

MR. DuNcAll GllS0ll: I would like to suggest you do prepare some window banners. Many, many yards are on hlghways now. They aren't all down by the tfacks.

MR. SIAS: There is one other question I would like t0 ask. we have b€gun holding the names of the thousands of people responding to these Saturdey Eyening Post ads, and there has been much discusslon around the Assoclatlon as to whether or not we couldn't make those lists available, by state at least, to those people who might be interested.

To the extent that you are interested in this fi€ld, I would like to just go around the table and ask whether or not you people feel it would be worthwhile to g0 through those names on hand for the state in which you are operating.

Dave, would you?

MR. bAvlo GIBS0N: Very much so. I certainly would.

MR. M0l{1(: lwould like them very much. lthink we can use them.

MR. R0SEI{TllAL: I think they would be fine.

MR. R0BERTSON: I think you are missing a bet if you don't.

]r|f,. SIAS: Well, without going right on, I have a hunch the verdict is going to be unanimous.

MR. STRAWBRIDGE: There is one thing I was a little bit interested in. They tell me it has been tabulated by area, and I was interested in which areas you got your best responses:

,AMES HACI(ETT (0FPA Advertising Department); These are not state by state, but rather by Rand McNally trading areas: richt here (shows photo of model)' We got all the. high .llb-oti-in the area. kids who were interested in building' mic-hanicit drawing, and things like that' and we 'spon' loiio i modet bu-ilding contest' We gave the .winner a first Drize of $80, and on down the line. Inat way we ilvio'iiri moniy bt investing in an actual model home' 6ii-itiii'wi irid something td work with. Balsa wood and pii.i, ii ?it, out ii is a piettv effective means of showing oeoole something. '-i'airn-'i"L;dw-if anv of vou other fellows have lt, but we have a revolving credit plan that .is -ve.ry lucratlve In the wav of interest rates. lt is legal, Dut not qulto.as bad as-Sears and Roebuck. Say, peoPle -c0m9 .ln ano tney run their bill up to $1,000 0n the shell 0l tnelr .nouse' itrJ iil,ii.-nooi, and bvervthing. we tell them'-well' thev have $1,000 there, and that they can pay this olr s0 mucn

MR. Mc0UlLKlNr The next thing we have here is an item for your use. lt is what we call a sales manual, and in there we will probably include information from meetings of this nature and will incorporate whatever information we can get to tell lumber dealers how they can get into this market.

MR. SIAS: would anybody around this table find it desirable to feed in their own pitch after a brief general Dltch on cabins in a TV commercial?

MR, DAVID GIBS0N: We use film clips with our own stuff at the beginning and end of it.

MR, llceUllKlN: Now, we come to the six new cabins which I am going to show you over here (indicating). ln the Dast. we have produced them in booklets of thls natur'e (ihdlcating). we had originally five 0FPA cabins,

East north central states, 29.904: llR, STnAWBRIDeE: Above or below normal? ilR. 0lX0Nr Above. building code fleld, helping the industry gain acceptance for its products in con_ struction.

Middle Atlantic states, 27,013; South Atlantic states, 15,300; New England states, 12,088; West north cent.al states, 11,472; west south central states, 8,948; Mountain states, including Montana, Wyoming, Utah, ldaho, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, 6,950; East south central states, 5,213; And foreign, that is tlawaii and so forth, 877.

MR. SfRAWBRIoGET' Doesn't that pretty much follow your population curve?

ItlR. DlX0l{: Except for the West Coast.

H. Ripley, were the subjects of the day's last session.

The group was conducted through the quality control laboratory, where Ripley showed how test samples are soaked, boiled, baked and torn apart in special equipment, and where new adhesives must pass rigid tests before a DFPA member may use them in his production.

After being tortured by water and heat, Ripley said, the samples are torn apart. The glue line must be stronger than- the wood itself if the mill is to meet industrv standards.

New miracle plastics that promise at_ tractive, inexpensive finishes for roof decks and wall surfaces were under study in the Product Research laboratory, headed by

Don Joenicke Heods New DFPA Depoltment

Technical director itrohn M. Hes and David R. Countryman, manag.er of research under Hess, gave conference participants a look at activity in the technical depart- ment, which is allocated 2OVo ot the as_ sociation's total budget.

Two Research Laboratorlos

The visitors were conducted through DFPA's two research laboratories and through its Tacoma quality control laboratory, one of three operated to keep constant watch on industry production.

Daniel H. Brown, chief of Applied Research, described recent research on new forms of plJrwood box beams and stressed skin panels, and told conference particij pants about work in a basic new field. called "space planes" by the eng:ineers de_ veloping the process. Space planes are part of a new clear-span technique that t;kes advantage of plywood's diaphragm strength.

Brown also was able to show the group tlte first stage of testing in evaluatinghrof_ dek, a new plywood building component, over a 40-foot clear span.

, Quality supervision, directed by Arthur Larsen, and Quality Control, under Robert

Thoma$ E. Batey, itrr. Batey's crew devotes part of its energy to seeking new coatings for plywood and new means of forming tight, attractive joints between prefinished plywood panels.

Batey displayed experimental coatings using' epoxy and polyester resins, among others, with a number of fillers and aggre- gates that add to the appearance and durability of the finishes.

The method of sampling was demonstrated in a Tacoma plywood mill, where the Conference participants also got a close look at how plywood is made.

I)onald A. ilaenicke, assistant publicity director since 1958, has been.named direc- tor of a newly created department at the Doug'las Fir Plywood Association of Tacoma, Wash., announces Executive VicePresident W. E. Difford. Jaenicke will head the Special Projects department, which will have responsibility for locating and exploring new potential markets for products of the plywood industry, particulariy in the leisure field.

He has been working on special :u,sign- ment since last fall in the field of leisure homes and now will broaden his activities into the retirement and mobile home markets. Jaenicke supervised preparation and distribution of publicity material on ply- wood to newspapers and consumer magi- zines for the association, and coordinated a.nrrmber of cooperative editorial projects with national magazines.

Since joining the association in 19bb. he also worked extensively in the construciion and dealer fields and has had his writing published in many magazines, in both trade and consumer fields.

- Jaenjcke, 31, is a graduate of College (now University) ot puget Sound in Ti_ coma and served as public information officer and personnel officer during three years as an officer in the U.S. Naw.