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filerchondising -Adveilising Promotion of Wood Erpected to Benefit All Segments of lndustry
By Mortimer B. Doyle Executive Vice-President National Lumber Manufacturers Association
Lumber manufacturers are about to undertake a national merchandising program which would give the building trades and distribution channels of the lumber industry a strong new assist in the promotion of lurnber and wood products beginning in 1958.
- This progiam, iJ approved, would be an all-embracing merchandising-advertising effort to prornote lumber and wood products-and their many uses-to the architect, engineer, builder and consumer.
As a first step, the National Lumber Manufacturers Association is developing a comprehensive, detailed plan on what the program might include and how it might be carried out.
A formal program, complete with sample merchandisingldvertising material, will be presented to malrufacturing segments bf the lumber industry, for their decision, early in 1958.
Recent developments point up the need for such an effort to help the lumber industry maintain and improve its markef position among leading building materials.
Lumb-er production-for the year just drawn to a close is estimated, at this writing, at 34 billion board 'feet-about 9/o below output in 1956.
'Lumber consumotion for 1957 is figured at about 37 billion board,feet-off 8/o cotnpared with 1956. An excess of imports over exports accounts for the fact that consumption will exceed production by some three billion feet.
Never has the climate been more favorable for a n4tional wood merchandising progriurr. Dollar outlays for .new construction this year are expected to break all records, totaling in the neighborhood of $50 billion. The opportunities for wood promotion are especially great in the fields of new home building and home remodeling-expansion.
An 8/o increase is {oreseen in dollar outlays for all types of residential construction work. This assumes a gain of 6/o in expenditures for new private housing, an increase of 9/o in outlays for home additions and alterations, and a jump of 8/o in spending for new public housing.
Housing starts in 1958 (public and private) should total at least one million units-possibly as many as l.l or 1.2 million, in view of recent indications that more money will be made available for mortgage credit this year.
Other types of new construction expected to gain or at least hold their 1957 levels, dollarwise, include private hospital and institutional building, farm construction, commercial building, church construction, public and private school building, and highway work. Most of these construction categories use substantial volumes of lumber.
Consumers-present and potential home buyers, the ' do-it-yourself enthusiast, families interested in home remodeling-stand to gain as much as anyone from a national wood merchandising program.
Such a program would present new ideas on how wood may be used to improve the appearance, increase the livabilitv and raise the value of the nation's homes.
It'would help architects, engineers and builders to gain a new appreciation of the strength, versatility, economy and modern applications of wood.
And it would susgest n suggest new techniques, a fresh ap,blem of keeoinei the oualitv of build- proach to the problem of keeping the quality build ing up, the cost of building within reasonable bounds.
With lumber manufacturers alerted to the manv adv advanrm, 1958 may tages of a national wood merchandising program, may usher in an era of new sales prosperity for the lumber and building industries-an era of unprecedented values and serviceJor the American consumer.
