Timber Comittee Market Discussions 2425 September 2002, Geneva

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Timber Comittee Market Discussions24-25
September 2002, Geneva

• Peter Hofer, Senior Advisor, GEO Partner AG,
  Zürich

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Bases of the presentation

• 20 years experiences as Director of Lignum
• Comparative study of joint promotional work of
  steel- and forest-industry in Switzerland
• Responses to questionnaires and communi-cation
  with promotional organizations
• Dr. Holger Conrad, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Holz,
  Germany
• Jan Hagstedt, Nordic Timber Council, Sweden
• Kelly McClosky, Wood Promotion Network, BC
  Canada
• David Venables, American Hardwood Export Council,
  United Kingdom

• Based on the authors experiences the ana-lyses is
  focused on the building market sector in Europe,
  with its importance for revenue and added value.

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Wood promotion of forest industry sector

• Cooperation in wood promotion has a long
  tradition. This is due to a highly fragmented
  structure of the forest and forest industry
  sector.
• It started long before other industrial sectors
  began joint promotional activities.

• Wood promotion denotes joint communicational
  activities to achieve positive market effects in
  favour of the forest industry sector.
• Promotional organizations are in general funded
  by the forest owners, forest industry and
  Governments.

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Intended effects on target markets

• Wood promoters have to define the target markets
  relating to products and geogra-phical regions.
• It is difficult to attribute an observed market
  effect solely to the efforts of the promotio-nal
  organization, there are numerous direct an
  indirect influences.

Competing products
Wood promotion
Change of legal constraints
General economic trend
Technical improvements
Cultural developments
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Dimensions of decision makers attitudes

• Promotional work has to attempt to influence the
  decision-makers attitudes to achieve decisions in
  favour of wood and wood products.
• Attitudes have cultural and technical
  dimen-sions with long term and short term
  elements

Fashion Current trends
Culture Tradition
Cultural dimension (persuasion, mentality,
knowledge, opinion)
Status of technique Standards Basic know-how
Current know how Technical problem- solutions
Technical dimension (technical know-how,
knowledge)
Long term
Short term
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Decision makers in the marketplace who decides?
Directly involved groups Building owners,
Buyers Architects, Engineers Real estate
firms Contractors, Carpenters Wood working
industry
Influencing groups Regulatory authorities Standard
s organizations Financing Institutions Insurance
companies

• Every promotional concept has to be based on a
  closed analyses of the building market in
  question.
• Some promotional organizations act in a
  research-driven approach to define exactly what
  is the work that has to be done.

Important groups in the background General
public Mass medias Politicians Political parties
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How to reach decision makers ?The Lignum
instruments as exemple
Cultural information for laymen/-women
Technical Information for professionals
PeriodicalsInformative books Exhibitions,
Fairs Archit. competitions Web sites Advertising
material Media Events Multipliers
Technical Contacts- Consultations-
Conferences Standardization PeriodicalsTechnical
booksInformative books Exhibitions,
Fairs Architectural competitions Web
sites Internal information
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Optimization of costs and benefits

• It is an economic re-quirement to concen-trate
  the activities on selected target mar-kets, few
  instruments and the most impor-tant arguments.
• In the highly fragmen-ted production struc-ture
  of the forest industry sector leveraging effects
  can be achieved

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Leveraging can be a strength in wood promotion

• Amplifiers have to know what they are expected
  to do and why they are expec-ted to do it.
• In one Swiss campaign representatives of
  woodworking industry did not identify with the
  message.
• The target audience reacted in a positive manner.

(Choose) Swiss wood in future, it is a
regenerating raw material
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Adequate measuring of market effects

• Direct indicators
• Consumption
• Market shares
• Price developments
• Indirect indicators
• Changes in attitudes (behaviour) of decision
  makers
• Efficency indicators
• Published articles
• Established contacts
• Sold books / informations

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Market effects Direct Indicators

• The diagram shows the development of wood
  utilization in different building components in
  Switzerland in a period of recession (1991/96)

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• This indirect indicator gives a impression of the
  attitudes towards wood (brown) and steel (red) of
  archtitects, engineers and clients in
  Switzerland.
• The expressed opinion about price, durability,
  comfort, ecologie, etc. is a good bases for
  promo-tional work in future.

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Wood promotion of recent years is a success-story

• Observed market effects in the last 20 years
• Despite the stone and concrete building tradition
  in western Europe, growing interest in wood
  products is evident.
• Market share of wooden buildings and building
  components has increased.
• Organizations of competing materials respect
• the positive development of wooden buildings
  market share
• The grwowing wood know-how of architects and
  engineers
• The positive attitude and sympathies of the
  public as well as of important authorities.

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Important elements of the positive development

• Respect for compe-tence and neutrality
• Sufficent financial resources to be heard
• Leveraging
• Well-developed networks

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Main threats of future wood promotion

• Discussions about fair financing
• Acting on beliefs rather than on carefully
  studied initial situations
• Project organization with unsufficient duration
• Not existing or inade-quat collaboration accross
  borders

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Is wood promotion in danger?

• Different wood materials and professional groups
  must find means to join and finance together.
• Joint campaigns among several countries have to
  be aware of the different cultures and languages
  between countries.
• If the promotional organi-zations for wood
  improve their collaboration, wood will have a
  better future.