Construction Informer

For many construction businesses advertising is a large part of their marketing efforts. Oftentimes for large construction companies the campaigns are figured out by ad gurus, pitched, assembled, sold, and activated. For other companies, and sole proprietorships, advertising is more of a seat-of-the-pants operation that borderlines more on experimenting than anything else.

Those that get most of their business from referrals are a whole other topic because they too have ad needs, it’s just a different approach.

I recently read some opinions by those who know a lot about advertising and they said that during down economic times the ads should keep on rolling, but the focus should change. They point out the value of your product or service becomes highly important. That no doubt will be tough for companies that have positioned themselves as high-end, but then, perhaps that market isn’t as affected by economic chaos. For other construction businesses finding the value may mean digging deep.

Of course you are constrained by material and labor costs and so the best bet there may be to make sure you are using materials and labor that offer value. Value is simply a term to describe something that costs about what people think it ought to. So in down economic times, when people don’t have as much money, they expect things to cost less than they would in good economic times. It’s really all a mind game, but it is the world we live in.

So, if your regular supplier is asking a dollar more for OSB than another supplier, then it may be time to go where the value is. Keeping in mind of course that you are talking about the same quality of OSB. If your regular painting sub isn’t finding ways to make its service and products more valuable to you, then it may be time to find another.

At the same time you are focusing on getting the best value from your suppliers and partners you should also take a look at that area where you have a lot of control – overhead. Can you make that piece of equipment run a few more months? Do you really need to upgrade the software right now? Is it necessary to have three estimators? Of course these are not decisions to be made in a vacuum. A higher expected return on investment can often trump a lay off or not taking a particular action.

Running a construction business in challenging economic times is a lot more challenging than when things are easy. These are the times when we rediscover just what has value. Once we identify those attributes within our businesses, it’s time to communicate them with advertising.