Hello everyone, my name is Nick and welcome to my
blog. I hope as I get more practice and learn more about the marketing world,
my blogs can evolve into what could be considered as a professional grade style
blog. I hope through these blogs I can give insight into a world that some may
or may not be so familiar with, as well as further educate myself through my
research. As I progress through the semester, my knowledge will expand as will
the structure and orientation of my blogs. Some topics may be more interesting
to my readers than others; however, my goal is to do my best to gather the most
insightful information regarding the marketing side of each given topic. I am
new to the blogging world but essentially my blogs will consist of topics which
I find interesting, so hopefully you will find them of interest as well!
This
introductory blog will be touching upon my future career path of owning and
operating my own construction company. I will provide a little background into
why this topic is of interest to me and why I hope to pursue it. I was raised
in a family who owned their own construction company. As time went by my uncle
moved and branched out starting his own construction company in Arizona, and my
sister also branched out and created her own division in the contraction world
with her husband. All that is left in the initial family business is my brother
and myself. My father retired when I was young, therefore I never have had the
opportunity to start my own company, or should I say take over his. As I grew
up playing with Tonka toys, to operating heavy machinery, I realized my passion
was still the same as when I was a child, the toys just got bigger. That being
said my mind has been set on developing the essential business skills required
in order to efficiently own and operate my own business. One of those essential
skills required is knowing how to successfully market for your business.
In
class we have discussed the four P's of marketing which is how I hope to
explain how a construction company becomes successful in a world with such a
large number of competitors. Without fully understanding these P's (Product,
Price, Promotion, Place) you cannot be successful, so let me get started!
PRODUCT
When we think of product we think of a good, food,
toy, truck, etc. However, product in construction is regarding the service which
will be performed. Everyone assumes in construction it is like, build me a
house, but no, that is not how it works.
There are several different types of construction. There are the
builders, concrete workers, landscapers, excavation division, septic division…
you get the point there is a lot. The first point of action is to decide what you
will specialize in. This does not have
to be one it can be several. Below is an example of what my father specialized
in as a leader in the construction world of Vermont and New York. As my father
always said, “Success is specializing in being great at doing a lot of things.”
Now you have established your specification
in which services you hope to provide to your customers.
PRICE
You have decided youe specialties, but now
what do you charge? You don’t want to over charge your services yet you need to
make money on the job in order to pay employees, maintain equipment, buy fuel, tools,
and also have some $$$ left over! So what do you do? This is where the homework
comes in. All the years you hated doing math but loved looking at knew sports
equipment to buy, or truck parts, or hey, maybe even shoes or clothes. Well
this is where all the love hates of school and shopping come together! You get
to put your addiction to shopping and hatred of adding numbers together in one
organized sheet to supply in your bid to your customer.
Through the bid you make a list of all the
materials, equipment, man, hours, etc. that will be necessary in order to get
the job done. You make phone calls to see where you can get the best prices and
then when all is said and done, you create an estimate for the completion of
the job. The catch to this whole pricing bid in construction is, you could have
no other companies bidding against you for this job, or you could have ten
others. The point is in order to win the bid, your customer has to like your
price better than your competitors. Sadly, reputation is a big factor in how
well your bidding goes as well. More money for better quality!
PLACE
Place plays a huge role in many things when
running a company and there are several things that need to be considered.
·
Warm or cold climates
·
Population of area
·
Amount of commercial vs. residential work
·
Competitors
There are a number of things that aren’t even
listed but need to be considered when thinking about places to root your
company.
-Work in the winter generally slows down in
colder areas. This will affect pricing and also the amount of work you receive.
Many workers may need to be put on unemployment if you can’t maintain a
sufficient amount of work to keep them busy.
-The population of the area plays a factor in
whether or not there will be a constant steady amount of business in that
particular area. Obviously with a smaller population of people there can only
be so many jobs.
-If you want to mainly focus on commercial
work, maybe a more urban area is where you should establish yourself.
-A huge factor in my opinion is the competitors.
If you’re moving to an area that already has ten well established, successful
companies it may be extremely hard for you to grow in an area with well known
and reputable competition.
PROMOTION
I saved Promotion for last for a reason. Marketing
is all about promoting your product or service. Without promotion there is no
business! There is no success! There is no anything! When promoting you need to
be specific, to the point, and appealing. When you’re out shopping for a new
car you don’t see a sales person plainly saying, “This is a truck, it has four
doors, it goes fast.” You don’t want to hear that because you probably won’t be
buying a vehicle from him. You want to hear, “We have here a beautiful luxurious
black F-250 crew cab Super duty with leather seats! It has four doors for family
or an outrageous outing with the boys!” The same applies for construction. You
don’t want to see a boring logo on a shirt or a brochure that says, “We dig
holes, hire us.” Promoting your business should be fun and exciting. If you’re
not excited just promoting your company, then why should your customers be
excited about hiring you? Build yourself a reputation, talk yourself up, and
make yourself desirable to your customers who are shopping to purchase you! You
make yourself standout; your goal in promotion is to be the eye catcher. If you
can’t put the effort into selling yourself, then why should anyone expect you
to put the effort into doing his or her job? Marketing and promoting is all
about showing the customer you’re hungry and you want to put a smile on their
face at the end of the day. Reassurance is key, making your experience apparent
is essential to good promotion in the construction world.
Marketing for your business can be done in
several ways. A lot of big time construction companies have signs which they
display at each jobsite they are at. Many also require employees to wear
company shirts, which display the company’s logo with their phone number on it.
I know when my father was in the construction business we gave our men each a
few business cards to hand out to anyone and everyone in order to get the word
out about us. Our goal was to be in the eye of the consumers. Everywhere you looked
our logo was there; safety helmets, coffee mugs, shirts, hats, jackets, trucks,
equipment, you name it and we had it. All were provided for free to our
employees. Once you have created a basin
to thrive around, word of mouth can be your best friend. As I previously stated,
“Success is all about creating a positive reputation.” You don’t want customers going around saying
your work quality is nothing to brag about. In this world you do not get
respect given to you automatically, you have to work hard and earn it.
