Many building materials manufacturers try to draw traffic to their trade show booth with a mailer or an incentive. Most of these are a waste of time and money. They frequently fall into the camp of “Let’s do something” instead of “Let’s do something effective”
Johns Manville did a beautiful job of promoting Playstation and a poor job of promoting themselves or their new product. The type of successful roofing contractor you want as a customer is looking for good business reasons to switch to your product. A contractor who will take some of his valuable time for the chance to win a Playstation is probably a loser.
It’s not until you get to the body copy that you learn what the product is and even then it’s all features and no benefits. Why should you watch this demo other than for a chance to win a Playstation?
I’m assuming Expand-O-Flash is a great product that will make the contractor more successful. I also assume that Johns Manville has a story to tell about why a contractor should prefer to do business with them in this largely commodity category of commercial roofing. Neither of these stories is here.
This is another example of no strategy. We need to sell more Expand-O-Flash. Let’s do something. I have an idea, let’s give away a Playstation. Everyone wants one of those.
No one stopped to think why might someone want to use Expand-O-Flash and how should they creatively communicate that?
Johns Manville is a successful company that makes great products. It’s too bad that they think a Playstation is cooler than they are. Fortunately for them, most commercial roofing marketing is mediocre so while this won’t help them, it won’t hurt them.
Many building materials companies exhibit at trade shows without a good reason or measurable ROI. Some of them also compound this waste by doing ineffective add-ons like this. Don’t be one of those companies.
About The Author: Mark Mitchell is a Sales and Marketing Consultant who specializes in helping business owners and senior executives in the building materials industry overcome difficult sales problems. Using his extensive hands-on experience, he shows them how to creative effective strategies to identify and eliminate blind spots that allow them to get past the roadblocks that keep them from realizing their revenue goals. Click here to learn more about his one-day workshop “Selling Today’s Building Materials Prospect.”
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