About “The Lost Decade,” Revisiting and Advancing

I think it’s good to set goals and to sometimes make them higher than we think are obtainable. My main question in response to Ross Kinzler's OpEd,

http://www.mhpronews.com/blogs/industryvoices/the-lost-decade-isnt-over-until-we-say-it-is/

…is to say that it may be take longer to get back to 200,000+ shipment levels, even with a good marketing support plan. Steady 5 to 10% annually for the next few years is doable. After that, it could be accelerated. That said, it would be wonderful if Ross is correct on how quickly we could recover.

From an advertising standpoint, Ross is absolutely correct. The dollars invested should be an unavoidable business expense such as floorplan, lot lease, utilities.

The basic rules of marketing is that 5% of gross sales should be reinvested in advertising your product. This is a minimum number and a proven business management principal.

Our industry's history dictates that if you’re not profitable you don’t advertise. That’s like saying that we won't pay the utility bill this month if we are not profitable.

Where would monster.com, google.com or godaddy.com be today without their Super Bowl Advertisements. Would we recognize any of the three names otherwise? But now they are all house hold words, because they marketed themselves.

That not to say we need to do Super Bowl ads but we do need to follow time proven business principals and always invest a percentage of our gross revenues in advertising.

C. Jay Hamilton
Executive Director
Georgia Manufactured Housing Association
199 East Main Street
Forsyth, Georgia 31029
Phone : (478) 994-0006
Cell : (478) 394-5114