Why are millions of more autos and trucks,

• Hundreds of thousands of more conventional houses and
• some five times the numbers of RVs sold annually than Manufactured Homes?

The answer is both simple, and complex.

"A man who stops advertising to save money,
is like a man who stops the clock to save time." – Henry Ford

Ford understood the power of advertising. Today, Henry would be doing social media, broadcast and online, along with more traditional forms of marketing. Indeed Ford's corporate namesake, GM, Chrysler and any significant import or domestic automaker you could think of does 'all of the above' marketing on and off-line.

Stop and think. Even towable RVs cost more per square foot than Manufactured Housing does! A number of 'tent campers' can be as much as twice the cost per square foot as a manufactured home is. In many cases, RVs are not made for use as permanent housing, but they attract people with routinely superior credit scores than most MH retailers and communities see. In recent years, RVs are outselling manufactured homes (MH) by some 5 to 1 on a consistent basis, even during this post 2008 downturn.

Why?

How can you attract more people with cash or good credit?

The CarMax Lesson

The image of used car retailers was at about the same level as the favorability/unfavorability polling data on the Congress. Not good!

But CarMax took those sterotypes and lemons, and turned them into lemonade. They took negative images, got to the root of the issues with the used car buying public, and made the negatives into professional positives for their corporation.

Savvy marketing, an image campaign and professional – customer friendly, sales training and systems – where all key parts of what became the positive CarMax shopping experience.

No wonder they grew so rapidly! That's how they became the number 1 used car retail operation in the U.S..

If They Can, Manufactured Housing Can Too – At Your Location, A Company, or much of the Industry

Your location, company and our industry could do also what CarMax, GoRVing and other examples we could share have done, but you smart ones already get the point.

With low cost used homes being knocked out by many lenders due to the CFPB's implementing Dodd-Frank regulations, combined with a harsh winter and much more, we might see a drop in February's new homes shipments. Time will soon tell.

If so our contacts tell us they expect a March rebound.

The Feds will figure this out, but only when enough consumers and industry pros get their U.S. Congressman on HR 1799 and U.S. Senators on S. 1828 (one of my senators and my past and present congressman are on board as co-sponsors, how about yours?).

But in the mean time, you can still make money and sell even more homes, not to the lowest end of the credit scale, but rather to the same buyers who shell out the big bucks for RVs or autos that can rival or exceed an MH in price. Conventional housing, the U.S. Census Bureau tells us, can be double what our homes sell for today. If they outsell us some 12 to 1 plus, why can't we get more market share too?

Well, the answer is that of course you can.

See the MH Trade Show Videos,
discover why it was Standing Room Only
and then come to Tunica Today!

Learn More to Earn More

The same types of consumer-friendly strategies that made CarMax a household name can help your location or company Dominate Your Local Market.

Not some day, right away.

Learn the basics free in Tunica, during our Wednesday morning educational session. Make sure you attend the MH Finance Panels, MH Community Lesson's Learned Panels too. See the full Tunica Show business building seminar line up at this link.

Please see Brad Nelms just-in commentary on the upcoming seminars and the Tunica Show, “Why Retailers and Community Owner/Operators should be at the Tunica Show!”

The Youngest Exhibitor

Do you have children, or have friends or family with young ones? Then you know how a happy child tends to charm others, especially when they are 'all dressed up.'

Well, Mama does a fine job of making our son, Tamas Kovach (pronounced “Tah Mash Co-Vatch” = sounds like a watch with a V), look good!

Tamas loves to hand out business cards. He personally gave away 2 boxes of them – some 500 cards during the Louisville Show!

Please give Tamas an opportunity to show you his unbridled enthusiasm for being “the youngest exhibitor,” and what could be the start of another generation that will enter into the glorious Manufactured Housing Industry.

Will we see YOU in Tunica? We are at Booth 14H, right by the seminar doors! We'll have our friends from ManufacturedHomes.com there in the booth next to ours, with video gear in hand! See examples of fine their handiwork and our live interviews at this page linked here.

Thanks for checking in, our next report will be from Tunica! ##

(Editor's Note: For those who want a preview of Tony's "Dominate Your Local Market" presentation for Tunica, please click here.)

(Image credits: WikiCommons, MHProNews)

L. A. 'Tony' Kovach
ManufacturedHomeLivingNews.com | MHProNews.com |
Business and Public Marketing & Ads: B2B | B2C
Websites, Contract Marketing & Sales Training, Consulting, Speaking:

MHC-MD.com | LATonyKovach.com | Office 863-213-4090

Connect on LinkedIN:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach