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Full presentations and related resources are now available from Enhancing Economic Competitiveness through Going Green
Resources Available from Previous Workshops:
This workshop -geared to small and medium sized wood products manufacturing companies - was held in multiple sites throughout Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and northern New York and featured a number of the nation’s top experts in wood products marketing.
This workshop was the first in a series of Specialized Innovation Workshops co-sponsored by the following trade assocation partners:
Wood Products Manufacturers Association
Maine Wood Products Association
New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association
Vermont Wood Manufacturers Association
Empire State Forest Products Association
Doubling Sales – Integrating Best Marketing Practices into Your Company to Achieve Significant Growth - Jeff Howe, PhD - Dovetail Partners, Minneapolis, MN (bio)
This session addressed specific strategies for increasing sales, improving margins and using marketing tools to address the unique challenges faced by wood products manufacturing companies. Key steps were detailed, including identifying the stage of your company’s growth and determining what that means for more effective marketing programs. The presentation also addressed target market identification and segmentation, product development and positioning. Case studies of wood products manufacturing companies were shared to illustrate the application and impacts of the strategies. The goal of this session was to help attendees sort through the variety of challenges they face, prioritize their next steps, develop their own action items, and give them the tools to implement a marketing plan that leads to significant growth.
Maximizing Effective Use of the Internet: A Panel Discussion
This session focused on key subjects regarding effective use of the internet as an important component of a company’s marketing strategy.
Online Sales & Marketing of Wood Products
Tim Holmes - Principal, Holmes & Associates, Saranac Lake, NY (bio)
Search Engine Optimization Planning for Managers
Nora McDougall-Collins - Web Services Coordinator, Nat'l Network of Forest Practitioners (bio)
Social Media Marketing That Works
Rich Brooks - President, flyte new media, Portland, ME (bio)
Penetrating International Markets (May 25 & 26, 2010) - Tom Hammet, PhD - Professor and Coordinator of International Programs - Virginia Tech Department of Wood Science and Forest Products, Blacksburg, VA (bio)
Penetrating Global Markets (May 18,19 & 20, 2010) - Mike Snow - Executive Director, American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) - Reston, VA (bio)
This session focused on the potential benefits for wood products companies to engage in exporting or substantially expanding their existing exporting activity including the challenges and risks companies should consider. Also examined were the established and emerging markets for wood products and the types of assistance that can be provided to U.S. manufacturers wishing to explore these markets.
Incorporating Green Marketing into a Wood Products Company Marketing Strategy
Dr. Jim Bowyer (bio) , Dr. Steve Bratkovich (bio) & Dr. Jeff Howe (bio) - Principals, Dovetail Partners, Inc. - Minneapoilis, MN
This session explored the potential benefits of incorporating green marketing as a component of a wood products company’s marketing strategy. The discussion included a profile of the green company and the green consumer, emerging trends in green building certification programs in the U.S., chain-of-custody certification, and tools to help companies take advantage of the positive environmental attributes of wood as a building material.
Dr. Jeff Howe combines experience as President of successful wood products companies with a Ph.D in Marketing from the University of Minnesota. Former President and CEO of Fullerton Companies, a building products company, and formerly President and COO of Colonial Craft, a specialty wood products manufacturer. Companies under Jeff’s guidance have been repeatedly recognized by Wood & Wood Products Magazine as among the 100 fastest growing companies in the United States. Jeff is Founder and Chair of the Board of Dovetail Partners, an internationally recognized not-for-profit organization that has published a series of articles on marketing and other strategies for the wood products industry including:
- Fundamentals of Marketing: Managing Markets, Products, Channels and Programs
- Creating Great Plans: Planning Processes That Work!
- Organizational Vision & Planning: If You Don't Know Where You're Going, Any Path Will Get You There!
- Finding New Markets
- Positioning: Who Does Your Customer Think You Are?
- Reinventing the Hardwood Industry One Company at a Time
- Marketing As A Process, Not Voodoo
Jeff is the co-author, along with Steve Bratkovich, of Planning Guide for Small and Medium Size Wood Products Companies, published by the US Forest Service.
Contact Info: 651-261-6391 email Jeff
Dr. Jim Bowyer: Principal, Director of the Responsible Materials Program, Dovetail Partners, Inc., Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota. Former Head of the University of Minnesota’s Department of Wood & Paper Science. Jim is the former President of the Forest Products Society. He is co-author of the classic text, Forest Products and Wood Science, now in its 5th edition. Jim is the author and co-author of numerous Dovetail published papers, (see above). Jim is a recognized expert on environmental life cycle analysis of wood products as compared to other materials.
Contact Info: 612-490-7688 email Jim
Dr. Steve Bratkovich: Principal, Dovetail Partners, Inc. Steve has over 35 years in forestry and forest products experience. Steve's areas of expertise include business, marketing and strategic planning. Steve has been a frequent contributor to forest products industry trade journals. He is co-author, along with Jeff Howe, of Planning Guide for Small and Medium Size Wood Products Companies, published by the US Forest Service. Steve is Managing Editor for Independent Sawmill and Woodlot Management Magazine’s “Green Column”.
Contact Info: 651-638-9135 email Steve
Tim Holmes: Principal, Holmes Associates, a consulting firm in Saranac Lake, New York that has worked with numerous wood products companies in the development of business and marketing plans and enhancing web presence. Tim is the lead author of Value-Added Wood Products Marketing Guide for Manufacturers and Entrepreneurs, being published this spring by the US Forest Service. Holmes and Associates has special expertise in on-line tools and resources and marketing wood products on the internet.
Contact Info: 518-302-1891 email Tim
Nora McDougall-Collins: Based in Missoula, Montana, Nora is a website development and internet marketing specialist. Nora provides counseling and web development services to numerous wood products businesses as Director of Web Development for the National Network of Forest Practitioners and Sustainable Woods Network. She previously worked as the Internet Marketing Specialist for Smallwood Utilization News and TimberBuySell – a nationally recognized source of weekly information for the forest products industry.
Contact Info: 740-541-2857 email Nora
Rich Brooks: Founder and President of flyte new media, a web design and internet marketing firm in Portland, Maine. He writes a monthly email newsletter and a company blog which focus on various web marketing topics, and has experience in improving on-line communications for wood products companies.. Rich teaches a web marketing course at the University of Southern Maine’s Center for Continuing Education. He is also co-founder of Social Media FTW, an organization that puts on conferences and events to educate small businesses about the power of social media marketing.
Contact Info: 207-871-7921 email Rich
Mike Snow: Executive Director, American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC). Mike has served as Executive Director of AHEC since 1999. He oversees AHEC’s promotional programs around the globe. Previously he served as AHEC’s program manager for Europe, China and Japan. Mike holds a Master’s Degree in International Economics from George Washington University.
Contact Info: 703-435-2900, ext. 114 email Mike
Dr. A.L. "Tom" Hammett: Professor and Coordinator of International Programs, Virginia Tech Department of Wood Science and Forest Products. Tom's areas of expertise include forest products marketing, international marketing and trade, and certified forest products. Tom is the author of numerous articles and publications on the international trade of forest products, including the book Expanding Export Markets: Forest Products from the Southern United States.
Contact Info: 540-231-2716 email Tom