A CUSTOMER-ORIENTED MARKETING METHOD FOR HARDWOOD LUMBER COMPANIES

As the hardwood lumber industry enters the 21st century, it will face growing competition from both wood composites and nonwood substitutes. The hardwood lumber industry needs to be exposed to the most current marketing strategies to remain competitive in the marketplace. A theme that will be central to the competitive strategy of this industry wil l be creating and delivering customer value. A customer-oriented marke ting method for hardwood lumber companies, with one example of impleme ntation is presented. This method expands on the traditional product-o riented marketing method and is based on the concept that product attr ibutes provide a benefit(s) needed to accomplish some desired purpose( s) in a particular use situation(s). Interwoven with this concept is t he creation and delivery of satisfaction to the customer. Customer val ue was identified and measured using this new marketing method from a test group of customers of one southern hardwood lumber company. The t est-group indicated that there were at least 10 dimensions beyond the product attribute level that were important in creating customer value . A method for measuring satisfaction using gap analysis was also succ essfully implemented with this customer test group. The additional ben efits data indicated problems that would not have been uncovered from attribute data alone. Results from this study may provide initial evid ence that product-oriented marketing methods, by themselves, are ineff ective in creating and delivering customer value for hardwood lumber c ompanies.