TTJ editor Mike Jeffree told the European Wood Day Conference in Brussels that the international timber industry still has room for improvement when it comes to communication to customers and the wider public. The following is the full text of his presentation.
‘Wood rots, warps, splits and burns and the timber industry is largely responsible for the destruction of the rain forest.
Hopefully that made you all sit up and listen. Now that’s achieved I’d better quickly make it clear that those are not MY opinions, but, like it or not, they are still popular perceptions about timber and the timber industry in the wider world outside this room.
And the main reason for this is because as an industry and on an individual company level, the timber sector in the past has not communicated effectively enough to consumers, end-users, builders and architects what the true picture is;
If you want evidence of the level of misconception there is about the way the forest and timber industries work you just need to talk to my mother. No seriously. I was at her house a few months back when a pile of junk mail dropped through the letterbox. She took one look at the huge heap of glossy leaflets for double glazing and cheap groceries and said ‘there goes another rainforest’. Now she’s an intelligent woman; in fact, just in case she ever reads this, I’d better say she’s a very intelligent woman &; but she believes that paper is made out of trees from the tropical forests of Brazil. She looks at a pile of junk mail and in her mind sees one of those horrific pictures of devastated woodland – a charred landscape of tree stumps and smouldering bonfires. And if she makes that mistaken connection for paper, imagine how much more direct the link is between timber and rainforest destruction.
Naturally, I tried to explain that the trees from which the pulp for the paper was derived were more likely to have come from northern Sweden than northern Brazil and that those apocalyptic scenes of rain forest destruction were usually the result of slash and burn farming and straightforward population-induced land redevelopment. But those misconceptions are so long-held and so ingrained, I’m not entirely sure she was convinced.
Of course, my mother ‘s views are not on their own going to make a huge difference to the bottom line sales and profits of the international timber industry; but there’s little doubt that they, or something like them, are shared by millions of consumers across the UK, the rest of Europe and around the world. And that must have a knock on for the business.
The ultimate proof that these misconceptions and misunderstandings about timber are widespread is the fact that competing industries are capitalising on them; using them almost as the first weapon in their marketing and promotional armouries. And it’s clear they believe they can do so with impunity. In fact, some of these mistaken beliefs are so entrenched that they are even used to grab consumer attention by businesses in whole other areas who really have no interest in knocking timber.
One of the prime examples of the latter is the camera company Nikon. In their latest TV and press campaign in the UK they show a number of imagined epoch-making moments in the future which will be worth photographing with your fancy Nikon camera. These include ‘the first human landing on mars’, the ‘first baby vaccinated against AIDS’ and ‘the first person to run a mile in three minutes’.
These are all well and good. The trouble is that the fourth ‘future moment’ is captioned ‘the last rainforest’ and shows a yard full of sawn timber. By putting this alongside those other future moments highlights just how emotive the rainforest issue is and, of course, demonstrates once more that the popular perception is that the timber industry is deeply implicated.
On closer examination it emerged that the level of misunderstanding in this advert was even greater. Our readers identified that the timber shown in the picture had never been anywhere near a tropical rainforest. It was, in fact softwood from either the Baltic States or Russia.
The UK’s Timber Trade Federation complained strongly about the commercial, but Nikon was absolved by the advertising and TV authorities after pleading that it was just making an artistic statement and that the ‘future moments’ it showed were all hypothetical.
Only the other week the UK industry had to try to tackle further mistaken and potentially very damaging comments about the performance of timber frame buildings in a national newspaper. Following the virtual destruction of a brand new £38 million government immigration centre in a horrific fire in February, a building correspondent in the Sunday Telegraph news paper said that the blaze had been so devastating because the structure used timber framed construction. The article contained no facts or figures. The writer simply concluded from the fact that you can burn wood that timber frame buildings are a fire hazard. He totally disregarded the huge body of evidence from test and research in the UK and around the world which has shown modern timber frame building to be as fire resistant and fire-safe as any other form of construction, if not more so.
As it turned out, this article was even wider of the mark than initially thought because the building was, in fact, steel framed. The newspaper subsequently printed a letter of complaint from the UK Timber Frame Association. But, to an extent, the damage was done and the episode demonstrated, once again, how people feel they can knock timber and timber products, whether their arguments are backed up by facts and logic or not.
The TTJ has also recently reported two other examples of companies attacking the performance of timber for direct commercial gain. A leading concrete supplier ran a series of newspaper adverts claiming that timber floors were bound to warp and creak, while a plastic window manufacturer promoted its products simply with a photo of a decaying peeling old wood window.
So why has the timber industry traditionally been a less successful or assertive communicator than some of the rival material sectors? Perhaps part of the reason is the fact that timber has been an invaluable manufacturing and construction material since our ancestors started walking upright. That in itself forms part of the fantastic marketing story the modern timber industry has to tell. But at the same time, it may have proved a handicap. Because timber has been around longer than we have, it’s been taken for granted and the industry traditionally has just not felt the need to constantly remind the market about its properties and potential.
In addition rival materials, steel, concrete and plastic have been able to present themselves as modern, innovative and at the cutting edge of technology. It’s always far easier to communicate the benefits and potential of something novel; its very newness is the hook that catches and excites the consumer. Presenting a long-established product in a new and exciting light is far more of a challenge.
In the last couple of decades another factor that may have curbed timber industry communication has been criticism and, in some respects, disinformation about timber from environmental lobby.
The majority of the timber industry have always had a strong environmental tale to tell, but in the past, due to the intensity of the ‘green’s campaigns very few were willing to speak out just in case they became the next focus for protest. The perception was that the public would always take the side of the environmentalists. Industry, it was assumed, would always be perceived as having a commercial vested interest, while the consumer would regard the greens as impartial and having no axe to grind; (and this despite allegations in UK newspaper that at least one environmentalist group has a tendency to launch its highest profile actions on the most headline-grabbing emotive issues, such as the destruction of the rainforest and whale hunting, at times of flagging membership).
But that was the past. All the signs are that the time is now ripe for the timber industry to state its case. In recent years, the industry has come up with a range of high tech developments to ally to timber’s traditional strengths. Products like glue laminated timber, Laminated Veneer Lumber, finger jointed timber and the wide range of MDF and other sheet material variants are taking wood into whole new areas, as well as emphasising the industry’s commitment to make even more of its raw material. At the same time rival materials, notably Upvc, have been exposed as not all their marketing built them up to be. For instance, plastic doors and windows over time have been shown to chalk and discolour – hence ICI‘s production of a special paint for refurbishing these supposedly maintenance-free products. And, of course, Greenpeace has also condemned the environmental performance of the Upvc industry.
The timber industry has also well and truly come out of defence and on to the offensive in the environmental debate. National and international certification schemes and chain of custody systems have given the industry both the means to demonstrate that they are proactive on the environment and proof that they are helping to sustainably manage rather than damage the forests. The increasing use of life cycle analysis and growing emphasis on the energy insulation benefits of timber and timber products in construction have also strengthened timber’s environmental case.
The indications are too that the industry is shaking off its traditional shyness and reluctance to seek publicity. Across Europe, the Nordic countries and in North America in the last few years, generic timber promotion campaigns have really started to take off. My direct experience has been of the wood. for good campaign in the UK . This has been impressive for its effective and modern use of the media, from press to television, and its willingness to use celebrities to raise the profile of timber.
Also highly significant has been the fact that wood. for good has been supported by the various elements of the trade; from merchants and distributors, to saw millers, and forestry operations . Perhaps more importantly still, given the sized of the awareness-raising task facing the timber sector and the cost of modern advertising and marketing, it has also been an international collaboration; being funded by both the industry in the UK and the country’s key Nordic suppliers, as represented by the Nordic Timber Council. Currently the campaign is scheduled to last three years, spending around £3 million (or €4.75 million) annually, but the hope is that it will roll on beyond this.
This event, the European Wood Day, and the wider European Wood Week are also very positive indicators on the European timber industry’s ambition to improve its communication and raise its profile; and I believe CEI-Bois should be congratulated on the initiative. It’s a very good start for what will hopefully be a long-term, European-wide push for wood.
Perhaps one way forward now for generic promotion and advertising of timber and timber products would be to follow the example set by the international wool sector. In some ways it had a harder selling job than the timber industry. Many people are actually allergic to wool – it can scratch and itch, and it’s generally far more difficult to clean and keep looking crisp and ironed than man-made fibres. But thanks to the Wool Mark campaign over the years it has secured a very high quality image and is seen by most consumers as much more desirable and luxurious than synthetic substitutes. It would be a long-term and probably expensive process and it would need to be tackled on an international basis, but a universally recognised symbol like the Wool Mark, underpinned by environmental and quality assurance certification, could communicate timber’s durability, technical and ecological properties and benefits in one hit.
But it must be remembered that the true potential of industry-wide marketing and communication efforts will only be realised if they are carried through at the grass roots on an individual, company by company basis. If the expectations raised by the wider campaigns are not satisfied at ground level, they will only achieve so much. Businesses large and small should all take advantage of the greater exposure timber is achieving through the market wide communication and promotional push with their own publicity activities.
Every couple of weeks in the Timber Trades Journal we have a column contributed by the co-owner of a medium-sized London timber merchant called Keith Fryer. It’s simply called Fryer Talks Timber and in it Keith writes enthusiastically about the opportunities out there for timber and the issues affecting his business and the wider timber industry on a week-by-week basis. He comments on recent market developments and looks at the prospects for developing sales of timber and timber products. All of us involved in or affiliated to the timber trade should be following Keith’s example. We should all be talking timber at every opportunity. If we don’t nobody else will.
Individual companies should actively court media attention. Let your trade, local and national press, radio and even television know about any interesting product, market , corporate and environmental developments.
This industry also has the tremendous advantage of having fascinating historical tales to tell. Recently in glossy UK magazines I’ve seen travel articles on Stockholm that wax lyrical about the Skansen folk park, which is effectively an outdoor museum of timber buildings up to 300 years old, and the all timber Wasa warship which looks good as new, despite the fact that it sank in the seventeenth century. Another piece looked at the oldest timber sash window known in the UK which was found encased in the wall of the 350 year old house in the town of Newmarket where King Charles II stayed to watch the horse racing. The consumer home and lifestyle press just can’t get enough of this sort of quirky, historical interest article and what better way could there be of communicating timber’s aesthetics and durability ? Of course, not all your stories are going to be picked up, but the media’s appetite for news is enormous and, with the rapid development of electronic media, it’s growing all the time, So every now and again stories will be accepted and over time there will be a cumulative effect in the marketplace. The profile of individual businesses and the industry overall will be raised .
Most importantly, don’t be afraid of the media. Obviously there are certain elements of the press (especially in the UK) who have a reputation for sensationalism and selectivity . But honestly, the majority of us are committed to accurate balanced reporting and, especially in the business press, we are not obsessively seeking out the bad news . We are interested in the positive and the upbeat stories.
And don’t wait for us to call you. Be proactive and get on the phone, fax or e-mail. Let us know what’s going on . I’ve lost count of the number of times that companies have said to TTJ ‘how come you’re always running stories on other businesses but not us ?’. The answer is because these other businesses are active on the communications and public relations front and are constantly bombarding us with press releases . Obviously the media picks up stories all on its own, but we also need a flow of information from our readers and marketplaces.
To get the most out of the media, you should regard them not just as an external information provider, but as a forum for your news and views.
Most effective communicators have full- or part-time dedicated communications personnel, either in the form of an outside pr agency or in-house, whose role it is not just to deal with media inquiries but to initiate media interest in the business.
And, of course, the other vital ingredient in effective communication is training. If personnel don’t know about their products, industry and their company, how can they communicate their strengths and benefits, or on the other hand counter negative comments and criticism ? In the UK timber industry the feeling is that training in recent years has been less of a priority . The fear seems to have been that companies would train staff, only for them to be poached by a rival business. But there’s a growing consensus that this over cautious negative approach is a mistake and more and more are taking the view precisely expressed in a recent article in Business Magazine. This said that the question companies should be asking is not ‘what if we train people and they leave, but what if we don’t train them and they stay’.
The opportunity for the international timber industry to state its case has never been greater. With its latest technical developments allied to its tremendous heritage and the fact that environmental arguments are now increasingly playing in its favour, it has never had such strong stories to tell. The new national promotion and PR campaigns have sown the seeds, now it’s time to build on them at both international and individual company level.
The timber industry has so many things to say. When its communication overall is as good its message, just imagine what a potent force it will be.’
