Masonry Magazine July 1977 Page. 10
THE ARIZONA STORY
Successful Masonry Promotional Programs
Require an All-Encompassing Effort
Anyone who still thinks a masonry promotional program can succeed with an occasional advertisement and periodic mailing must have missed Paul H. Rosensteel's appropriately titled presentation, "Achievements of a Pioneer Masonry Promotion Program," at the recent International Masonry Institute annual meeting in Chicago.
"Everything any of us does within the industry serves to promote the industry," the executive director of Arizona's promotional group stressed to the IMI gathering. He backed up the statement with illustrations of countless direct, as well as indirect, promotional activities sponsored by the Arizona Masonry Guild & Masonry Industry Program of Arizona.
The audio-visual presentation, which briefly recapped 18 years of involvement by the Arizona organizations, focused more on the "what to do" aspects of masonry promotion, rather than taking a specific "how to do it" approach. "There are no pat answers to the promotional needs in our industry," Rosensteel cautioned. "What works for us in Arizona may be totally apart from what should be done elsewhere."
Yet the degree of success attained by the Arizona program suggests everyone in the industry would benefit from adopting Rosensteel's open-ended philosophy toward promotion, and considering a number of the specific programs undertaken in the Grand Canyon State.
The variety of promotional activities outlined ranged from institutional advertising to the participation of engineering students in apprentice contests. Under Arizona's program, which Rosensteel has headed since 1961, specific on-going promotional activities are geared to the interests and needs of defined "audiences." Major audiences include design professionals, code agency officials and governmental bodies, architectural and engineering students, participants in the masonry industry and the general public.
Coincidence served to dramatize one of the Arizona promotional program's billboard messages as fire consumed the wood portions of a building located behind the outdoor advertising sign in Mesa. The building's masonry walls remained unharmed.
Paul Rosensteel, executive director of the Arizona Masonry Guild since July, 1961, has a multitude of duties including the planning, developing and carrying out of the programs designed to achieve the goals of the Guild. This article relates the Guild's successful promotional efforts on behalf of the masonry industry. Sandy Peterson of Owens & Associates Advertising, Inc., Phoenix, handles the Guild account.
Detailing promotional efforts aimed at design professionals, Rosensteel cited the distribution of technical materials from NCMA, BIA, IMI and other sources. "These are highly valuable materials," he said. "But of probably greater importance are the countless challenges pursued in directly working with architects and engineers in applying their ideas and designs on specific jobs." The sponsorship of special events such as awards programs, golf outings, and tours of manufacturing plants are also among on-going efforts in Arizona to promote the masonry industry.
Involvement with officials of code agencies and related departments has included the development of new specifications and standards, the sponsorship of testing programs, and most recently, the production of a fire rating reference card which was also distributed to architects and engineers.
A pioneer in establishing strong working relationships with schools of architecture and engineering, Arizona's activities toward design-profession students include supplying the schools with textbooks, periodic technical materials, films and slide presentations. In addition, the Guild & Program sponsor scholarships, in the form of unrestricted grants, to the state's two major universities.
Activities geared to those in the masonry industry, Rosensteel said, have focused on the production and continuous updating of booklets on standards and codes, the regular sponsorship of informational programs, the distribution of labor cost cards and job cost estimater booklets, production of a newsletter and annual reports, and countless other service-oriented functions.