Information flows rapidly and in huge volumes these days. The sheet metal contracting industry needed a way to get its message to all kinds of professionals and potential users of its services. That message included a key notion: We do more than sheet metal…we do HVAC work, too!

How can one cut through the clutter? On this page, you see the answer arrived at by a committee of SMACNA contractors and SMWIA officials-HVAC Expertise. Research by the SMWIA-SMACNA Best Practices Marketing Task Force led to the creation of a new slogan,"HVAC Expertise." SMWIA is the Sheet Metal Workers International Association (www.smwia.org). SMACNA is the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors National Association (www.smacna.org).

This research, which took place over a period of months, included the use of focus groups with a professional facilitator. Note that the "HVAC Expertise" concept was not created overnight, and not with the intervention of an expensive advertising or marketing agency. What's more, it's possible that no one on the Task Force nor the various staff members involved-had a preconceived notion along these lines!

Instead, it was an unanticipated result…a kind of "discovery," if you will. It was so much of a surprise in fact, that the Task Force went the extra step to fund a survey of people in target markets. This "validation survey," done by the industry consultants at FMI Corp., applied the techniques of "quantitative" research to the findings of "qualitative" research (the focus groups).

The Journey's End
Putting all of the above together, you can see that the organized sheet metal industry put a great deal of time and effort behind finding a way to communicate. At the end of all of this listening, questioning, and surveying, the results were boiled down to two words-HVAC Expertise.

Why?
SMACNA and SMWIA committee members came to realize they could not be successful in marketing "sheet metal contracting services." While familiar to those "inside" the industry, that phrase does not create a favorable image (or, even, much of any image) in the minds of targeted markets.

By way of contrast, "HVAC Expertise" is a concise description of what these HVAC-oriented contractors offer…in terms those both inside and outside of the industry can easily and quickly understand. The journey from "more than sheet metal" to "HVAC Expertise" took some time-both in terms of brainstorming, and also for the existing mindset of the women and men in the room.

What comes next? The "HVAC Expertise" logo will be put to use in 2003 and on into the future by the SMACNA-SMWIA team. Working together, the two organizations have formed the SMWIA-SMACNA Labor-Management Partnership, which can be found at www.sheetmetalpartners.org.

That partnership's goal is for those who hire HVAC contractors to see the benefits of using SMACNAmember and signatory contractors that employ members of the SMWIA who specialize in HVAC work.

At this writing, industry marketing efforts-including a wide variety of tactics-are being created. These will tell readers of this magazine, as well as other potential customers, to think about the best way to put "HVAC Expertise" to work for them…by hiring SMWIA-SMACNA team members!