New
England
Concrete Masonry Association
Strategic Market Mapping Research Project Completed
Beginning in 2007, NECMA has invested more than $25,000 on an extensive research effort to understand the attitudes and opinions concerning our products in the New England region. The research has been completed and work is continuing to develop promotion plans based upon this exhaustive study. Key questions were answered by the information compiled by the research firm hired to undertake more than 180 in-depth interviews. Perhaps the most important outcome was a confirmation that architects and designers are the ones most likely to make the decision to use our products and, in most cases, cost is the over-riding motivator in their decisions.
Following completion of this study the Board and several key NECMA members met over 2 days to drill down into the information to parse out the key messages that should drive our marketing efforts in the coming months and years. This focus should allow us to effectively and efficiently invest our limited marketing funds which was the objective of undertaking this effort in the first place.
Results from this effort can be seen by clicking on the links below:
Priority Plots (attitude & opinion mapping)
Core Messages
Architects AIA Training Program
Beginning in mid-2001, NECMA committed to educating architects, landscape architects and designers in the use of our products. Providing AIA accredited courses has been our way of accessing these critical individuals to encourage the use of concrete masonry and landscaping products. The graphs below show our continuing commitment to this program. For more information on our program offerings, click here.
Recent Educational Programs:
During the first week of April, NECMA and the International Masonry Institute cooperated to bring Dr. Russell Brown, Professor Emeritus at Clemson University and principal author of the NCMA Structural Masonry Design Software (v. 4.0) to New England for training sessions in Norwood, MA and Nashua, NH. More than 100 engineers and architects attended these two 1/2 half day sessions and their feedback was universally positive and confirmed the informative value of these sessions. This critical software program has been updated to incorporate the 2005 MSJC and 2003 IBC codes and standards and represents a critically important tool for designers seeking to utilize concrete masonry in their designs. A total of 6 educators were hosted at this event and an additional 10 copies of the software were distributed to students through sponsorship by the Education and Research Foundation of the National Concrete Masonry Association. NECMA members Concrete Block Insulating Systems, Inc. and JGI Eastern, Inc. also assisted in supporting the presentation of these important sessions.
In early May, NECMA in cooperation with the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute Northeast (PCI/NE) offered daylong seminars on High Performance Concrete Housing in Norwood, MA and Nashua, NH. Each session featured the following speaker / sessions:
David Biggs, Ryan Biggs Associates — "From CMU to Plank — What's the Connection?"
Rita Seraderian, PCI Northeast — "Construction Considerations & Mechanical Integration"
Melissa Oliver, Lafarge North America — "LEED & High Performance Concrete Housing"
Steve Szoke, Portland Cement Association — "Fire, Energy, & Life Cycle Costs"
Block and plank construction in multi-family applications is a key market segment for the concrete industry and one that it seems apparent we are losing ground in. This effort was intended to address this market decline and, although attendance was below expectations, the survey results and interactive Q&A sessions showed that our efforts were on target. Again, support by the Education and Research Foundation of the National Concrete Masonry Association contributed to attendance by a total of 7 university professors and grad students at no cost.
Direct Mail Promotion Efforts
Quarterly mailings of the NCMA produced Landscape Design Magazine continue to almost 700 landscape architects, designers and contractors. These mailings include promotional materials from a number of our landscape product manufacturers.
Monthly subscriptions to the NCMA Concrete Masonry Designs magazine are funded for almost 200 architects through New England. These mailings include the 4 color NCMA magazine along with the latest technical information produced by NCMA known as "TEK Notes." The majority of these architects have previously received a free TEK binder from NECMA as part of our Architects Training Program.
NECMA News, our newsletter, has recently been distributed to over 4,000 contacts through New England. Included in the latest issue (Spring 2007) was the program description and entry form for the 2007 Design Awards of Excellence program and the latest NCMA Catalog of Publications. This catalog details the technical resources available for purchase from NCMA and has proven a valuable resource for architects and engineers for years.
OSHA Alliance
As part of our efforts to assist our Massachusetts-based producer members improve the operations of their plants, NECMA entered into an alliance with with the Massachusetts Division of Occupational Safety's Consultation Program (MDOS-CP). The alliance promotes members' participation in OSHA cooperative programs and encourages producers to work with the agency's regional and area offices to address occupational hazards.
Membership Additions
The following organizations have recently become NECMA members:
