Advertising & Marketing in Logging

Potlatch Lumber Company, now Potlatch Deltic, was established in 1903, under the state of Maine. At the time, advertising was truly on the rise. Advertising agencies that were once simply space holders, selling their slots to a number of companies, - who were responsible for the execution of their own advertisements - were now expected to create and publish their own advertisements for such companies. Advertising as a whole had reached a 3 billion dollar expenditure in the U.S. by 1920, and Potlatch Lumber Company contributed a small part to that. Most commonly corporations chose to advertise themselves in newspapers, and magazines, and in some cases where corporations had more money available, billboards. As the both the advertising and marketing industry, as well as Potlatch Lumber Company grew, so did their consumer-market, and the many avenues in which they may have utilized to reach such consumers. This site will provide a brief overview of how these advertising and marketing efforts have changed as the times have, including primary examples from what began as Potlatch Lumber Company.

In the early 1900's advertising was still fairly limited in that the majority of it was done via newspaper and magazine's, and in wealthier cases, billboards. The lumber industry actually had it's own magazine called the American Lumberman. At the time, the American Lumberman was the leading periodical read by those involved in the lumber industry. Potlatch Lumber Company makes several appearances from month to month through this time, serving as a large exposure. In operating the largest white pine mill in the world, out of Potlatch, adding this exposure led to rapid growth. They quickly began building of other mills starting in Coeur d' Alene.

In 1926, Potlatch saw a new competitor rise up in their own area. Clearwater Timber Company put in a new mill in Lewiston, stealing the title as the largest white pine mill in the world. In 1931, during the midst of the Great Depression, the lumber industry was not left unaffected. Companies Potlatch Lumber Company, Rutledge Lumber Company, and Clearwater Timber Company merged into one, taking over the entirety of all mills owned by the three companies, creating one strong unit. This new company was called Potlatch Forests Incorporated (PFI). During this time, with the roaring 20's drawing to a close and the Great Depression taking its hold, many companies suffered. Through this merger, PFI was able to stay afloat. Due to these vast challenges, the advertising and marketing efforts drawn out by PFI were limited to what had been done before, with little to no changes being made. They continued to be advertised through the American Lumberman and like magazines, but no new ad space was acquired.

In 1935, PFI had adopted a new practice in the manufacturing of press-to-logs. This practice utilized waste's from the mill (sawdust), and put it towards the creation of a new product. This product drew a lot of positive attention to PTI as through the 30's, most companies were doing there best to minimize waste's. This newly found product allowed for those in the lumber industry to do just that. While all companies must most obviously advertise to their consumer market in order to reap the benefits of such advertising efforts, PTI chose to market this product a little differently. They certainly endorsed marketing efforts pushing these logs for home use during the Great Depression, claiming that such logs could perfect the outcome of your meal better than any other, through their ability to heat evenly. However, they also pushed the production of press-to-logs to their competitors. They believed this product could widely be developed, and that their competitors should take notice. This worked great, it didn't take long for other companies to see the value of press-to-logs, and as they became more mainstream, the consumer market for all involved grew. Consumers could afford this product during their hard time, and it clearly worked well, as it was growing quickly.

In 1949 PFI had turned their marketing efforts to answering their consumers requests. With a boom in the usage of plywood in home building, demand reached an extreme peak. PFI was quick to hop on board as a provider for the product, and built their first plywood mill in Lewiston. They also continued forth with their sustainable forestry in building their first pulp and paperboard mill, which allowed for them to also provide packaging materials. PFI continued to be advertised in lumber industry publishing's bringing to them the attention of those within their predicted consumers. Their new product line widened the market in which they were able to provide for, allowing these same advertising efforts to yield greater results, without much change in the ads. They continued to advertise their original products, as well as press-to-logs, and began advertising their packaging supplies and plywood manufacturing.

By the 50's PFI was not only stable, but prospering. They began to focus their marketing efforts, on absorbing their competitors, and dominating the market. In 1953, PFI began expanding into other states, and built a mill in Pomona, CA. In 1958, PFI merged with Southern Lumber Company and Bradley Lumber Company in Arkansas, while expanding their current facilities. This merger allowed for the company to contribute to reforestation in Idaho, Minnesota, and Arkansas. Such efforts provided support to the communities revolving the area, creating a company reputation among public consumers. Potlatch was then able to move from advertising their products, into advertising their brand as a whole. They were able to build their reputation as a corporation, in establishing themselves as a lumber company who cared about the environment. This allowed for them to not only stand out against competitors, but also for them to take advantage of a market otherwise untouched by the lumber industry. This merger obviously also allowed for PFI to absorb the other lumber companies' market shares, as well as providing them new resources to continue expansion and innovation within the industry.

This ad is an example of which efforts Potlatch Corporation was able to utilize. However, the ad itself was not streamed until 1998 when this advertising media format was on the rise.

In the 1960's there were a lot of new builders, and prefabricated materials were the new trend. Prefabricated steel for steel buildings had done well, and the lumber industry didn't want to fall behind. They ended up developing a prefabricated wood product, that they deemed could best be integrated progressively by region. This was concluded through extensive market research, as to whether or not they felt the product would be accepted at all. They worried that by pushing this new product, too broadly, faults would be found in the product that would need accessing, and had such faults not been addressed prior to mass consumption, they may lose otherwise interested consumers. In introducing the product region by region, the market for the product would increase as did the consumer market. This would provide time for PFI to integrate changes and fixes, with little to lose. This plan was based off of what they'd noticed in the prefabricated steel industry, as they too had already implemented changes to their product over time. This approach also allowed for them to hold onto their assets in case the entire product failed. They didn't want to start with the building of production plants for a new product, if the product ended up being unused. Instead, they were able to convert portions of their current facilities, as they spread region to region, without committing. They were also able to carry out concentrated advertising, as the product was multipurpose, and served different consumers different uses, depending on where they were building.

By the end of the 1960's such prefabricated products had deemed prosperous. PFI was now working internationally, as they had decided to hop on board with "private label" tissue production. They had also become the main supplier of paperboard and packaging to Japan, which allowed for PFI to move their headquarters to San Francisco. This of course, led to a PFI holding a higher consumer market, through their expansion into new territory. In 1967, PFI absorbed Speedspace Corporation which had primarily focused of grade school construction of relocatable buildings. After this acquisition was made, PFI began research in the utilization of this product elsewhere. They found potential consumers to be those wishing to build air transportation equipment manufacturers, electronic equipment manufacturers, passenger air transportation companies, and industrial park developers. They found that these consumers specifically would find that their product was not only suffice, but also cheaper than other alternatives for these types of building spaces. This research led to PFI's ability to advertise to these consumers, and expand their market space more so.

By 1973 PFI had changed their company name to Potlatch Corporations in result of their vast expansion and inclusiveness of new acquisitions. With such growth brought upon them, Potlatch Corporations was really focusing of the perfecting of their established products. They had begun plywood production in the late 1940's, and wanted to push the usage of plywood outside of their current market. Not only did they want not plywood users to begin using plywood, but Potlatch Corp. also wanted to make plywood into something that could be used by all. This meant making changes to the product dependent on what it was needed for. They made sure that their Stranwood product was approved to fit code for builders, and found a few distributors to first feature their product, where they felt would be most prosperous. Such efforts were successful and Stranwood's distributions spread quickly. They were able to build a new plywood mill in Postfalls, and Arkansas.

After Stranwood's large success, Potlatch Corporation began assessing those consumers that didn't seem to hold interest in Stranwood. Some builders found that Stranwood could only serve so many purposes, and was sometimes found to be too cheap of a product. Potlatch Corp. then began development of oriented strand board (OSB). Due to the companies large expectations for this product, they immediately built new mills in Bemidji and Cook. While this was a great product, the 80's were full of high's and low's in the housing market, which led to inconsistencies in demand. Potlatch Corporation had no choice but to close their most outdated mills in Potlatch and Rutledge.

Towards the end of the 1980's the lumber industry began to recover. Potlatch Corporations chose to focus their energy on modernizing it's currently owned production facilities. They held a strong presence in the "private label" tissue market, so they wanted to ensure that such production facilities were up kept. Dramatic improvements were seen in were analyzed in the company's "private label" tissue products, and consumer research deemed that such growth was predicted to continue. Potlatch Corporation decided to build a new mill in Bemidji, Minnesota to serve for such demands.

With a growing "private label" market, Potlatch Corporations has finally decided on expanding their public consumer marketing. Previously, they had always been seen to primarily advertise and market to distributor channels, and those directly involved with the lumber industry. They now had decided to reach out to the consumers themselves. They picked up a contract with both Alaska Airlines, and Horizon Air Magazines where their business, and the products provided by the business were advertised. They contracted to these magazines from 1998-2001 before they began with further outreach. By 2004, the "private label" tissue industry had consistently been bringing in revenue for 40 years. The company was running out of ideas as to how to further expand the lumber industry. In 2006, Potlatch Corporation switched over to a Real Estate Investment Trust from a corporation, and took up land acquisition. In 2008, all pulp based businesses spun off, becoming Clearwater Paper Company.

“100 Years of Advertising - An Interactive Timeline.” 4A's, https://www.aaaa.org/timeline/.

“About - History.” PotlatchDeltic, https://www.potlatchdeltic.com/Page/ViewPage/12.

“American Lumberman.” American Lumberman, 15 Dec. 1913.

Bean, S C. “Stranwood Structural Panel Trial Marketing Plan.” Potlatch Corporation, 6 Nov. 1973.

“Marketing Opportunities for Speedspace Corporation.” 1968.

McKean, Herbert B. “Market Report.” 13 July 1961.

Timber West Journal March April 2004, https://forestnet.com/timberwest/archives/March_April_04/prestologs.htm.

YouTube, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlY68OtP1QQ.