Randy Cooper of PLANTation Services, Inc., in Little Rock, Arkansas, reminds his fellow landscape professionals that marketing is an ongoing process. It does not stop.  Cooper poses the following questions to fellow landscape professionals.

·         How many years have you consistently engaged in marketing efforts to promote your company’s services to the public?

·         How many years have you placed a company ad in the yellow pages of your phone book? How many years have you set up a booth in a local trade show?

·         How many years have you been a member of the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) or some other industry-related association?

·         How many years have you served on the board of directors of a local nonprofit organization? 

Cooper suggests that if your answers to the questions above indicate that your company has been engaged in marketing for many years, you should ask yourself, “Have we been consistent with our company’s marketing efforts out of habit, or do we have the opinion that our marketing efforts define our business to our market, and so, as long as we are active and competing in our market, it simply is not feasible to stop marketing?”

The obvious conclusion to be reached from all this questioning is that as local markets ebb and flow, landscape professionals need to constantly keep a current and fresh picture of their companies in front of their markets. This is marketing, and it does not stop!! It is forever!! 

By Randy Cooper

PLANTation Services, Inc.

Little Rock, Arkansas

rcooper@plantationservices.com