Beaver Lumber’s focus on the builder and contractor segments of the building supply industry is reflected in its first television campaign in nearly four years.

To further build on this strategy, the company is also launching a full-color magazine aimed at the market segment this November.

Laurie Maxwell, Beaver Lumber advertising manager, says the company has consciously decided to leave urban markets to big warehouse stores such as Home Depot, which is partially owned by Beaver parent Molson Companies, and to concentrate on secondary and rural markets, which have a strong contractor base.

‘Previously we were very much a home centre business, now our focus is shifting to our lumber yards, with smaller stores and more lumber and building materials,’ Maxwell says.

To help it reach its target market, Beaver’s new magazine will be distributed nationally, free of charge, to more than 20,000 contractors and builders.

Advertisers will include Beaver vendors and other appropriate companies.

The magazine will be published quarterly by Impact Graffiti, a Toronto communications company.

Editorial and circulation services will be provided by Toronto-based Kostuch Publications, whose other titles include Hotelier and Foodservice & Hospitality.

The home market will see Beaver’s new positioning in a folksy 60-second commercial, which began a seven-week national run Aug. 28 on tsn and stations reaching secondary markets across the country.

It features Norm Lockhart, the actual yard foreman at Beaver’s Huntsville, Ont. location, and launches the company’s new themeline, ‘Beaver Lumber. What Canada is made of.’

The themeline has also been incorporated into all of the company’s marketing programs, including the two million flyers it distributes every two weeks.

The commercial’s visuals are panoramic shots of Huntsville interspersed with historic photos of Beaver Lumber and shots of a typical day for Norm Lockhart.

In voiceover, Lockhart talks about working around lumber all his life, his love for it, and his respect for those who work with it.

‘I bet half the homes in this town were built with Beaver Lumber,’ Lockhart says in the spot.

‘Heck, I bet half the homes in this country were,’ he says. ‘Makes me proud.’

It ends with the new themeline superimposed on the screen over a shot of Lockhart driving out of the parking lot at the end of the day.

Beaver’s new agency, Bensimon-Byrne of Toronto, created the spot and the company’s new themeline.

Media placement was handled by E&A Media Management Services of Burlington, Ont.