Marketing Strategy: Year One

Target for FY2007

During the 2006 fiscal year, the PBES implementation team's goal was to have 15 additional states try PBES on one or more projects, with 8 of them determining that PBES will be their standard approach to bridge design, with "stick–built" being used only when PBES is not appropriate.

Also, participation in the PBES implementation effort needs to include others within the highway community, so at least four industry groups and associations were targeted during the first year of the program. A key device for measuring an organization's commitment to PBES was having their primary member publication publish a positive article on PBES, with a commitment to encourage the use of the technology by their members.

Marketing Strategies

The PBES implementation team will meet and discuss which states are most liable to go to PBES as a standard approach and target them first. The idea is that, as more and more states adopt PBES, eventually a "tipping point" will be reached, after which other states which might not be inclined toward PBES now, would be more so inclined.

Once these "opportunity states" have been identified, appointments will be made for bridge specialists on the team to travel to the appropriate division offices, there to meet with the division administrator [DA], give an all–hands presentation on the technology, and then to accompany the DA to the state DOT offices. At the DOT offices, the bridge specialist from the marketing team and the DA would meet with the CEO, with the state bridge engineer from the DOT in attendance. At that meeting, the bridge specialist from the marketing team would show a short (1 to 3 minutes) video on the technology, focusing on the bottom line benefits. Once that meeting was over, the bridge specialist from the implementation team would give more details to the state bridge engineer, perhaps showing a longer, more technical version of the video to the entire bridge design staff in the state DOT. The bridge specialist from the implementation team would leave behind a copy of the video, a brochure for each bridge person on the staff, and an advertising specialty item that was selected to tie in somehow with PBES. There would also be invitations provided to upcoming open houses/showcases or formal training sessions. Opportunities would be made for holding a training session there in that city.

National and regional workshops, conferences, and open houses/showcases also will be held throughout the year, and individuals from the targeted "opportunity states" will be invited to attend. Special travel scholarships will be made available for those same individuals, so that they can be sure to attend. Ultimately, the goal would be that, once an opportunity state has implemented PBES (and then later institutes PBES as the standard), DOT staff members will serve as champions for the technology to their peers. They will be asked to represent their state on panels at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and other prestigious conferences, as well as to accompany PBES implementation team members on Marketing Plan for Prefabricated Bridge Elements and Systems (PBES) 23 calls to other states, where possible. Should some sort of peer–to–peer program be established, these champions would be among the first to be recruited to serve.

Through a variety of special events, media interviews with trade journal reporters, and the above–mentioned association publications, the PBES message will be sent out nationally. Reprints will be obtained of all articles published on PBES, and these will be distributed to members of the target market. The message from this wide–ranging communications push will be that PBES is an established, ready–to–be–used technology that is being used throughout the country.

Identification of PBES Opportunities and Obstacles

The PBES implementation team identified opportunities to implement PBES and obstacles to the use of PBES and then consolidated, categorized, and prioritized the list. The top categories of opportunities in priority order are:

• Standardizing and stockpiling "bread & butter" bridges (200 ft or less total bridge length)
• Saving Money
• Technology advancements (high performance materials [HPM], design, construction, etc.)
• Congestion Reduction
• Success stories and lessons learned

The top categories of obstacles in priority order are:

• Lack of training and tools
• Need to develop "bread & butter" (200 ft or less total bridge length) structure plans and implementation packages
• Lack of standardization
• Resistance to change/lack of buy–in
• Industry not geared up to deliver
• Need for knowledge transfer on all levels
• Lack of champions from states

Prioritized Recommendations to Implement Opportunities and to Address Obstacles

The team developed recommendations to implement the top prioritized categories of opportunities and to address the top prioritized categories of obstacles. The recommendations to implement opportunities (OP_) and to address obstacles (OB_) were then prioritized as shown in the tables below in ranked order. The recommendations without an "OP_" or "OB_" designation were ranked as low priority. Ties are shown with an "a," "b," etc., after the number.

PBES Action Plan for 2007, 2008, and 2009, Including Budgets

The PBES developed a listing of the activities to be conducted in 2007, 2008, and 2009 to accomplish the prioritized recommendations. Who, what, when, where, and how much cost were identified for each activity, as shown in the following table.

Marketing Activities Timetable

Reviews and Evaluation

Twice annually (at least through 2009), the PBES implementation team will meet to review and evaluate progress on the activities to achieve the prioritized recommendations that will implement opportunities and address obstacles. Mid–course corrections will be implemented as needed to ensure that the activities are consistent with where the team has determined it should be going to reach its goals by 2010.