The real "Change Order" boat(s)

Yesterday, I reached Paul Frazier at Bronze Construction in Memphis, Tennessee. Indeed, he owns a boat named "Change Order" but his boat is not the same boat whose image has found its way around the Internet over the past year. (Brian Ernest of Mississauga, Ontario, took that image). With Paul's permission, I'm posting some images of his boat. Below is the story we're publishing this month in The GTA (Greater Toronto Area) Construction Report. Misssissaga is in the Toronto area, so the story is now relevant to our print media readers.

The Change Order boat: An Internet hit from Misssissaga
Who owns it?
By Mark Buckshon

Misssissaga management consultant Brian Ernest didn't expect to create an Internet viral hit when he snapped a photo in July 2007 of a large yacht named “Change Order” moored next to a tiny dinghy named “Original Contract” while travelling in Ohio.

He sent the image to a few friends in the construction industry, and they sent it to a few more, and soon, thousands of copies of the image were circulating in emails between architects, engineers, contractors, and consultants throughout North America.

Mark Buckshon, president of the Construction News and Report Group of Companies, first noticed the image in September, 2007, and posted it on his Construction Marketing Ideas blog.
“Almost immediately, I saw a surge in visitors to my blog from Google keyword searches for the 'change order boat',” Buckshon said. “The image seems to capture one of the big issues of the construction industry.”

(Change orders are controversial. Some owners say that requests for change orders inflate the profits of general contractors and sub-trades; while many contractors and sub trades say they have trouble being paid for their true costs in implementing changes from the original project plans.)

Buckshon tried to find the Change Order boat owner, and discovered a U.S. Coast Guard registration in the name of Paul Frazier, in Memphis, Tennessee.

Frazier, president of Bronze Construction, indeed owns a boat named Change Order – but it isn't the same vessel. “I've heard about it – in fact about 20 people have sent me pictures of the other boat,” he said.

Frazier's office forwarded photos of his “Change Order” boat, generally moored on Lake Pickwick, on the borders of Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama.

So who owns the other Change Order boat – the one circulating throughout the Internet? This is still a mystery.

“I was on assignment in Vermillon, Ohio, in late July 2007 eating at the Red Clay on the River restaurant patio overlooking the water,” Ernest wrote.

“I noted the boat and tender moored in a slip across the water and given my construction background thought the boat and tender names highly funny. (So I) shot the picture with a digital camera that I carry, (and) sent some copies to a few close friends and associates who I thought would appreciate the humour.

“This year (March 2009), I was with a client in New Jersey, who had the picture in his office and said 'See my boat',” Ernest wrote. “My immediate answer was that it wasn't his boat since I shot the original image. I knew it was my original from the girl in black in the picture, the placement of her leg behind the piling and the bow of the boat just entering the picture on the lower left.

“I have no idea of who owns the boat other than that he appears to be a successful contractor with a great sense of humour.”

In Tennessee, Frazier says most people who see his boat, unfamiliar with the construction industry, wonder what 'change order' means. He said it started as a joke. People in the construction industry, of course, understand the story. “Our company, we're developers and site contractors, and we do a bunch of third party work,” he said. Change orders are part of the business, and can be a good source of revenue, he indicated.

Several thousand miles away, in Misssissaga, Brian Ernest said: “The interesting part of this story is that I had no idea the image would resonate as it has.

“I found that you can Google the picture and find it which is how I happened on your (Construction Marketing Ideas) website. I know the power of the Internet but had never really experienced how things of interest can travel so widely in cyberspace. There is a small part of me that wishes I had 10 cents for every computer this picture has been sent to. I might be in Tahiti with a beach house, etc. Oh well.

“But I am happy that many others seem to have enjoyed it,” he wrote.

Frazier, meanwhile, is thinking of purchasing a new boat. He's planning to name it: “Divorce Papers.”

Publicity and privacy: Be careful

Images captured by the Google Street View camera have caught people in embarrassing or compromising situations. See this posting on the weburbanist.com site.

I'm having some trouble writing this posting. In the original version, the text, naming names, reads like a tale of woe about how to get into real construction marketing publicity trouble on the Internet by carelessly expressing yourself, or simply allowing your actions to be exposed through the intense power and scrutiny of online resources.

The less-than-positive stories are real, and I've participated in a few of them in the past few years, digging out public-record information and discovering things that some people would rather not seen publicized.

They are powerful examples of how seemingly inadvertent actions can have unintended consequences. You simply cannot compartmentalize your life these days. If you engage in public or semi-public activities (for example, by sending an email to a few friends, or allowing a compromising image to be taken of you in public place), you may soon find your are on hundreds, thousands, or more computer screens, blogs, and websites.

In the original version of this posting, I poured oil onto water by citing some specific examples, naming names and hyperlinking the text to the relevant source information.

Then I hesitated.

Is the purpose of this blog to dig up mud or to show readers how to market effectively? However, what happens if you create your own problems through careless ignorance of this rule? Whatever you do in public these days can be recorded and redistributed widely outside your control and distributed to millions.

Use common sense. I'm not advocating paranoia, but when you send emails, or post pictures on social networking sites, or demonstrate anything in public you might want to keep private, remember that Big Brother indeed is watching.

Conversely, if you have a good, humorous or positive story to share, don't be afraid to communicate through unconventional methods. Maybe you can track where the Google camera is and set up an 'accidental' shot that will be seen around the world (The Google van is in Ottawa now.)

How to connect your marketing pieces for success

Robb Graham and Jessica Rowan at the first SMPS Ontario T3 (Third Thursday) networking event in Toronto. How can SMPS chapters attract more participation at events? Tim Klabunde in Washington, DC offers some ideas in his Cofebuz Blog.

Three interesting posts on the blogs I monitor closely demonstrate the challenges and opportunities in construction marketing.

In the first, Tim Klabunde answers a question from a fellow SMPS chapter co-ordinator trying to get more people out to local chapter meetings. He says the most effective approaches are building on word of mouth, and "viral marketing". The latter approach worked for the Design and Construction Network, an initiative founded on online sources such as linkedin.com. "I have not yet been able to make it happen for our SMPS lunch programs," he writes. More effective, in this case, is encouraging and enhancing word-of-mouth promotion.

Instead of just sending out blast e-mails about an event (which you should still do) build a group of people that are responsible to invite people during the course of regular conversations. So, if you send an e-mail to a friend that might benefit from attending ask if they are going to be at the program and let them know that you are going to be there.

Meanwhile, Michael Stone reported that while attendance overall at the Journal of Light Construction conference held up well despite the recession-induced stress in the housing market, he says he was surprised that few younger contractors attended the event.

JLC Shows have an interesting mix of attendees, with younger business owners (20’s and 30’s), as well as those in their 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and even beyond. This show had a serious lack of business owners in their 20’s and 30’s. I have been a speaker at JLC Live shows for many years now, and this was by far the oldest group of attendees that I have seen.

So the question begs to be asked, “Why?” Let me offer my theories, and I’d like to hear yours.

Many older business owners have been through one or more of the housing downturns that we are now experiencing. They even remember the last really tough market, the late 70’s and early 80’s, with mortgage rates in the teens and twenties. They know from experience that we always come out of these downturns and move on to better things, more business, a brighter future. When things are slow, they know that investing in their education will pay off in the long run.

For many young business owners, it is their first business setback or downturn. They have never experienced a lack of phone calls and business, especially when the market was so easy so recently. Many are pushing the panic button and giving their work away, and are working on the jobs themselves. They associate activity with accomplishment. They don’t have time to visit a trade show, they have too much to do.

Stone, of course, says this is unwise. When times get tough, you need to get out and learn how to run your business more effectively. He's right, to a degree. But when the wolf is at your door, and you don't have experience otherwise (and lack capital), you might find it strange to spend time away from clients and spend money on hotels and attendance fees for a conference.

Finally, look at Mel Lester's posting in his E-Quip blog:

As many of you know, I’ve long maintained that superior client service is the best differentiation strategy in our industry. Last week I stumbled across still more evidence to support my claim. The consulting firm Morrissey Goodale recently published the A/E Industry Customer Service Report Card which summarizes their survey of project owners.

Notable in the report is the paucity of high marks for several key service areas. Following are some highlights from the report:

Only 16% of clients gave their A/E service providers an A grade for overall satisfaction. A fourth of respondents gave firms they worked with a C. Sixty percent gave their firms a grade of B.

The lowest scores were largely related to the direct interaction with the client. Only 14% of firms got an A for communications. Project managers received the highest score only 12% of the time. Project management earned the lowest score of all--7%.

When you pull together the threads from these blogs, you can come up with some interesting observations and clues about how to be more successful with your construction industry marketing.

1. Nothing beats interaction and communication with your clients and prospects. You can do this at conferences and events (Stone, as a consultant, is right to be at the JLC conference, but if you are building business within your markets, I would advocate you attend conferences where your clients are attending, more than your peers.) You can also connect by email, or supplement emails and phone conversations, depending on the nature of your relationship and situation. (Someone who had communicated with us on Internet forums sent an email to me yesterday, I responded with a phone call, and obtained some valuable business from that conversation.)
2. Your biggest marketing "hits" and "wow" success stories have an aspect of unpredictability about them. Tim Klabunde could not have known ahead of time how the Design and Construction Network would catch on, online. I certainly didn't expect that the postings on "Change order boat" would result in more Google searches to this blog other than the obvious Construction Marketing topic.
3. However, in assessing the unpredictability of really successful marketing events, you can learn from others' experience and of course ride the wave when it happens. Media publicity, like viral marketing, can achieve dramatic and surprising results, but there are ways to encourage and manage them. While you have to be careful about budgeting for a hit, you certainly can respond effectively and if appropriate stoke the fires.
4. Finally, you are most likely to be successful if you apply several complementary approaches at the same time. The Design and Construction Network Happy Hour marketing in part achieved viral status because rarely can online interactions lead to face-to-face communication in short order. Likewise, this blog and other online resources allow me to maintain relationships with current, former, and future clients in an unobtrusive environment -- the key is to make closer, more personal and immediate connections when appropriate. (And of course the blog and reference to other bloggers enhances lateral relationships -- the fellow bloggers have their own networks, influence, and connections, so the circle grows wider even as marketing depth and effectiveness increases.)

How can you tie these thought threads together? Most importantly, connect with your clients. Use a variety of complementary resources and marketing methods. You'll achieve success, both slowly and incrementally, and then, suddenly, you may find you have a marketing hit on your hands.

Change order boat (more)

The number of inquiries regarding the mysterious Change Order/Original Contract boat/dinghy photo is increasing day by day. Today, for example, so far, this site has received another 10 Google keyword visits related to this image. And the day isn't finished. (I can also track 26 page views).

I wish I had more information on this site, but you can help me in the tracking exercise by sending an email or comment to me telling me where you discovered the picture. I won't post names or contact information without consent (for example, if you give me permission to publish your identity I will, but I won't publish your source's identity without permission from the other party.) This blog allows anonymous comments though of course they are reviewed before publication. You can email me at buckshon@constructionnrgroup.com.

Hopefully, I'll be able to trace this back to source -- it certainly is an interesting detective challenge.

Note: See this posting from March 24, 2009, where the original photographer reports he took the image while in Vermillion, Ohio in late July 2007. Also you may wish to refer to this posting from April 1, 2009, where I resolve the issue as much as possible (including my discovery of a second "Change Order" boat).

Can we unravel the Change Order Boat mystery?
This picture is certainly making the rounds with viral email. I checked with Architect Ryan McClain, the source from which I obtained the photo, who reported in an email to me on Sept. 19, the day after my initial posting on this matter

"Thanks for you email, and the MNP plug on your site. Unfortunately, I got the image in a rather long chain email at work, and don't know its origin. I will, however, look into it and get back to you if I learn anything."

Seems many people are trying to track this thing down -- so far today, for example, I can track nine visits to this blog who arrived here using relevant Google keyword searches to find my original Sept. 18 posting.

The way this thing is spreading suggests a viral marketing 'success' -- success is in quotes, of course, because I don't see any business value in whomever originated the photo identifying himself. But it clearly has struck a nerve (of truth!?) within the industry.

I paid the $9.95 to boatinfoworld.com and tracked a registration for a boat named "Change Order" to Paul D. Frazier of Memphis, TN. A google search for Paul D. Frazier takes us to this Louisiana LLC corporation registration:

36457889K 05/23/2007 PAUL FRAZIER CONSTRUCTION, L.L.C. 154 W. CENTRAL AVENUE GRAND ISLE, LA 70358
Agent: PAUL D. FRAZIER 154 W. CENTRAL AVENUE GRAND ISLE, LA 70358
Member/Manager PAUL D. FRAZIER, Manager 154 W. CENTRAL AVENUE GRAND ISLE, LA 70358

Note: We cannot establish from this that the boat in the picture is actually the one registered; nor can we establish that the boat's registration to the Paul D. Frazier of Memphis, TN is in any way related to the Paul Frazier Construction in Louisiana.

If you have an idea where this came from, please feel free to email or comment. And I'll continue to keep my eyes open as well.

Note: See this posting from March 24, 2009, where the original photographer reports he took the image while in Vermillion, Ohio in late July 2007.