The essence of marketing is creating the selling opportunity. In terms that are meaningful to concrete contractors and those who supply them, this means making certain that an increasing share of new construction gets designed in concrete. It's as simple (and complicated) as that. The chain of decision makers is a long one, but each link can be influenced from many sources. It may come from firms like General Portland Inc. through our national advertising, educational seminars, non-commercialized concrete promotion, tape-slide programs, and articles written for architect- and owner-oriented publications. It may also come from association activity where the resources of many firms are brought together in a concentrated effort. It could certainly come from the efforts of individual contractors whose execution of each job has the greatest influence of all whether tenants, owners and designers are satisfied with the performance of concrete. We would like to see our industry follow the policy of conservation oriented foresters: plant two for each one cut. How is it done? I suggest organizing the RAM program- research, analysis, motivation. The first step is to undertake market research to find what is wanted in the marketplace. With the survey results in hand the next step is to analyze the findings and determine in what manner your products can meet the needs of the decision makers. From this analyses should come a plan to motivate- not sell- decision makers to accept your solution to their needs. This motivation must come from the decision maker's own point of view.