Adam Sand argues that roofing has transformed from a simple commodity service in the 1970s into an investable, experience-driven market by the 2020s. He outlines a chronological shift: 1970s—basic, undifferentiated service; 1990s—services plus product choices; 2010s—customer-centric practices requiring CRM and online presence; today—experience-centric sales where the customer experience is the primary differentiator and roofing is framed as an equity/investable asset.
Roofing is now an equity market. Roofing is now an investable asset. And it's because we're living in a different era. In the 70s, roofing was just a service. You wanted shingles, they were black, brown or gray, like, which one do you want? But then in the 90s, it turned into services and products. Customers started to care about this. And then the 2010s, it became customer centric. All of a sudden you needed a CRM. You needed a Facebook page. Can you imagine a roofer that was open in the 90s and basically made two marketing decisions a year? It's like, am I going to do a full page yellow pages ad or am I going to do three billboards? Am I going to bus bench ads? Or might do something on the TV guide? And now you tell him that he needs a Facebook page and a blog. The roofing industry became customer centric, and today it's experience centric. You know the jig is up. You're selling the same shingles installed the same way by the same people, using the same tools, more or less the same amount of time, for more or less the same price. The only thing separating you is your experience. And in this new era, there will be winners and losers.
