I have seen and experienced several business cycles in our industry in the last 30 years. None of them have been fun but this time something is different. The residential HVAC market has been sliding for several months, no thanks to the housing market downturn but the industry hasn’t hit the panic button. Unlike other downturns, most companies recognized that the five year honeymoon of record unitary sales couldn’t last forever and have continued to invest in the future especially in the marketing and advertising arena.

Sure some budget belt tightening is going on and it is showing up in our advertising revenues. Our business at The NEWS is off somewhat, but by and large we are holding our own and we observe more and more companies making a long-term commitment to their marketing plans. We even had two or three major advertising programs start in the fourth quarter. Thank goodness a lot of companies are looking at the economic glass as being half full instead of half empty.

What do you think?