SOLICITATION NOTICE
R -- Training & Marketing Program for Manufactured Homes Retailers
- Notice Date
- 5/19/2005
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- NAICS
- 541613
— Marketing Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Acquisition Management, EPA/Headquarters, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., 3801R, Washington, DC, 20460
- ZIP Code
- 20460
- Solicitation Number
- RFQ-DC-05-00183A
- Response Due
- 6/3/2005
- Archive Date
- 6/18/2005
- Description
- This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in FAR Subpart 12.6, and Subpart 13.106 as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; offers are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. Request for quotation number RFQ-DC-05-00183A shall be referenced on any quotation. The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect thru Federal Acquisition Circular 2005-03. The NAICS and small business size standard for this project are 541613/$6.0 million. Only one award will result from this solicitation, via the issuance of a fixed price purchase order. Development of a Training and Marketing Program for Retailers of ENERGY STAR Qualified Manufactured Homes. BACKGROUND: In 1992, the US Environmental Protection Agency launched the Energy Star? program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging the use of more energy-efficient products and appliances. This voluntary labeling program was highly successful and in the late 1990s, new homes, site-built and manufactured, were added to the roster of products that were eligible for the Energy Star label. ENERGY STAR slowly gained a measure of acceptance in the site-built housing industry but struggled in the manufactured housing sector largely because the program procedures and requirements were not suited to the way manufactured homes were produced and sold. Recognizing that the manufactured housing industry is the major provider of the nation?s affordable, unsubsidized housing, and therefore is an important factor in reducing household energy consumption, EPA began the process of adapting the Energy Star program to better reflect the construction, sales and installation methods that characterize manufactured housing. In 2000, the Manufactured Housing Research Alliance (MHRA) developed technical procedures that later laid the ground work for what became the guidelines for constructing ENERGY STAR qualified manufactured homes. Leveraging the industry?s existing quality control and inspection systems, the guidelines were adopted by EPA and converted into Energy Star program protocols. To date ENERGY STAR's efforts have been in vetting the technical guidelines to interested plants and in bringing the manufacturers squarely into the ENERGY STAR program. These efforts have been highly successful, with the majority of home manufacturers committing to the Energy Star program in the last 24 months. However, support by the manufacturers is only one key to success in increasing ENERGY STAR's market penetration. Manufactured home retailers and community owners play a key role in the success of marketing and installing these homes. These groups are the interface with the home buyer and the sale of Energy Star qualified homes depends on their active participation in, and commitment to, the program. Not surprisingly, despite the high level of manufacturer support, actual sales of Energy Star qualified homes have thus far lagged due to the lack of marketing and education at the retail level. The manufactured housing industry includes approximately 7,000 retailers, the majority of which are independent (not affiliated with a manufacturer). While the manufacturing and supplier segments of the industry are committed to the program, generating sales requires the buy-in and endorsement by the relatively large and fragmented retail sector. Without the retailer actively and knowledgably marketing ENERGY STAR, sales of Energy Star Labeled Homes will languish. To help ENERGY STAR address these program gaps, the Contractor shall develop a training and marketing program designed to educate and train manufactured home retailers, community developers, and manufacturer?s representatives in how to effectively market and sell Energy Star qualified homes. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this project is to develop for the Residential Branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency?s ENERGY STAR Program a system of complimentary sales and marketing materials that explain how to market and sell ENERGY STAR qualified manufactured homes. The main audience for the training and marketing program will be retailers, community developers, and manufacturer?s representatives. This project is designed to better prepare retailers, community developers, and manufacturer?s representatives to sell ENERGY STAR qualified homes to the public, thus increasing these homes? share of the overall affordable housing market. This in turn will contribute to reducing household energy use and therefore reducing the production of air pollution. TASKS: Task 1 ? Develop Training and Marketing Program for Retailers, Community Developers, and Manufacturer?s Representatives. This task will lay the foundation for, and begin the process of, increasing sales of ENERGY STAR qualified manufactured homes by providing manufactured home salespeople with the information necessary to effectively promote and communicate the benefits of ENERGY STAR to home buyers. The primary products of this task will be training and educational program modules for retail and manufacturer salespeople and marketing materials for retailers to promote ENERGY STAR qualified manufactured homes to prospective home buyers. This task shall consist of two subtasks: (1) Developing and implementing a sales training program for retailers, community developers and manufacturer?s representatives and, (2) Providing retailers with ENERGY STAR promotional materials they need to effectively sell ENERGY STAR qualified homes. Subtask 1 ? Develop Retailer and Community Developer/Owner Training Materials - The lack of awareness about ENERGY STAR at the retail level is evident in the fact that, even though a large number of plants are qualified to produce and are actively promoting ENERGY STAR qualified homes, few are actually being sold. This is in large part due to the lack of a consistent and thorough training/educational program targeting retailers and community owners/developers, the critical links in the sales chain. Most home purchase decisions are made at the retail sales center under the guidance of the salesperson and largely based upon information available at the sales center. To commit to the added cost often associated with an ENERGY STAR qualified home, buyers need an accurate accounting of their benefits. If the salesperson is not equipped to present and communicate the benefits, then there is little chance he or she will promote these benefits, nor is the buyer likely to purchase an ENERGY STAR qualified manufactured home. To address this need, this subtask will consist of the following steps: (1) The Contractor shall develop training curricula and the format for the training program. These materials will provide critical information about the ENERGY STAR program, covering issues such as: ordering ENERGY STAR qualified homes from participating manufacturers, the benefits of ENERGY STAR construction, selling ENERGY STAR features, the role and responsibilities of retailers and community owners in the ENERGY STAR program, and other important ENERGY STAR information. (2) The Contractor shall integrate the information developed into already existing and widely used training tools, such as: the On-line Training and Education Center, accessed through the Manufactured Housing Institute?s (MHI) web site, and the Professional Housing Consultant: Selling Skills Module, a CD-based training tool provided by MHI. These tools are used widely by industry for routine training of retail and sales staff. MHI is the national trade organization representing the factory-built housing industry. Subtask 2 ? Develop Point of Sale Marketing Materials for Retailers - The dearth of promotional materials available to assist retailers in selling ENERGY STAR qualified manufactured homes is perhaps the single greatest reason why the number of qualified homes sold has lagged. This subtask shall develop promotional products using existing EPA ENERGY STAR promotional materials for site builders as models. Generic marketing materials will be developed for promoting ENERGY STAR qualified manufactured homes at the retail level, possibly including point-of-purchase displays, signage, sales literature, press kits, and generic advertisements. Users of the materials would be able to co-brand with their company name. As with other ENERGY STAR promotional materials, these items shall be made readily available to the manufactured housing community in several forms, including generic graphics in electronic format (on disk and available for download) and/or in printed form depending on their format. The Contractor shall develop content that will then be shaped into finished printed materials by EPA?s marketing contractor. The steps in developing the point of sales materials include the following: (1) A committee will be assembled consisting primarily of manufacturers? sales representatives and retailers having experience with, and interest in, the ENERGY STAR program. (2) The committee will review existing promotional materials developed for site-built ENERGY STAR qualified homes as well as other related ENERGY STAR materials and relevant non-ENERGY STAR materials selected by research staff and committee members. The committee will meet either in person or via conference call to discuss and debate modifications to the existing materials that will make them suitable for the manufactured housing market. The Committee will also debate which forms of promotional materials (i.e., signage, brochures, videos, etc.) will be most effective. This information will then be summarized in a brief report. Substantial content for these materials (such as existing case studies of energy savings taken from actual ENERGY STAR qualified manufactured homes, estimates of energy savings, etc.) will be incorporated as part of this task. The Contractor shall work closely with EPA?s marketing contractor to develop mock-ups and final graphics. As with other EPA sales and promotion literature, these materials will be made part of EPA?s existing Energy Star Sales Tool Kit. DELIVERABLES: (1) The Contractor shall provide a program syllabus and materials for use in training manufactured home retailers, community developers and manufacturer sales representatives with an emphasis on how to sell ENERGY STAR qualified manufactured homes. The training materials developed shall be disseminated to manufactured home retailers across the country to include on-line dissemination, on-line training presence, and also training seminars to be held around the country. The Contractor shall provide both a final hard-copy and an electronic copy of the training materials suitable for Web posting and for printing; (2) The Contractor shall provide a brief summary report in hard copy and electronic copy on the results of the committee discussions about developing point of sale marketing materials for retailers; (3) Consistent with how EPA has approached program marketing and promotion in the past, point of sale promotional materials shall be developed as part of this effort, packaged, and made available to the manufactured housing industry via EPA?s Hotline and Web site. The Contractor shall provide EPA with a hard-copy and an electronic copy of all materials developed that are suitable for Web posting and for printing; (4) The Contractor shall write and publish in the trade press articles communicating the availability of the new training and promotional materials. Articles shall appear in the state association publications, reaching most of the retailers directly, and in major industry periodicals such as Modern Homes. A hard-copy and an electronic copy of the published articles shall be provided to EPA. SCHEDULE OF DELIVERABLES: Task 1 shall be conducted over a twelve month period. Work on Subtasks 1 and 2 shall begin immediately upon receiving final approval from EPA. Both subtasks shall be completed within about twelve months of receiving EPA approval to begin work. The delivery schedule is as follows: 1) Outline for training program for retailers of ENERGY STAR qualified manufactured homes. Due Date: No later than three months after award date. 2) Draft training syllabus and materials for retailers of ENERGY STAR qualified manufactured homes. Due Date: No later than four months after delivery and acceptance of deliverable #1 by EPA. 3) Final training syllabus and materials for retailers of ENERGY STAR qualified manufactured homes. Due Date: No later than four months after delivery and acceptance of deliverable #2 by EPA. 4) Report assessing suitability of existing marketing materials available for retailers of ENERGY STAR qualified manufactured homes and identifying additional needs. Due Date: No later than three months after award date. 5) Draft marketing materials tailored to retailers of ENERGY STAR qualified manufactured homes. Due Date: No later than four months after delivery and acceptance of deliverable #4 by EPA. 6) Final, camera-ready marketing materials tailored to retailers of ENERGY STAR qualified manufactured homes. Promotional materials developed as part of this effort will be packaged and made available to the industry by EPA?s marketing contractor. Due Date: No later than four months after delivery and acceptance of deliverable #5 by EPA. 7) Articles summarizing the results of this task and the availability of the results disseminated via industry publications and the web as well as via direct contact with manufacturers, retailers, and installers. Due Date: No later than one month after delivery and acceptance of deliverables #3 and #6 by EPA. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE: The period of performance is one year from date of award. BASIS FOR AWARD: The Government will make award to the responsive, responsible firm, whose quotation is most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. This is a best-value procurement. The Government may or may not award to the low price quotation. Technical merit is considered to be of greater importance than price. The Government will utilize the evaluation criteria identified below, listed in descending order of importance, during the evaluation of responses received to this Request for Quotation. (1) Past Performance/Experience. The Government will evaluate past performance focusing on the depth of expertise and experience that the Offeror has in accessing and communicating with the HUD-code manufactured home retailer infrastructure across all states, engaging and leveraging support from a wide range of HUD-code manufactured home industry stakeholders nationally in participating in energy efficiency projects and energy efficient construction practices. (2) Personnel. The Government will evaluate the level of experience of the proposed labor mix in working with HUD-code home industry stakeholders on a national level. In addition, the Government will evaluate the quality of the proposed labor mix and level of effort. The Government will also evaluate the Offeror?s intent and approach for using subcontractors. (3) Technical Merit. The Government will evaluate the technical merit based on the technical approach and the level of knowledge of key issues, demonstrated for each task. One key issue to be included is the level of knowledge of ENERGY STAR products, services, and requirements for the HUD-code manufactured home industry. (4) Cost/Price. The Government will evaluate the total expected cost of performing this work. This includes the Offeror?s ability to provide in-kind support. The provision at FAR 52.212-1 ?Instructions to Offerors?Commercial? applies to this acquisition. Offerors are to include a completed copy of FAR provision 52.212-3 ?Offeror Representations and Certifications ? Commercial Items? with their response. The following FAR clauses also apply: 52.212-4 ??Contract Terms and Conditions ? Commercial Items?, 52.212-5 ?Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders ? Commercial Items?, with the following clauses cited in 52.212-5 being applicable to this acquisition: 52.222-3 ?Convict Labor?, 52.222-21 ?Prohibition of Segregated Facilities?, 52.222-26 ?Equal Opportunity?, 52.222-35 ?Equal Opportunity for Special Disabled Veterans, Veterans of the Vietnam Era, and Other Eligible Veterans?, 52.222-36 ?Affirmative Action for Workers with Disabilities?, 52.222-37 ?Employment Reports on Special Disabled Veterans, Veterans of the Vietnam Era, and Other Eligible Veterans?, 52.225-13 ?Restrictions on Certain Foreign Purchases?, and 52.232-33 ?Payment of Electronic Funds Transfer ? Central Contractor Registration?. The aforementioned provision and clauses can be accessed electronically at http://www.arnet.gov/far and http://www.gsa.gov/far. Prospective sources are reminded that award can only be made to a Contractor who is registered in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) database. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS REQUEST FOR QUOTATION: Each offeror shall submit (1) one original of their Quotation, which shall include each of the following written Technical portions required to be provided in response to the RFQ: (1) Technical Approach ? Each offeror shall provide a description of their technical approach, detailed and complete enough to clearly and fully demonstrate an understanding of the Statement of Work requirements. Quotations which merely offer to conduct a program in accordance with the requirements of the Government?s Statement of Work will not be eligible for award. Phrases such as ?Standard procedures will be employed? and ?well known techniques will be used? are not considered an adequate description. Although it is recognized that all of the technical factors cannot be detailed in advance, the techniques and procedures you plan to follow in conjunction with the task areas to be performed must be described in as much detail as the offeror considers necessary to fully explain their proposed technical approach or method. (2) Past Performance ? The offeror shall identify up to two contracts, which it has recently performed (within the last 3 years), or is currently performing, that are similar in nature to this contract. The offeror shall provide the following information with respect to each of these contracts: *Name, address and phone number of all applicable contract points of contact, *Brief description of contract work, scope, and responsibilities. (3) Personnel. For the proposed personnel, the offeror shall submit relevant education, training and experience for their labor category. (4) Pricing Information ? The offeror shall provide, in writing, a detailed price quotation to include proposed amounts for any indirect costs and other direct costs, including travel. (5) Completed FAR 52.212-3. All questions concerning this RFQ must be submitted in writing and faxed to (202) 565-2554 or e-mailed to roberson.denise@epa.gov. No telephonic response to this solicitation will be accepted. Due date for receipt of responses to this RFQ will be 5:00 PM/EST, 06-03-05 to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, ATTN: Denise Roberson 3803R, Washington, DC 20460, or e-mail at roberson.denise@epa.gov. Electronic responses are preferred. Point of contact: Denise Roberson, Contract Specialist, Phone (202) 564-4899.
- Record
- SN00811400-W 20050521/050519212536 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's FBO Daily Index Page |