SANDY, Utah – Recognizing a need for representation synergies throughout the western United States, manufacturers’ representative agencies Action Marketing, based in Salem, Ore., and High Country Marketing, based in Sandy, Utah, have partnered to create a new company called Western States Marketing (WSM).
 
WSM will represent manufacturers in California, Arizona and Nevada. The two agencies have a combined presence of 63 years in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Northwest regions.
 
Bruce Stronk and George Patterson, the owners of High Country Marketing and Action Marketing, respectively, say they had discussed the concept of moving into the California/Southwest marketing area for some time for purposes of market expansion, and the opportunity to seamlessly represent manufacturers in the 13 Western states.
 
Stronk and Patterson are the managing partners of WSM, and Ryan Stronk serves as WSM sales manager, based in the company’s new Costa Mesa, Calif., office.
 
A core competency at WSM is the hiring of experienced, well-respected and dynamic representatives. In addition to the WSM principals, the firm currently employs four highly regarded, full-time representatives located in Los Angeles and Sacramento, Calif., and Phoenix, Ariz.  
 
Since the formation of WSM in January, the firm has been representing SPX Service Solutions including the OTC, Robinair and TIF programs, to all local and several national distributors and their customers throughout the Southwest territory. Discussions with SPX management and the distributors in the territory indicate all are pleased with the progress through the first three quarters of the year, according to Stronk and Patterson.
 
“All of us realize that their trust and success is earned every day, so we are pushing very hard to do just that,” said Stronk.  

Stronk and Patterson feel one of the key reasons for the successful startup has been the focus on working with the customers and being “customer-centric.” Both partners say they firmly believe in getting into the stores and shops of their customers and educating them, firsthand, how the products they represent can improve their businesses.
 
“This philosophy is a cornerstone of our mission to serve our customers,” said Patterson.
 
Western States Marketing can be reached at the company’s headquarters by calling (714) 421-4975 or by emailing [email protected].