Say what you mean, mean what you say.
November 2008
Marketing in the Downturn: Doing More With Less
My first job in architecture marketing began in the early nineties on the heels of a nationwide recession and major lay-offs in the firm that had just hired me. Walking the halls of my new workplace was a gloomy affair, the scene marked by dozens of empty desks and the occasional anxious-faced designer. Despite my excitement over landing the assignment, I couldn’t help but feel uneasy too: Did they resent me? Expect the marketing team to solve all their problems? How long did we have?
Long enough, as it turns out. When I left 13 years later, the firm’s billings had nearly quadrupled, its staff more than doubled. Today, it has offices in eight cities across the globe and 800 employees. In fact, firm partners were sufficiently scarred by the effects of the downturn to vow they would never again put the firm in a position that would require such drastic measures. Although boosting their marketing effort was just part of a strategy that included streamlining delivery processes, cutting overhead and diversifying service offerings, the firm deserves credit for thinking hard about how, and how much, it wanted to grow, while heeding the adage, “when sales are down, don’t fire your sales people.”
Today of course, the story is the same, only – apparently – worse. Amid the dire reality of a crippled economy, fretting about shrinking budgets, projects on hold, the scarcity of new work – and the surplus of firms chasing it – is unavoidable. But you can do something about it. So let’s take a deep breath of this fresh, post-election air of hope and get down to the business of marketing. You have to do more of it now. And you likely have less money to do it with. The good news? Any architect who is short on dollars is long on time. Here are six ways to take advantage of it:
Share your knowledge. Write a series of brief articles about the ways smart design saves money. Each month, post it to your website, email it to your clients or offer it to a local publication. Better yet, do all three. Team up with another architect or builder and offer a seminar on energy-smart design or phasing for saving. Volunteer. Architects are very skilled at helping people articulate and solve problems; they are a boon to public/community projects and nonprofit projects. It's a bigger commitment, but it can also be a big profile raiser. The point is to get out and get noticed for being relevant and useful.
Repurpose and repackage content. Turn that dusty old brochure into a shiny new web feature. Revisit content from old brochures, proposals, newsletters, case studies, presentations and award entries and recast it with an eye toward your clients’ top-of-mind issues: capital preservation, cost-saving strategies and revenue production. Target it for publication or create a presentation, a web story, a book (see www. blurb.com) and share it.
Focus your investment. Like the low-budget office remodel that allocates most of the design dollars to a strategic focal point, pick one story – one project, service or idea — and leverage it for all it’s worth. I know one Seattle firm that is essentially using their premier project as a branding vehicle. They’re conducting tours, have named a blog after it and use a standard signature line on outgoing email encouraging people to learn more on their website — this in addition to submitting the project for awards, publication and case-study presentations.
Rethink markets and services. Look for remodels and additions, especially those that could generate revenue or long-term cost-savings, to increase as new construction stalls. Home offices and ADUs, adaptive re-use, rental housing, energy-saving retrofits come to mind, as do newly packaged pre-design services (Energy or green design audit? Buy-new or remodel assessment?)
A California colleague writes, “The housing crisis is creating an opportunity to develop better rental housing options – especially in affordable and transitional housing, and later on, better market-rate rental housing as families get their feet back under them. We are targeting affordable, transitional, senior and student housing opportunities.”
How can your services or market expertise be adapted to serve new needs?
Increase website traffic. Don’t have a website? Start a blog instead. It’s cheaper, faster and probably more relevant. Either way, now is the time to present helpful content – both your own and others’ via links to good sources — and encourage people to engage through low-cost channels such as your private email list, low-key events and reciprocal links (ask your photographer, clients, consultants and colleagues to link to your site and offer the same).
Draft your supporters. Continuing in that spirit of cooperation, enlist the help of satisfied clients. Organize an open house or building tour, include them in a workshop or ask if you can do a post-occupancy survey to uncover problems and improvement opportunities. Share what you’ve learned.
My first job in architecture marketing began in the early nineties on the heels of a nationwide recession and major lay-offs in the firm that had just hired me. Walking the halls of my new workplace was a gloomy affair, the scene marked by dozens of empty desks and the occasional anxious-faced designer. Despite my excitement over landing the assignment, I couldn’t help but feel uneasy too: Did they resent me? Expect the marketing team to solve all their problems? How long did we have?
Long enough, as it turns out. When I left 13 years later, the firm’s billings had nearly quadrupled, its staff more than doubled. Today, it has offices in eight cities across the globe and 800 employees. In fact, firm partners were sufficiently scarred by the effects of the downturn to vow they would never again put the firm in a position that would require such drastic measures. Although boosting their marketing effort was just part of a strategy that included streamlining delivery processes, cutting overhead and diversifying service offerings, the firm deserves credit for thinking hard about how, and how much, it wanted to grow, while heeding the adage, “when sales are down, don’t fire your sales people.”
Today of course, the story is the same, only – apparently – worse. Amid the dire reality of a crippled economy, fretting about shrinking budgets, projects on hold, the scarcity of new work – and the surplus of firms chasing it – is unavoidable. But you can do something about it. So let’s take a deep breath of this fresh, post-election air of hope and get down to the business of marketing. You have to do more of it now. And you likely have less money to do it with. The good news? Any architect who is short on dollars is long on time. Here are six ways to take advantage of it:
Share your knowledge. Write a series of brief articles about the ways smart design saves money. Each month, post it to your website, email it to your clients or offer it to a local publication. Better yet, do all three. Team up with another architect or builder and offer a seminar on energy-smart design or phasing for saving. Volunteer. Architects are very skilled at helping people articulate and solve problems; they are a boon to public/community projects and nonprofit projects. It's a bigger commitment, but it can also be a big profile raiser. The point is to get out and get noticed for being relevant and useful.
Repurpose and repackage content. Turn that dusty old brochure into a shiny new web feature. Revisit content from old brochures, proposals, newsletters, case studies, presentations and award entries and recast it with an eye toward your clients’ top-of-mind issues: capital preservation, cost-saving strategies and revenue production. Target it for publication or create a presentation, a web story, a book (see www. blurb.com) and share it.
Focus your investment. Like the low-budget office remodel that allocates most of the design dollars to a strategic focal point, pick one story – one project, service or idea — and leverage it for all it’s worth. I know one Seattle firm that is essentially using their premier project as a branding vehicle. They’re conducting tours, have named a blog after it and use a standard signature line on outgoing email encouraging people to learn more on their website — this in addition to submitting the project for awards, publication and case-study presentations.
Rethink markets and services. Look for remodels and additions, especially those that could generate revenue or long-term cost-savings, to increase as new construction stalls. Home offices and ADUs, adaptive re-use, rental housing, energy-saving retrofits come to mind, as do newly packaged pre-design services (Energy or green design audit? Buy-new or remodel assessment?)
A California colleague writes, “The housing crisis is creating an opportunity to develop better rental housing options – especially in affordable and transitional housing, and later on, better market-rate rental housing as families get their feet back under them. We are targeting affordable, transitional, senior and student housing opportunities.”
How can your services or market expertise be adapted to serve new needs?
Increase website traffic. Don’t have a website? Start a blog instead. It’s cheaper, faster and probably more relevant. Either way, now is the time to present helpful content – both your own and others’ via links to good sources — and encourage people to engage through low-cost channels such as your private email list, low-key events and reciprocal links (ask your photographer, clients, consultants and colleagues to link to your site and offer the same).
Draft your supporters. Continuing in that spirit of cooperation, enlist the help of satisfied clients. Organize an open house or building tour, include them in a workshop or ask if you can do a post-occupancy survey to uncover problems and improvement opportunities. Share what you’ve learned.
October 2008
Ahh, awards. Love to win them, hate to enter them.
Hard to write, spendy to document, tedious to package,and for what? A chance to watch yet another quixotic 300 sf guest house nestled (perched) in a remote countryside meadow (seaside bluff) take the top prize?
Cheer up! Once you accept how these things work, you can use the process to your advantage. Heck, you might even win something. But let’s be clear, winning is only one reason to enter. Here are three more: promote good design in your community; tuck another complete and well-told story in your back marketing pocket; show a wider audience how your projects reflect your firm’s personality and vision. In other words, use the awards as a way to hone and practice your elevator pitch.
First, understand that the jury is wading through dozens if not hundreds of entries. (Hence, simple often trumps complex.) These people take seconds to make the first cut, minutes to make the next and hours to debate the final winners. Images must be bold. Ideas must be clear. Words must be few. Bull must be cut.
Time and again we hear from juries that they are most taken by projects that clearly and completely express a single, compelling idea. (So by all means, submit that sweet little guesthouse if you have it.) This is true not just of juries of course, but clients too. Connect with them as early and as often as possible by following these guidelines.
FOCUS
Know your jury
Every panel is different; the judging process is subjective and personality-driven. Just as you need to get to know your client before you can start designing their project, learning about the jury’ background and biases will help you tailor the submission accordingly.
Find your story
A design description is boring. A design story is engaging and memorable. A design description tells who, what and where. A design story explains why and how. It has a beginning, middle and end, with a central tension that is resolved by design. It clearly expresses a single, compelling idea and hangs everything else off it. Think of it like a house: start with a solid foundation, build in a point of view, use interesting and thoughtful details to support it.
Break it up
Smart headlines, differentiated text, bullets and quotes can help the reader gain a faster and deeper understanding of your project. One architect calls it “telegraphing” your story.
EXPLAIN
Choose the right plans and drawings
If there’s something important that a photograph can’t show, use a drawing. Don’t use that section because it’s cool, or that plan because the presentation version is already in the drawer. Determine what types of graphics best explain your project and use them. Create them if you have to.
Only use professional photography
It matters, especially since juries make the first cut based on a quick slide show, often under less than ideal viewing conditions. Make the most of your investment by making sure your photography tells your story. Too often, projects are photographed without this consideration. Designers caught up in their favorite details or getting the glory shot may forget that most people don’t know the project as intimately as they do. The job is to make them want to.
SIMPLIFY
Use plain language.
Big words do not signal big ideas.
Edit, edit, edit
This goes for pictures and words. Every word, drawing and photo supports the main idea or it goes. Less is more. Really.
Follow form
Most award competitions provide a format. You may think it convoluted, redundant or absurdly rigid. You may be tempted to create your own. Don’t. They’ve dreamed it up for reasons that matter not to us. Ignore their wishes at your peril.
FINALLY, it should go without saying but:
Make a realistic schedule
If you wait until the last minute, you’ll get last minute results. Set the wheels in motion at least a month prior to the deadline, longer if you need to produce drawings or shoot (or re-shoot) the project. Make a schedule and put someone in charge of it.
Get outside feedback
Ask a trusted source — preferably a "board of directors" (i.e. a set of people - friend/colleague/marketing consultant) — who know your values and goals to weigh in. And don’t wait until the night before it’s due.
Cheer up! Once you accept how these things work, you can use the process to your advantage. Heck, you might even win something. But let’s be clear, winning is only one reason to enter. Here are three more: promote good design in your community; tuck another complete and well-told story in your back marketing pocket; show a wider audience how your projects reflect your firm’s personality and vision. In other words, use the awards as a way to hone and practice your elevator pitch.
First, understand that the jury is wading through dozens if not hundreds of entries. (Hence, simple often trumps complex.) These people take seconds to make the first cut, minutes to make the next and hours to debate the final winners. Images must be bold. Ideas must be clear. Words must be few. Bull must be cut.
Time and again we hear from juries that they are most taken by projects that clearly and completely express a single, compelling idea. (So by all means, submit that sweet little guesthouse if you have it.) This is true not just of juries of course, but clients too. Connect with them as early and as often as possible by following these guidelines.
FOCUS
Know your jury
Every panel is different; the judging process is subjective and personality-driven. Just as you need to get to know your client before you can start designing their project, learning about the jury’ background and biases will help you tailor the submission accordingly.
Find your story
A design description is boring. A design story is engaging and memorable. A design description tells who, what and where. A design story explains why and how. It has a beginning, middle and end, with a central tension that is resolved by design. It clearly expresses a single, compelling idea and hangs everything else off it. Think of it like a house: start with a solid foundation, build in a point of view, use interesting and thoughtful details to support it.
Break it up
Smart headlines, differentiated text, bullets and quotes can help the reader gain a faster and deeper understanding of your project. One architect calls it “telegraphing” your story.
EXPLAIN
Choose the right plans and drawings
If there’s something important that a photograph can’t show, use a drawing. Don’t use that section because it’s cool, or that plan because the presentation version is already in the drawer. Determine what types of graphics best explain your project and use them. Create them if you have to.
Only use professional photography
It matters, especially since juries make the first cut based on a quick slide show, often under less than ideal viewing conditions. Make the most of your investment by making sure your photography tells your story. Too often, projects are photographed without this consideration. Designers caught up in their favorite details or getting the glory shot may forget that most people don’t know the project as intimately as they do. The job is to make them want to.
SIMPLIFY
Use plain language.
Big words do not signal big ideas.
Edit, edit, edit
This goes for pictures and words. Every word, drawing and photo supports the main idea or it goes. Less is more. Really.
Follow form
Most award competitions provide a format. You may think it convoluted, redundant or absurdly rigid. You may be tempted to create your own. Don’t. They’ve dreamed it up for reasons that matter not to us. Ignore their wishes at your peril.
FINALLY, it should go without saying but:
Make a realistic schedule
If you wait until the last minute, you’ll get last minute results. Set the wheels in motion at least a month prior to the deadline, longer if you need to produce drawings or shoot (or re-shoot) the project. Make a schedule and put someone in charge of it.
Get outside feedback
Ask a trusted source — preferably a "board of directors" (i.e. a set of people - friend/colleague/marketing consultant) — who know your values and goals to weigh in. And don’t wait until the night before it’s due.
August 2008
Meaning is often lost in the tangle of buzz
and fuzz that passes for organizational
communication today. Worse, it may never have been there in the first place. Language designed to impress, redirect or obscure rarely succeeds. People can smell a phony from the first orthogonal parti to the final “mistakes were made.” They know the difference between communicating and hiding. Meanwhile, straight talk almost always resonates: integrity, clarity and a point of view have a way of making people
take notice. Please do not confuse straight-up with unconsidered or boring. A twist, a
shake, a stir, even a salty surprise are not only valid, but refreshing enhancements to an honest conversation – or a great story. The point is simply this: Say what you mean, mean what you say. Old-fashioned? Maybe. But we like to call it straightup.
What's up with the kichen sink?
Straightup has an aunt who notoriously packs everything but the kitchen sink. Away for two days or two weeks, she will imagine every scenario possible, and pack accordingly. She lives in a “what if” world, which is not a bad place to be, unless you happen to be carrying her bags. 
What if?It’s a powerful phrase, one that can liberate or paralyze our minds in short, and equal, measure. What if I said what I really think? What if I’m on this bridge at the exact time an earthquake hits? What if I aim to put a bunch of stuff you might need on this page, and some stuff you don’t?
archives
November 2008: Doing more with less
October 2008: Award Submittals
August 2008: Meaning is often lost...
November 2008: Doing more with less
October 2008: Award Submittals
August 2008: Meaning is often lost...
