We cannot continue to think that all we need to do is to find that one magic bullet that's going to solve all of our marketing needs. TV ads can be a very useful part of an overall marketing plan. I suggest that all architects need to read "Guerilla Marketing" by Jay Conrad Levinson and learn that we must decide for ourselves which of the 100 or more "marketing weapons" we need to use to reach our own distinct target markets. Best book on the subject of business development since Michael Gerber's "The E-Myth". (Next up on my list of books to read is Michael Port's "Book Yourself Solid".)
I think we all need to at least become aware of, if not become experts at, marketing and business development, and not
rely completely on "marketing professionals"; but rather use them for the resources they are. Marketing Professionals know marketing, but they don't know our business as well as we do.
We also cannot neglect our competition, whether it's interior designers, home builders, home inspectors, building scientists and engineers. We need to be better interior designers than ASID, better home builders than the NAHB, etc. Better still is to use them as resources / partners / consultants to grow our businesses.
Find a good business coach in your area and they can lead you in the right direction. Mine is a former CFO of several Fortune 500 companies including a few paper and TV media outlets. And I swung a pretty good deal with him, to boot.
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David Del Vecchio AIA
Architect
David Del Vecchio, Architect, LLC
Cranford NJ
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-27-2012 10:33
From: Michael Gustavson
Subject: Advertising for Residential Architects
There has been some brainstorming about TV ads for residential architects in this group lately. I think ads are a great idea. However, just as we recommend that one hires a professional architect to design homes, maybe we should consider hiring a professional marketing firm to design our advertising scheme. I get the feeling that TV is great, but that there are other things out there like viral YouTube videos linked to Facebook (among other things) that may be even more productive cost/benefit wise. I don't really know how the numbers would work, but I get the feeling that there are some marketing experts out there that do know.
I think people are getting more and more sophisticated and they react to things that clearly make sense to them. The phenomenon of info-graphics are a testament to this. If we can make things clear to future clients why architects are worth hiring, they will look at that clearly laid out information and make good decisions. Here is an example of a type of video-info-graphic advertisement I think could be very effective for us. I'm not talking about the content of this video (though the content is interesting too) I'm talking about the way it transfers information clearly to the viewer. It is also significant to note that on YouTube, something like this can be 2, 5, 10, 15 minutes long if it needs to be. Maybe it starts basic and gets more detailed as it goes along. Maybe a TV ad points people in the direction of a web site that has more detailed information that laymen can understand. Anyway check out how well this is done and how persuasive/educational it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqUGoVez8xg
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Michael Gustavson
Intern
Madison WI
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