Marketing, also known as seeking and securing work, is a research assignment
in and of itself. How a design firm promotes its capabilities has a lot to
do with the focus of the design firm’s work, employee qualifications, interests,
aspirations, resources, and unique competencies. Design firms may either
be considered specialists—designers that have deep knowledge in a specific
project type, or as generalists—designers with broad and varied knowledge
of multiple project types. Regardless of where on the spectrum a design firm’s
marketing emphasis resides, a research-based marketing approach supports
a design firm in developing and demonstrating competency. This applies to
both familiar project types and types that are untried, and it differentiates the
design firm from its competition.
A research-based marketing approach supports the design firm in focusing
its marketing resources on issues important to a specific audience. Here,
research accomplishes two primary goals.
First, through research, the design firm identifies the types of clients, projects,
and geographic locations for which it hopes to work. The firm is able to
analyze the project type based on understanding the context that surrounds
this project area—the business, economic, and/or social drivers, for example,
and the motivations that surround the target industry both internally and
externally. Additionally, a research approach allows the design firm to compare
these contextual issues with the design firm’s strengths and interests to
assess whether there’s an alignment between both.
Second, for both the specialist and generalist, a research-based marketing
approach supports the design firm’s ability to differentiate from the competition
as it demonstrates the design firm’s ability to home in on the important
aspects of a potential client’s area of need. In this scenario, a research-based marketing process shifts the discussion away from what the design firm
accomplished in the past to what the design firm is capable of accomplishing
in the future—an important distinction that positions the design firm in a proactive
and prospective role of seeking and securing new work.
Example: Since A Design has focused most of its ten years in practice on
the design of daycare facilities, to expand the firm’s market reach, the designers
engage in a research process to investigate the context around other project
types that have similar goals and conditions as a daycare center.
The design team starts with what it knows. With its extensive body of
knowledge on daycare centers that includes demographic changes of communities
that have resulted in the growth of the daycare market, the design
team explores whether these growth projections apply to other markets. From
the research, A Design discovers a corresponding growth in the K–12 school
market.
As a next step, the team conducts additional research on the K–12 school
market—it looks at precedents of the most recent K–12 school projects and
assesses some of the unique aspects of each project. It conducts literature
searches that provide insights into the leading thinking around education models
and how place can influence educational performance.
Next, the design team conducts an audit of the design firms being commissioned
for the most recent K–12 projects in the region. It examines the core
competencies of these practices and maps these competencies with A Design’s
own practice approach. This serves useful in helping the team identify knowledge
sources (like consultants familiar with this project type) and resources
that they currently have compared to those they acknowledge are missing.
From this research exercise, A Design assesses the risks and rewards in
expanding the firm’s emphasis to the K–12 market. A Design identifies the
firm’s strength as having a strong body of knowledge in “play as learning”
facilities but lack credentials in executing the formal aspects of education. From
the team’s earlier research, it knows that the best practices in K–12 education
combine both play and formal learning styles.
From the results of the research and assessment exercise, A Design
decides that the firm’s option is to either add this competency by hiring a senior
designer with a minimum of five years experience in K–12 education projects
or by aligning with consulting firms with a breadth of experience in education
facilities.
A research-based marketing strategy is how a designer or design firm
demonstrates competency around a specific project type. Research builds
greater understanding around the explicit concerns of the stakeholders and
provides the design firm with a source of knowledge that informs the content
and direction of the marketing proposal.
Understanding the cultural, regional, economic, and behavioral issues
specific to a proposed project type advances the marketing strategy by
enabling the design team to frame the proposal and presentations through a filter of the conditions unique to the stakeholders. Here, knowing the sources
of knowledge and innovations that surround this project type informs the
design team regarding demographic conditions, site context, technological
advances, and industry best practices. In addition, how external and internal
economics factor into a potential client’s considerations when commissioning
an architectural project affects how the design team develops a marketing
strategy that is distinct and focused on the aspirations and goals of the proposed
stakeholders.
Example: Having only two short weeks to respond to a request for qualifications
(RFQ) for a new K–12 school building, the A team assembles to identify
the goals for the research to inform the RFQ. First, the team identifies the client
and project-specific issues to analyze: who makes up the client team, what are
its areas of expertise, what experience (if any) has the client team had on similar
building projects, and what were the project costs, schedule, and technologies
used in these similar building projects?
Next, the team drills down into what is unique to this education facility. It
uncovers demographic information for the project location and identifies the
key drivers specific to this school board. Through literature reviews, it uncovers
how the school board and community are expecting the new facility will
address these goals:
• Support the district in establishing higher test scores for math and reading.
• Build a sense of community through a vital sports facility.
• Create an emphasis for the school district as a high-performing school
through curricular and extracurricular activities.
As a next step, the team identifies the broader cultural, economic, and
environmental areas of K–12 research. It explores the current precedents and
best practices in K–12 education—what are the objectives for educational facilities
today and in the future. The firm also looks to access information on new
learning and teaching strategies, as well as innovative uses of technology in
primary education.
With this information in place, the team is better prepared to shape the
content of its proposal on issues that might be of direct concern to these decision
makers.
In today’s competitive economy, a research-based marketing approach
supports a firm’s ability to differentiate among the competition and/or expand
into new markets by enhancing a firm’s past project experience with insightful
new knowledge relevant to a potential client. It establishes a firm’s credential
based on knowledge, insight, and understanding. It can create new
collaborative opportunities with consultants, experts, and colleagues. Finally,
a research-based marketing approach supports a firm’s ability to achieve
an innovative interpretation of a project through understanding the context
behind the client’s goals.
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