Marketing to Architects
For all of us, marketing to architects is a key business strategy. We want to create awareness of our products so that they will become included in designs, creating “demand pull” through the supply chain and eventually sales.
The architect is probably the most important member of the design team, distilling the requirements and advice of the other members. He starts with the client’s needs in terms of how the building is to be used and how the client wishes to be perceived. This then has to be developed to meet the requirements of the Building Regulations and increasingly sustainability. Finally, there will be the quantity surveyor, main contractor and specialist sub-contractors proposing alternatives very often as cost savings.
For the architect this is a challenging role and very often requires compromise. To help him make these decisions he needs high quality information. The internet is often the starting point; search engines, product directories and manufacturer websites all provide basic data. In addition new forms of communication are starting to be used such as blogs and Twitter. To be effective you need to be using the appropriate channels to provide the right information in a clear and easily accessible form.
With so much choice and often conflicting information, it is no surprise that the architect often stays with the products he already knows. Good news if that is your product, but a challenge if he is using your competitors’.
So how to introduce your products? You need to find a way of getting the architect’s attention and then reassuring him that your product ticks all of the boxes – functional performance, technically proven, sustainable, aesthetics, availability and value are just some requirements.
Projects stories in journals are a good means of creating awareness and interest. A more proactive approach is to use a CPD seminar to introduce your company and demonstrate technical competence. This has the benefit of meeting a number of architects at one time and can often end with a discussion about a specific project. But to be effective the seminar has to have the correct content and be well presented.
Having finally persuaded the architect to use your product it needs to be specified. Here he has the choice of “performance”, “description”, “nominated” or the most commonly used “equal or approved”. There are a variety of reasons for selecting these different forms. “Performance” is often used for technical products like fire resisting constructions where it is important they perform correctly. A performance specification passes the responsibility for ensuring the correct product is selected onto the sub-contractor. “Nominated” is often selected for aesthetic products where it is important to ensure exactly the right product is used. However there is a concern that by going for “Nominated” it takes out the ability to negotiate the price. “Equal or Approved” tends to be used because it nominates a product without making it a firm choice. However many contractors will tell you they see it as meaning “use what you like”. But with the development of sustainability the meaning of equal is changing. It no longer just means made of a similar material to a similar shape and able to do the job. Now factors such as responsible sourcing or factory location can mean that two similar products are very different. The whole process of specification writing is changing.
In the early 1990’s the last recession changed the process of specification selling, expanding it to include the contractor. Today, new technology and changing requirements for our buildings are changing the specification process again. And we can expect to see further changes driven by the current recession.