Designing a new marketing plan for design firms

Design firms traditionally believe that their design alone could sell, and Singapore’s design firms are no different.

However, with the rise of technology and fast paced world where the project delivery could have been cut to half if compared to 20 years ago, the industry has changed tremendously. The clients are more demanding and they are provided with bigger pool of designers who they can select from.

In Singapore’s context, this is even more challenging considering the limited market size, many Singapore design firms have to venture overseas for projects.

A design firm is generally led by the founders and/or partners who are the principal designer and not many of them have learnt about running a firm previously. They usually have worked in other design firms before, have networks of clients and have some basic understanding of how to run a design firm.

The challenges come when the firm has grown into a sizeable organization, e.g. more than 100 staff, where many issues become more complex. They started to realize that there are people management, resource management, quality of services, finance and many other operational issues to tackle.

The operational and overhead costs have increased, and the leaders have to bring in more businesses to sustain the firm, otherwise it will be forced to shrink.

I have worked in a few architectural design firms and have come to realize that design firms need a new game plan and the leaders have to change their mindset to sustain their business. It is after all a service industry where business is developed thru good communications and relationship with the clients.

Therefore, a design firm needs a good marketing strategy to showcase its capabilities.
In my opinion, there are four key marketing communications strategies that a design firm can adopt:

1. Developing public relations action plan. Not all design firms can afford to hire a PR agency, therefore getting to know some journalists will help when there are stories to tell. If the firm can afford one, a more comprehensive PR strategy could be mapped out to get interviews for key designers and media coverage on key projects. For any designers, design awards are a good barometer for their design quality and good opportunity to get industry recognition.
2. Establishing effective communications plan. Updating your contacts with the design achievements and project status as well as establishing brand positioning through consistent messages. An e-newsletter can be a good tool for this. In addition, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can be handy to maintain the contact database and record any customer contact activities.
3. Maintain relationship with existing clients, the best advertisement comes from the clients who are happy with the service, so get testimonial from your clients.
4. Understand the local culture when expanding overseas. Every country has different style of communicating, understanding the locals helps to prepare effective communications strategy. 

All in all, realizing that design firm is also a business and all business principal applies would help to position marketing as an important part of the design firm.

Lukito Nugroho, Business Development Manager, Aedas