Question

Topic: Strategy

Marketing An Architectural And Design Company

Posted by Anonymous on 4/10/2008 at 12:32 PM ET 250 Points
Hi

I was wondering if any one could kindly assist me on the best method to market a Design and Build company

The company focuses on the hospitality industry and currently on restaurants
The company have developed their skills where they focus on the layout of the restaurant, looking into leveraging space, staff productivity and flow.

They are also focusing on ambience design which in fact is interior design with added elements; designing the space in such a way that it manipulates the customers mood.

Ambience is key for a restaurant or bar

How ever, the issue is that most restaurant owners do not understand this concept

we have a limited marketing budget and are currently receiving only 1 enquiry a day, our manager wants us to increase our sales to 3 contracts a month. Our 1 enquiry a day and we are receiving 1 contract every 6-7 months, our manager is not happy with the current situation
Any suggestions as to how we should market this?

Many thanks in advance
:-)
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 4/10/2008 at 12:57 PM Accepted
    From what you've written, the first thing that I would focus on is not getting more inquiries, but rather on converting the inquires you already have. You get one inquiry a day, and yet it takes 6-7 months to get a client? That means only 1 out of every 100 to 150 inquiries turn into customers? You need to find out why that is.

    It seems to me that your target market is the multi-unit, independent operator. In other words, you want the guy or small business that owns a few restaurants that are not bound to have a certain look and feel because of franchising or other issues.

    You want to find people who either need to remodel or build out a restaurant, so I'd purchase of list of these kinds of people and start making phone calls and sending out direct mail. They may not need you right away, so you need to stay top of mind so you are there when the time does come.

    If you have the time, you might also reach out to a few of the franchises to let them know that your services are all about not only a great look and feel but also increasing revenue per customer. If you can show that your methods will help with incremental revenue, you might win the business to provide a new look and feel that could become the standard across the entire franchise.

    - Paul
  • Posted by CarolBlaha on 4/10/2008 at 1:10 PM Accepted
    I think i responded before to one of your questions and cited a recent article in Harvard Business Review states that you can get about $11 more for an entree in a restaurant with a higher total customer experience-- or as you say "ambiance". Its part of the brand. I have heard owners say "decor doesn't sell food" and they are wrong. If they were right, we'd all look like Subway.

    It sounds to me you are waiting for the inquiries vs agressively going after them. But, one a day is pretty good-- first I would track those inquires more rigidly because you aren't turning them into contracts. If you are getting 20 inquiries a month and only turning one every 6 months-- yowzer. You need a process to ensure these turn into prospects-- and once they enter the sales funnel- they either pospone, buy from you, or another. I find too many sales processes allow them to evaporate.

    This is a company I work with in Denver in my rep business. See how they do design-- and do some of the other services you define.
    https://www.spastrategy.net/. A firm closer to your work are
    https://www.valiantproducts.com/.

    I know that both directly contact the owners of hotels to design their restaurants. Many of the hotels have certain building standards --like no vinyl on the floors, only hardwood but beyond that-- they work with those owners on design.

    Larger groups understand what people buy for a complete dining experience. That part of the sale "they got it" so it can shorten your sale cycle.
  • Posted on 4/10/2008 at 1:15 PM Author
    Thanks Paul

    Yes you are absolutely right, we are targeting the multi-unit, independent operator.
    The enquiries that we currently receive are a mix between start up and existing, the start up are the main ones, sometimes it takes the start up a year to come back to us after their initial contact, converting these clients takes along time, we follow up with our list every 2 weeks and they are still not ready, but of course we cannot survive on this basis, we need to convert them and for some odd reason it is taking a long time.
    When we request feedback from the ones that decided to use another company they give us all different kinds of feedback but they were all happy or impressed with our approach, we were either too expensive or they went with a local company. (when the clients pick say 6 designers to pitch or present their work, we always come as the last finalist, people are initially impressed but we don't seem to get them.
    We are thinking that our leads or enquiries might be not enough, maybe one a day is too little and also that the quality is not good :-(
  • Posted on 4/10/2008 at 1:29 PM Author
    Hi Carol!

    Yes you did and I tried to look up the article but could not find it.
    Thanks for the links, and yes you are right I think we need to be more aggressive, we have never actually gone out to get the clients!
    its all been them coming to us never we going out to get the business, so yes we will try to be more aggressive in our approach!
    Thanks guys for your response
  • Posted by CarolBlaha on 4/10/2008 at 2:36 PM Accepted
    Well here is the link to purchase, or it may be in a library with large biz section. https://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/search/searchResults....

    To quote"customer experience a combination of decor, taste of food and service accounted for 73% of the price variation at NYC restaurants; cuisine accounted for 3.5%, location just 2.5%"...

    I think the objection "we went local" isn't a real objection but a stall. Your definition of your services goes beyond design build-- you are providing a solution for their enhanced profitability.
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