2000 SMPS Marketing Awards: Innovation & Planning Can
Substitute for a Big Budget

Quadrant Corp., a subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Co., was already using Otak Inc., an A/E firm based in Oswego, Ore., for civil engineering and surveying services on the Blakely Ridge community project. But Tracy Black and her marketing colleagues at Otak set their sights higher and resolved to have their client also use the firm's landscape architecture, planning, and urban design services.

Otak's solution won a "Best of Show" award at the 2000 National Marketing Communications Awards in Austin, TX.

The effort got Quadrant to hire Otak for the extra services and built a base for future hiring-the two objectives of the effort. The instrument of its success was a special-market brochure, which built on Quadrant's good relationship with Otak's engineers. Otak researched Quadrant's similar projects and became familiar with the way Quadrant was organized and operated.

The handmade brochure, in stark contrast to the high-tech marketing materials typically used by firms today, used an oversize sketchbook format, handmade paper, and script font. Illustrations conveyed the area's natural features and Otak's vision and sensitivity for designing a livable community. Images included paintings by John James Audubon, such as the local blue heron in its habitat, a nearby watershed park, trees, and other examples of flora and fauna (for images of this and other winners, go to the Awards section of the SMPS web site at www.smps.org).

What distinguished this effort from others is that Otak produced only 15 copies, entirely in house, in three days, at a cost of $500. This personalized approach led Quadrant to hire Otak for the added work. For more information, contact Tracy Black (e-mail: tracey.black@otak.com).

Web Site
At the opposite end of the technology scale is the award-winning web site of Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott (SBRA, Boston), a conservative-minded architectural firm, one of whose name partners was H.H. Richardson. Katharine Watts and her team identified several intended audiences: potential and existing clients and employees; potential consultants and associate design firms; architectural students and schools; and visitors.

Watts gathered the following marketing objectives. The purpose of the web site was to:
· Serve as a continuously refreshed overview of SBRA's current work, expertise, professional activities, media coverage, and client lists
· Enhance SBRA's visibility to diversified audiences (see above)
· Provide contact information and detailed instructions to those who want to contact specific individuals or visit the firm's headquarters.

Links within the site provide access to the web sites of the main professional societies. Many clients have hyperlinks to the SBRA site. "Such links," says SBRA, "create an effective cross-pollination of web sites that increases the marketing power of the individual sites." In the site's next phase, the firm plans to add interactive features which visitors can use to ask questions or make comments-all the while providing SBRA with additional information about the market.

Aside from a range of awards, including the one from SMPS, the site (www.sbra.com) has yielded more tangible results. Many clients and client institutions have visited the site. Several clients have created links from their sites to SBRA's. This site has averaged 300 visitors per week since going live in February 1999. The price? Not cheap. The firm paid G2G Production Inc. $27,000 to launch the site.

Advertising Program
Instead of lamenting the dearth of seasoned A/E/ professionals, Kansas City, Mo.-based HNTB decided to advertise for them, and in the process earned an SMPS marketing award. Dean Sharp and Pat Mosher were part of a staff group that began by developing this lucid statement of need:

"HNTB is in need of more experienced individuals ('seasoned professionals'), typically the 40+ crowd. This 40+ group should be the best of the best-many of them we will have to pull from our competitors. The firm has identified a number of key positions that will require professionals with at least 15 years of experience."

Working with an ad agency, HNTB's corporate communications group created a series of ads to run in Engineering News-Record (new photography, copywriting, and so-called creative services ran to $8,000, according to HNTB).

The ads had a four-point goal:
1. To raise awareness that HNTB was hiring higher-level people
2. To accept that likely candidates already are in good positions, but appeal to the idea that "something better may be out there"
3. To create an image of HNTB as "not just a traditional firm"
4. To highlight the firm's policy of rewarding good work.

To test ad results, HNTB deliberately misspelled the name of Dean Sharp, the contact person. This way they could tell how many responses came from the ad series (name misspelled) and how many came from the HNTB web site (www.hntb.com). Score: The firm received an average of 50 resumes each time the ad ran.

Firm Brochure
Done on a far more massive scale than Otak's venture, but with the same goals in mind of cross-selling additional services to current clients, Cary, N.C.-based Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. ended up developing an imposing array of 54 brochure components (down from an original mega-list of 100) for its marketing literature program. The goal was to give project managers the tools to make a tailored presentation to sell follow-up work to an existing client. Interestingly enough, the series wasn't intended for use as direct mail, only in face-to-face marketing or follow-up

The research effort was colossal. It comprised:
· An analysis of responses to the office's Quality Call program, where senior managers call some 200 clients a year to ask, "How're we doing?" This yielded favorable perceptions (and presumably negative ones) for inclusion or omission.
· One-on-one interviews and consensus-building telephone meetings with senior project managers for each discipline offered by the firm. This produced a technical basis and market tips for the individual write-ups.
· Interviews with 200 clients. These yielded 120 testimonial quotes.
· A review of more than 900 projects. Out of these, 360 were chosen for professional photography.

Joining a small but growing group of firms that are producing intelligible, jargon-free brochures, Kimley-Horn used conversational language. And every spread includes a client quote-an excellent third-party endorsement device that far exceeds in impact any glorious statements you may make about your own firm.

The brochures get a lot of use-from 85 to 350 times a month-with a total of 6,000 pieces in use by project managers monthly. Still, "I would not take their marketing success as a proof of the brochures' value," says Kimley-Horn's Carlene Byron. "Instead, I'd say that brochure use rates have turned out to be one measure of marketing diligence."

While overall budget figures were not disclosed, the firm did reveal that it pays less than $3 for each 32-page discipline brochure (Kimley-Horn has seven such disciplines)-this includes hand-stitching for the centered short sheets; about $2 each for corporate brochures; and 39 to 89 cents each for supporting pieces, such as project types within a discipline. (For details, go to the web site: www.kimley-horn.com).

Newsletter
One marketing vehicle that is growing in popularity is the firm newsletter-not the house-organ type, but one that informs clients and prospects. Alone, or in conjunction with web-posted matter, newsletters have emerged as a fruitful source of client interest and new business.

The newsletter by New York-based Weidlinger Associates Inc. was developed above all to stretch the shelf life of that prominent structural engineering firm's brochure. The newsletter includes:
· In-depth reports on Weidlinger's most innovative work, in progress or just completed
· Story ideas for the media
· Individual stories as computer-generated reprints
· New stories for Weidlinger's web page.

A clear, highly legible, cost-effective product, it's designed to reinforce an image of elegance to architectural clients. A team that includes communications director Helen Oppenheimer, designer Nelida Nassar, and Marcy Stanley saw to it that the look is an extension of the firm brochure. Headlines, insets, and captions are written to inform readers who don't want to read the entire text of a story or news item. Engineers take part in writing and editing. For more information, contact Stanley (e-mail: stanley@wai.com).

The newsletter is mailed to the firm's list of 3,000 clients and personal contacts and is reprinted in full on the firm's web site (www.wai.com). The 16-page, two-color publication is printed on light-weight, quality stock. Cost for 4,500 copies, including bulk mailing labels and postage, is $11,600, or $2.57 per copy, with about two-thirds going for printing and mailing and the rest for design and preparation.

Tangible results include ideas that became stories in Civil Engineering, Modern Steel Construction, and other magazines, as well as architects, who are among Weidlinger's principal clients. The newsletter is used regularly as a component of the firm's marketing packages.

Corporate ID Program
The Seattle firm of Callison began its corporate identity program with a branding survey-a substantial operation that involved a six-person, in-house, market-driven decision team, 20 clients, 24 firm partners, and 50 associate principals, plus a cross-discipline user group. The group revealed the following perceived shortcomings:
· Lack of visibility and name recognition
· Misunderstood service offerings
· Inconsistent identity.

Working with an out-of-house consultant, the team came up with a solution that included a logo, a theme ("Creating smarter places"), and an ID system which:
· Allows for customization of the brand without losing it (i.e., a corporate "palette" vs. corporate "color")
· Offers a richer, information-driven web site that serves as a database for frequent updating
· Designs a distinctive logo mark.

Prior to the holidays, Callison mailed a new firm brochure to clients and employees announcing the new look, which was launched on January 3, 2000. This look is incorporated in all business stationery, the new web site, and all marketing collateral materials. Among the results are 100% consistency among marketing tools and a sharp drop in the use of costly, one-use-only marketing packages. For more information, contact rschweiger@callison.com.

Direct-Mail Campaign
Direct mail has emerged as a good, targetable way of reaching finely tuned client and media audiences. Dallas-based HKS Inc., a leading health care facilities designer, has a three-part objective:
· To inform clients about newly hired professional staff, focusing on their specialty and experience
· To impart information about the firm's activities and its diversity
· To provide a colorful but consistent format for the message.

The design's colors change with each mailing for novelty. Copy is kept simple and clear. Out come: The campaign has enhanced interest from clients, as measured by the volume of verbal response. For more information, contact stippet@hksinc.com

Other Categories
Other SMPS 2000 Marketing Awards were given in the areas of multimedia/3D design; magazine/annual report; publicity campaign/combined media; special events pieces; special holiday pieces; books or monographs; internal communications pieces; and special events programs.

After category winners were identified, "best of show" winners were chosen by a panel of judges consisting of Robert McNanamy, editor of Design-Build; Robert Ivy, editor-in-chief of Architectural Record; Stephen Kliment, editor of DFMAR; Matthew Phair, senior technology editor, Engineering News-Record; Judy Schriener, online editor of McGraw-Hill Construction Information Group; and Gordon Wright, senior editor, Building Design & Construction.

For a listing of winners, along with contact information, dial in to the IOMA Fax Retrieval System at 212-244-0360, ext. 250. Request Document #9 and the listing will be faxed to you immediately. For additional information contact Melanie Penoyar at SMPS (Alexandria, Va., 800-292-7677, ext.227; e-mail: melanie@smps.org).

Otak was omitted from the "Best of Show" listing in the September, Volume 5, Issue 5 edition of the Forum. SMPS apologizes for this error and is delighted to highlight Otak in the inaugural issue of the e-Forum.