Review of Competition
Since this proposal is an original idea, a review of competition will be slim. As mentioned previously, advertisements are frequently placed in industry magazines for competitions around the world. These ads would currently serve as the only major competitor to our service. Through these competitions, an architecture firm or college student will submit a proposal to the sponsoring company based on the specifications of the competition. If they win, most participants will receive an award, money or recognition - or all three. The majority of these competitions do not award an actual contract to produce construction documents and truly design the structure. Our service would not provide glamorous awards or money, but it would produce recognition and a working contract between two parties.
Marketing Mix
We will be producing and providing a service which is consistent with many other marketing plans for services. In this section, we will discuss how the four P´s (product, price, place, and promotion) of marketing will apply to our proposal.
Product Strategy
Some of this strategy has already been outlined previously, but we will define why there is a need for our service here as well. Some clients go through three, four or five architects before they finally find the right one, or just get fed up with the process. So there is first an obvious need to try to find a way to pair the right architect with the right client. We feel that our service will provide that opportunity. Many times, due to the requirements of the job, there is a need for a specially designed building. Buildings such as museums, monuments and even houses are often very creative. If creativity is a major requirement in the design, our service allows the client to see various designs from architects and choose their favorite. Many needs arise on the architect´s side as well. Aspects such as advertising, obtaining and retaining work, recognition and achievement are all things that are important to the architect. With our service, most, if not all of these needs can be met.
Place Strategy
Our service will be placed in an area extremely easy to find - the Internet. Other than a possible future expansion into office space, our service can be run completely off the web. Remember, we are not producing construction documents, we are simply pairing the client with an architect who will. One important factor is that our users need to be confined to a specified geographic location, unless special circumstances arise. We want to avoid pairing a client in Boston, MA with an architect in Scottsdale, AZ. Initially, we will only be reaching out to our geographic area. In the future, another tool will be placed on the web site to differentiate users based on location. Users might also be able to be linked using virtual conferencing. Digital versions of drawings make it much easier to share documents. This would alleviate the need to be physically near one another.
Promotion Strategy
Our promotional strategy will first involve the surveying that was mentioned earlier. This creates an easy way to gain interest and recognition early on for our service. Another strategy that we will use is to buy advertisements in design and construction magazines such as Dwell, Contract, Architectural Digest, and The Construction Specifier. The biggest obstacle in promotion for our service is to get architects to sign on. The more architects, the better. We feel that with surveys and ads, we can gain enough recognition throughout the design community to make the service work.