Wednesday, 24 August 2011 00:00
Amanda Salamon, Head of Marketing
Marketing Blog
As I come up to my second anniversary at Strides, it’s probably a good opportunity to reflect on my time at Prom House and look forward to the months ahead.
It’s been an interesting and challenging two years. Looking back, we have collectively achieved so much and it’s great that Marketing now plays such a strategic role in the business and the business supports something that can so readily be considered just a ‘support function’. That’s definitely not the case here at Strides.
The face of Marketing is changing. There has always been a need to plan, evaluate and demonstrate value but with reduced budgets, time and resource, it’s ever more important to make sure that Marketing is both reactive and proactive, supporting the long term aspirations of a business, enabling it to engage with the right people in the right way and achieving as much value as possible.
The landscape has altered. It’s no longer just about events, PR, advertising, brochures.....but more about social interaction, strategic campaigns that generate value and a culture of ‘business case’ which enables Marketers to assess the value of their creativity and experience.
Twitter and Linkedin are leading the way for us at Strides and the development of our website has enabled us to mark our territory as a Top 13 UK practice. We are continuing to balance the tightrope between Marketing and Business Development, thinking long and hard about our core clients, cross selling, account management and the profile of our brand on an international basis.
It is a tough world out there and Marketing needs to continually respond to it. It’s critical we understand client perception, make the most of marketing opportunities and promote our many USPs that set us above our competitors! We want to be at the forefront of our clients’ minds when they think about good architecture. So, as part of the continuing Marketing effort, we need to wayfind creative ways to make the most of the fantastic work we do and those unique schemes that make all the difference.
As we move to the latter half of this year, the Marketing effort will evolve again. Our focus will be on raising the profile of our London and south west studios, sustainability, sector events and developing our international brand. We will also be helping to develop our business culture, sharing information and making the very most of our market leading expertise so we can fully support each other in providing the best design and services to our clients.
It’s an interesting time and Strides has always been great in seeing the value of Marketing. We are continually striving to ‘put us on the map’, using creative ideas that support our creative design. So it’s onwards and upwards.....brochures, events, our twice yearly Architext, website, PR – all sit at the heart of what we do but there is so much more on offer and so much more to consider.