Do architects specify brands or company names?
Building product manufacturers and their marketing agencies can often overlook the fact that architects specify brands rather than company names. In fact, on the whole, there’re not that interested in company names and if you trawled through a pile of specifications, you’d find it’s predominantly brand names that are specified.
Logical, really, as we’re all influenced by brands. For example, when you buy a chocolate bar, you don’t go into a shop and ask for a Nestle, you ask for a Yorkie or Kit Kat (both made by Nestle)!
So architects are not that interested in company names. Alarming as that may sound, it shouldn’t really be a surprise – it’s how we all think as consumers and why the branding industry in the UK is worth several billion pounds. Yet many communication agencies, because they don’t understand the construction sector, lose sight of this.
Take, for example, a fantastic product called WES+, which is manufactured by a company called Ramtech Electronics, not that you’d know, necessarily. But then again you don’t need to because as long as a specifier states ‘WES+’, and Ramtech Electronics’ PR company (ie us!) has done the job right, they will find what they are looking for. Try it yourself by searching for ‘WES+’ in Google!
Marketing companies that don’t understand the construction sector tend to focus on the company rather than individual brands and that leads to confusion and frustration with specifiers – which you don’t want. Even when a building product manufacturer is long established and feels that it owes it to its heritage to push the company name, they should resist the temptation!
So what does this mean for your PR and social media? Well, it’s pretty fundamental that your marketing agency understand how architects specify products, and that means they should present you with a clear strategy based around individual brand names.
As a marketing agency that specialises in the construction sector, we understand your market. Our integrated PR, social media and SEO, helps your brands work harder and in a fast-paced, competitive arena, being able to get to the crux of the matter (brand versus company name) makes all the difference.
To find out how our ability to see through all the chatter and deliver clear, simple communication strategies for your brand, drop me a line at hello@dragonflypr.co.uk.
