Business Details

BY FRANK A. STASIOWSKI, FAIA

Making the Most of Media Relations

I recently had the opportunity to hear two icons of design-business development, Rolf Fuessler of the Fuessler Group and Karen Courtney of Barton Marlow, discuss how an A/E firm can successfully build a solid reputation through the media. Very few firms are satisfied with their media relations performance, mainly because they have not established and followed a framework for success. Here are some tips for meeting this challenge.

The first thing you need to do is to determine your focus as you develop your reputation through the media. Are you looking to establish a project-based reputation or a market-based reputation? Are you looking to develop a reputation in one of your firm's existing markets, or are you trying to establish a presence in an emerging market where you want to do more work? Once you have determined your focus, Fuessler and Courtney suggest that you ask yourself three questions:

1. What are your stories?
2. How do you tell your stories?
3. Who wants to know these stories?

Getting in the Door

Here are some tactical tips on getting media coverage that were provided to us by actual reporters and publications editors:

• Community newspapers love you. Coverage here affects the public's mindset and influences politicians, and that in turn influences other media. It should be the beginning of your long-term, grassroots approach, and the entire industry will benefit, including your firm.
• Put yourself in the editor's position. Call media people to find out what they need, then give it to them, when and how they want it.
• Tell them the truth. What media people really prize is someone who will, without any self-serving rhetoric, explain what is really going on and why. When they can find that person, their work is elevated to a much higher level.
• Become sophisticated consumers of journalism and know the kinds of stories the various publications print. Most editors look for stories that change something, even in the smallest way, or offer a new perspective.

Two Case Studies

One of the most famous examples of developing a reputation through the media is the case of Harriman Associates, a multidisciplinary firm in Maine. Harriman was doing K-8 school work but had won a large high school project, so they were looking to develop a reputation as a go-to firm in the high school market. As part of their plan to focus on their emerging market, they stopped plastering the firm's name on their projects in other markets.

Harriman Associates identified many stories out of their high school project that were attractive to media outlets and readers they were trying to reach. They told their stories through theme-focused press releases in uniquely packaged messages and sent them to all key magazine sectors. The stories that resulted from this effort explained the benefits of the project to current and prospective clients. In the end, the firm had established a national reputation from this single project in the emerging market they targeted.

BSA LifeStructures is another example of a firm that was able to build a solid reputation through the media. This 200-person regional healthcare A/E practice in the Midwest challenged itself to create a national reputation in their existing market using their deep knowledge of the healthcare sector.

BSA LifeStructures told stories that focused on the benefits they brought to projects and provided proof that the projects they built resulted in better outcomes for the end users. The firm worked to define the process and approach they'd take in doing and presenting evidence-based design and determine how to leverage what they could prove into a strong national reputation with the media in their market.

Once the media started picking up these outcome- and proof-oriented stories, the firm began setting up projects so results could be measured more easily. In other words, the firm's relationship with the media started driving their design approach.

The firm's success in media relations also resulted in the establishment of BSA LifeStructures as a thought leader in healthcare design. They developed unconventional opinions on healthcare design and were able to attack "sacred cows." Finally, they were able to use their reputation to forward new issues and meet challenges that their clients didn't even know they had. For example, the firm asserted the evidence-based notion that people recover more quickly in a quiet healthcare environment. They tied the issue to patient safety and owners' concerns. They were able to differentiate their message from other firms using the principles of evidence-based design in their work by introducing the idea that qualitative measurement (i.e., how people feel about something) is just as important as meeting operational performance goals.

Avoiding Pitfalls

The biggest mistake design firms make when developing a media-relations strategy is not recognizing that there is a difference between selling a product to the public and marketing professional services to clients. Your stories must be supported by facts, without self-laudatory claims or negative comments about competitors.

The second biggest mistake is not increasing your media-relations efforts when you have plenty of work. You can't hold back due to the stress of producing your backlog of work. This will prove to be extremely costly in the long run, especially since your competitors may not be curtailing their efforts.

When you establish your focus and build your efforts around the "who, what, when, where, why and how" of your stories, you have a viable framework for identifying who you are, what you are good at, when you need the media exposure and how your strengths benefit clients. If you tie these efforts into your firm goals and sustain them, you can leverage the media in developing a great reputation.

For more information on building a media program for your firm, check out Marketing to Win at www.psmj.com. Frank A. Stasiowski, FAIA, is president of PSMJ Resources, Inc. in Newton, MA.