Interior Designer Resources Directory :: Interior Design Article
Find YOUR Place in the Sun!
Ziggy, the cartoon character, is my favorite philosopher. He once profoundly announced "Even the little guy can cast a big shadow once he's found his place in the sun!" As a small business owner and entrepreneur, I had faced, along with thousands of others the dilemma of how to be competitive in the market place with bigger firms.
The short and simple answer is always: marketing! But, small business owners, often wearing way too many hats and having few if any employees to share the load, find marketing efforts getting pushed to the back burner to make time for daily routines that keep us in business. There always seem to be limited dollars left in the budget for marketing campaigns, much less salary and a benefits package to hire an employee whose entire focus will be to get our names in front of potential clients. Even in areas where sun and warmth are the norm, casting a significant shadow in a very competitive marketplace can be difficult.
So, how can you gain a competitive edge and find your place in the sun? It boils down to finding a way to differentiate yourself, your firm and your services from the rest of the competition. How? This too, has a simple answer: brand yourself. Don’t worry; this type of branding has nothing to do with heating up a hot iron and burning an image into your backside. It simply refers to a business practice that has made big companies bigger and more successful, and allowed them to create enormous shadows in their various markets. Branding tells customers who you are, what you do and why they should select you over other companies competing for their business.
Think about Nike, Armani, Volvo, Southwest Airlines, Kentucky Fried Chicken. All of these are well known and well branded companies. I know what you are going to say. “Those are not the kinds of companies that I compete against, and they are big firms with a lot of money to spend on marketing. I’m just a small, one, two or three person firm trying to keep afloat in a weak economy in an area with high levels of competition.” Agreed. But, now think about Michael Jordan, Madonna, Tom Hanks, Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey. These are all well branded individuals. Pretty much everything they touch, or do turns to gold, and they are extremely successful in their own markets.
Michael Jordan pretty much owns basketball and will never be thought of as anything but one of, if not the world’s greatest basketball player. Even so, he has been able to transition into other areas like taking a stab at baseball and golf. Oprah owns daytime talk shows because of her personal brand of compassion, caring and helping others. Martha Stewart is the maven of everything to do with the home. Her brand is on household products, linens, television shows, magazines and books, all having to do with the home. Madonna has an interesting brand much like a chameleon. She is known for changes to her public persona. When one gets old, she moves on to something else and builds it to success. Tom Hanks has a brand based on his basic, down-to-earth, guy-next-door image, and he has build a significant fan base and bank account based on that personal brand. Any picture he does features a character that fits within his brand. You seldom see him taking on the role of a low life drug dealer. Even parts he takes with an edge to his usual nice guy persona reveal that his bad-guy image is still laced with a heart. It’s a solid and successful personal brand.
You too, can create a personal brand and position that brand in your own market to attract clients who have an appreciation for you and what you have to offer. Your brand that tells potential clients who you are, what you do and what value you bring to a client is, in essence, a your professional alter ego. Branding works for companies of all sizes. And, it can work for individuals too.
The great thing about a personal brand is that it truly is all about you. It is based on your own personal characteristics, attributes, skills and talents, and your personal style. It’s what makes you unique because there is absolutely no one else just like you, or does things just like you do. We are all a little different, as are potential clients. The trick is to understand and develop your personal brand to be marketed so that clients, who appreciate what it is that you, and only you, have to offer, can find you.
An effective personal brand will bring three things to the minds of your target market: you are superior, you are different, and you are authentic. The authentic part is, by far, the most important part of your personal brand. Because the brand evolves from you, it has to be authentic. Everyone is different. Some people are happy, cheerful workers. Others are more quiet, focused and somber in the way they work with clients. Neither one is better nor worse, they are just different. Some clients will appreciate a happy, bubbly type of personality, and others prefer calmer, more introverted types. The key is to let potential clients know which you are so you are easier to find and hire.
A personal brand can do a lot of things for you, but there are also some things that it will not do. Don’t think that a personal brand will make you famous. Those celebrity 'brands' mentioned earlier were pretty well known before they fine-tuned their brands. Nor will a personal brand cover up incompetence. Don’t let customers think you can do something that you know you cannot accomplish. And, don’t think that a personal brand will get you to your goals by itself. Unless you march out your personal brand, attach it to absolutely everything you present to the public and market it far and wide; you may as well not have a brand at all.
It is important to develop a personal brand statement based on your personal characteristics, your skills and services, your target market, and key business attributes. This brand statement is not your tag line. It is not your thirty-second elevator commercial. It is the essence of your personal brand to be used internally as a filter through which you view everything you do in marketing or public relations. Business cards, letterhead, proposals, invoices, and fax cover sheets should reflect your brand. As should advertisements, presentation materials, brochures, post cards, pens, key chains and any thing handed out as a representation of your firm. Brand them all! Select them only after holding them up against the filter of your personal brand statement to be sure they are a good match.
Once your brand has been put before customers over and over, that information will become imbedded in their brains so that when the need arises for your services, you and your brand will top-of-mind for them. Develop and market your personal brand, laying claim to your place in the sun, and then cast a big, big shadow that can’t be missed by clients whose needs match your brand.
Terri Maurer, FASID, president of Ohio-based Maurer Consulting Group, has been a commercial interior design practitioner for 27 years. A 1978 graduate of Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, Maurer began her design career in hospitality design. She gained management and design experience working as assistant to the director of the interior design department at an office furniture dealership, and as vice-president in a partnership that specialized in office and nursing home design. In 1981, Maurer launched her own company, specializing in the design of corporate offices, medical office facilities and nursing homes. Maurer passed the NCIDQ examination in 1981. She is a founding member and President of the Coalition for Interior Design Legislation in Ohio (CIDLO), A proponent of professionalism and lifelong learning, Maurer expanded her design education with courses on the Americans with Disability Act, universal design, lighting design, codes and standards, ergonomics, fire-safe design, bio-mimicry, and barrier-free design. She gained additional management and leadership skills and experience at the internationally acclaimed Center for Creative Leadership. In addition, she has completed advanced courses in strategic planning and, business consulting, as well as speaking and communication training. Since 1986, Maurer has served the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) in leadership positions at both the national and local levels, culminating in her election as the organization's 26th national president in 2001. Other national positions included liaison to the National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ), ASID Strategic Planning Committee chair, Strategic Planning educator and facilitator, as well as participation, on numerous committees, councils and task forces. Maurer served two terms on the national board of directors, as a disciplinary juror for the Ethics Committee, as a member of the Executive Committee for several years, and as director with financial oversight of a nine million dollar budget. Local chapter service included serving as ASID Ohio North Chapter president, vice president, board member and service on a wide variety of other committees. Maurer has also served on key task forces for NCIDQ focused on shaping the future of the profession. Maurer's extensive service to ASID and the profession, plus her experience as an entrepreneur and considerable business and leadership education and experience, she possesses an elevated level of expertise in business planning, strategic planning and marketing. In addition to work in commercial design, Maurer is an internationally recognized speaker and educator on design and business-related topics. She has written articles for “Interiors and Sources” magazine, and ASID’s student Access newsletter, and was featured as an industry leader in “Contract” magazine, “Draperies and Window Coverings” magazine, “Window Fashions” magazine and “Office Insights” Maurer has been the recipient of numerous awards from her peers, including two ASID chapter presidential citations, and special chapter recognition for “outstanding guidance and leadership.” She earned ASID's highest chapter award, the ASID Medalist, in 1994. Maurer has been recognized for her participation at the society level as a national task force chair, chapter president, member of the executive committee, and for her national positions as president-elect, president and pastpresident. In 2000, Maurer was elected to ASID's Council of Fellows for her extensive leadership contributions to ASID and the profession. This is the highest society level honor bestowed on members. In 2001, she was recognized by her alma mater, Kent State University, as the School of Family and Consumer Studies' alumna of the year.
