Subject Matter Expert Interview with Ashley Packard
By Chris Towle
I had the pleasure of interviewing Ashley Packard, the Marketing Director for Boomerang Design, an architecture firm. Ashley has an extensive background in a variety of different marketing positions and really provided some great insight.
How did you get started with Boomerang Design?
Ashley was looking for new opportunities. She went out of her way to market herself through networking, working with agencies, and really just getting her name out there as much as possible.
How does the marketing differ in the architecture industry compared to the marketing you have done in the past throughout your career?
Ashley’s past 3 marketing ventures had all been for product based companies, not service based. She said that it was a big learning curve restructuring her methods. It was difficult at first because she did not have a tangible product to show potential clients. Ashley stated that there is a lot more nurturing and networking that goes into proving that their people and methods are better than the competitors.
What are some of your weekly and monthly tasks that you do in order to market Boomerang Design?
On a weekly basis Ashley manages all social media platforms, as well as submit RFQ’s (request for quotation) for projects her firm is qualified for. She works with a team of consultants to help assist her with finding RFQs. On a monthly basis, Ashley will plan and attend various tradeshows in education and government fields. She designs and implements seasonal marketing campaigns as well as sets and maintains the marketing budget.
I know that in the time you have begun working at Boomerang Design you have worked strongly on rebranding the organization, including changing the company’s name, what has brought about this rebranding?
After conducting several interviews with the firm’s top clients, they realized that many had trouble remembering the firm’s previous name (MBAJ) in the correct order, and learned that the four-letter acronym was not the best in order to stand out in a crowd. After four months of deliberation they decided on the name Boomerang Design. The firm had also gone through a change in leadership structure and they felt as they were in a new era within the firm. They wanted to bring about a fresh new look and feel in order to inspire their internal staff and external clients.
In the company’s business philosophy, the trajectory of your clients always coming back to you, just like a boomerang does, I assume that in the 30+ years the company has been in business it has become as successful as it has by customer retention and repeat business. Do you focus all of your marketing efforts towards acquiring new clientele and let the finished work of the architects keep them coming back? Or do some marketing efforts go towards appealing to existing customers?
Ashley says that they absolutely spend a great deal of time fostering the relationships with existing clients. For example, the time dedicated at tradeshows is focused on interacting with current clients. Always working on building that relationship whether by just talking with them, or taking them out to eat. Ashley emphasized that the best way to acquire new business is to have excellent referrals who can vouch for your credibility, talent, and finished product.
With the economy being in a recession since 2008, has this changed the way you market the company’s services, and whom you market to?
Before the recession the firm was working on lavish, large, new buildings. Now they have started to work on repurposing existing structures to become the space that the clients wants, without having all the costs of building something from scratch. For example, they have turned old gyms into technology savvy state-of-the-art libraries, warehouses into schools and so on. Repurposing has become very important to them as a firm and has even been incorporated into their slogan. Rethink, Repurpose, Results.
From a marketing perspective, what are some short-term goals as well as long term goals with respect to return on investment?
In the long term they are focusing on expanding into different sectors in order keep from being left behind. They also focus on keeping up with current trends. Ashley said that the current trend is being green and having sustainable buildings. They work with several organizations on developing bond referendums and master planning with the hopes that when the funding gets approved they are the front-runners. In the short term, they are committed to keeping staff up-to-date with training and the latest technology. She said that they want everyone to be prepared with the latest terminology and technology in order to deal with a potential client.
From the company website I noticed that you have worked with some impressive clients from the Education, Civic Government, Faith-Based, and Commercial sectors of business. Does the company hope to reach out to any different markets?
Given the current trends, they are very interested in expanding into assisted living and nursing home developments. They see this as a very large opportunity given the baby boomer generation. They would also like to expand into the industrial and manufacturing sector because they project strong growth in all of these sectors over the next decade.
I noticed that the company has four different offices located across North Carolina and South Carolina. How far do your marketing efforts try to reach? Do you try to focus on staying fairly local to the office locations? Or do you reach out to markets outside of NC and SC?
The cities where the offices are located are very saturated with competition of other architecture firms. Marketing efforts are to reach a wide variety of areas. They must go where the business is.
In the highly competitive market of the architecture/construction industry, what do you do in order to differentiate yourself from the competition?
Ashley says that they go above and beyond to give the client the end result that the client wants, not what the architecture firm wants. Ashley really emphasizes this. She says that a lot of firms will work hard to create big flashy buildings that would look great in their portfolios but not focusing on the end result of what the client really wants. They work with the client and their budget in order to create a building that will give the user the experience they want, regardless of the flashy exterior appeal. They design buildings that create feeling and change the way work is performed internally.
