Marketing Magic

Space Group CEO Rob Charlton discusses marketing in the construction industry

Today, in a new blog post, Space Group CEO Rob Charlton discusses marketing in the construction industry

The construction industry is so good at so many things but unfortunately marketing seems to not be one of them. This is of course somewhat of a sweeping statement and there are undoubtedly some companies that are fantastically creative, however there are also many organisations out there that are doing great things, but massively underselling themselves.

This isn’t really helped by the industry itself, which has a weak brand that doesn't effectively communicate what we do in reality.

The construction brand needs a lot of attention.

I believe the best marketers in the industry currently are tier one contractors. They all invest heavily in their brand and position themselves well with corporate social responsibility statements and environmental awards. Sub-contractors add huge value to the industry but they don't market or sell this expertise well.

Some consultants have strong brands but architects are notorious for positioning themselves alongside similar brands - generally monotone artwork, and clean, crisp offices is the expectation. Space Architects swam against the tide when they branded themselves with a bright pink hue as their corporate colour. We chose this to be different. How many companies in the sector use pink? Not many I suspect. It certainly gets us noticed!

With bimstore the best £500 we have ever spent was on a life size fibreglass yellow Friesian cow. Erminturde is known across the UK as the mascot of the brand, with Florence the caravan being extension to this.

bimstore gives manufacturers a fantastic opportunity to appeal to a digital market.

Specifiers are getting younger. Often we find that technical sales people are Baby Boomers or older Generation X and they don't really understand Generation Y. If it's not digital, Generation Y aren't interested and are not really sure what to do with brochures or branded pens.

Marketing today is about data, however companies are still spending thousands on brochures and catalogues - they attend trade shows with huge stands. This all has a feel of the telco effect. Companies were caught out by a change in the market and how customers wanted to shop - it crept up on food retailers and caught them out. The emergence of Amazon and Ocado forced change.

We are in the same place with construction manufacturers. Many still remain blind to digital collateral and the value of data. There are customers such as Wienerberger and Grohe who have built their entire strategy around digital. This positions their brand as early adopters and visionaries but it is not only the big businesses who can benefit. Digital is perfect for smaller manufacturers. For example, Cubicle Centre has been at the forefront of BIM and has used it to great success to build awareness of their brand.

Hopefully in the coming years, manufacturers with fantastic products will save money on their brochures and trade shows and invest in building data and maintaining a digital presence.

About bimstore: bimstore is the UK’s original BIM object library. Developed by specifiers for specifiers, we create and host high quality manufacturer specific BIM content, making it easy to browse and download the world’s best collection of BIM components. If you need any help with BIM content creation then get in touch with the bimstore team today.