Reference no: EM132306835

Kevin Schrock and Katie Oh met while studying architec- ture in college. They became good friends and after graduating decided to start a modern architecture firm in Los Angeles. Schrock & Oh Design opened in 2011, specializing in contem- porary residential and commercial projects. Starting an architecture business in the midst of a recession was not easy. The business struggled in those first few years. But they loved what they did, scrimped and saved, and took whatever work they could get. The economy gradually im- proved. They soon built a modest business based mostly on word-of-mouth; Kevin noted that their only marketing invest- ment was business cards and a small five-page website. They did not have the money to invest in much more. They survived and eventually built a bit of a reputation for their work. Reputation and word-of-mouth were carrying Schrock and Oh Design only so far. They wanted to move their business to the next level. They started by advertising on Yahoo and Google. Although this lead to some initial inquiries, very few panned out into actual work. People seemed most interested in just asking questions, seeing photographs of their work, and learning more; they were just gathering ideas. These customers were early in the buying process. Kevin and Katie spent lots of time talking to customers but not much time designing and billing out. “It feels like we spend so much time educating these customers that in the end, we hardly make any money even if they do work with us on a design project,” noted Kevin. Their next foray was to start blogging. Katie was a pretty good writer and started a blog on the SchrockOhDesign.com website. She blogged about the industry—“Development Fact of the Day—China,” which discussed a magazine article she read about architecture in Metropolis Magazine and “Is Prefab the Future,” which described issues around the modern prefabricated home. Prefab homes were one of their competitors. Although low in cost, they are not easily customized to a customer’s specific needs. Some of her posts generated traffic to the website, but few turned into leads for the design firm. When they looked at click- stream data, they found that most customers read the blog and then left the company’s website. They were stumped about where to go next. “We tried all the marketing we knew. We started with advertising, which did not seem to work. So we went to this new ‘owned media’ approach but that isn’t getting us any business either,” claimed Katie. “It doesn’t seem like a Facebook page or Twitter feed is our best route either. Our goal is to attract qualified leads. We would like to attract customers who already know they want to build a con- temporary home or commercial building—and then we can use our time with them to discuss what our design firm can do.” Evaluate Schrock & Oh Design’s strategy so far. What would you recommend to help the architecture firm attract more qualified leads?

Its strengths, its weaknesses, offered opportunities, threat, challenges and strategies.