When Annmarie and I launched Fivecat Studio in 1999, we knew that we wanted to give our firm a unique identity. Every other firm in the region was named for their founders. Another “Smith and Smith Architects” was not what we wanted to be. (No offense to any Smith and Smiths out there.) Our plans were to create a firm unlike anyone else and we needed a name to separate us from the pack.
After a few days of considering alternatives, the name Fivecat Studio consistently rose to the top. Clearly unique, the name resonated with us, as it represented well our personal dedication to homeless pets and our passion for animal rescue. It was a name that would help us tell our unique story. It was a name on which we could begin to build our new brand of architecture.
A brand though, is so much more than an interesting name. There are hundreds of strong brands with names lacking imagination. Frank Gehry is a very strong brand. Michael Graves, Richard Meier, Zaha Hadid; each built a firm and a strong brand using their own names. For the rest of us though, creating a new entity filled with character and creativity will help us build a memorable impression.
A brand is not your name though, your logo or your marketing materials. Can you recall the logo for any of the firms I mentioned above? These elements can most certainly be ingredients in the recipe of a strong brand, but individually they are nothing more than business seasoning.
“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. If the consumer (whether it’s a business, a buyer, a voter or a donor) doesn’t pay a premium, make a selection or spread the word, then no brand value exists for that consumer.” – Seth Godin
As your experience grows and your reputation builds, your brand will develop… with or without you. Your brand value is what others feel your brand to be. Your job is to plan, sculpt and manage your brand to tell the story that you want to be told. What is your story? What is the one unique thing you do better than anyone else? Where do you want to go? What do you want others to say when they talk about you and your firm? Why are you worth the value you are presenting to the world?
That is your brand.
How To Build a Powerful Brand in Architecture
Below are ten rules for building a powerful brand for your firm.
A powerful brand tells your story. The name Fivecat Studio begins to tell the tale about who we are and where we come from. Even as the firm is transferred to future leaders, the name will carry on with a clear history of the firm. Our residential architecture continues to develop the story. Young families throughout the Hudson Valley have experienced our proprietary process and live their lives in architecture that have strengthened relationships and have brought families closer together.
A powerful brand is transferable. Building a powerful brand will allow you to separate yourself from the brand. As a leader in the firm, you may be and should be part of the brand, but brands that are built solely upon personalities die when that individual is no longer involved in the day to day business of the firm. A transferable brand will allow new people to grow into leadership positions without losing equity and requiring the brand to adjust.
A powerful brand is differentiating. The things that make your firm different from all others is a key ingredient in the recipe of success. As Annmarie and I built Fivecat Studio, we focused our brand building more on the experience of the process than the creation of the design. Although our architecture is viewed as top quality, our focus on people more than the project set us apart from other firms competing in our market.
A powerful brand begins as an empty container; a carrier of your reputation. Your brand starts at zero, empty of all forces and influences. As your firm grows, your brand grows with it, slowly filling the container with brand elements. Will you fill the container with your story, or will your clients fill it with theirs?
A powerful brand is unique. The strongest brands in the world are “the only”. There is only one Apple. One Disney. One Frank Lloyd Wright. Everything about these brands separate them from every other competitor.
A powerful brand is easily shared. Word of mouth is critical to the success of a small architecture firm. Crafting a story that can be quickly understood and easily shared will encourage your fans to talk about you, spreading your brand to their friends and acquaintances. Give your clients the script that you want them to use and they will share it with everyone they know.
A powerful brand defines a complete experience. When clients ask me what separates Fivecat Studio from other firms, I say that it is the experience of designing and building architecture that makes us unique. From the initial telephone call, through the first meeting, the design process and throughout the construction of their project, our focus on their experience, and ultimately their happiness, is what our brand is all about.
A powerful brand is easily identifiable. Your firm’s logo, its colors, it’s marketing materials, website and business cards, when developed to support the brand, will identify your company immediately upon first glance. Your telephone greeting, your interview process and your project management are all part of your brand. Your employees, your vehicles and your architecture should all reflect your brand and identify you without needing to say a word.
A powerful brand builds upon your greatest strength. What is the one thing that you do better than anyone else? If it is design, build your brand upon that. If it is process, build your brand upon that. If it’s your hand-holding customer service, build your brand upon that. Building a brand upon your greatest strength will quickly set you apart from others.
A powerful brand evokes emotion. How did you feel the first time you held an iPad and swiped your fingers across the screen? As our clients watch their homes evolve and become the reality of the design, they are filled with excitement and anticipation. The emotions that your clients feel reinforce your brand’s value. Managing those emotions will help build your brand and support everything else you do.
There are others too. Share your thoughts in the comments below. What are YOUR rules for a powerful brand?
Image Credit: Leszek Glasner/Shutterstock.com
Bravo, Mark.
These are well thought out ideas, easily adoptable and adaptable to most small firms. I trust Thousand Story Studio (my fledgling firm) will grow into a powerful Architectural brand in Alabama.
For a while I’ve spoken of Architecture itself as a brand. (Perhaps “meta-brand is a more accurate term.) Each of our individual practices is limited to a certain state or states by law and to certain market segments and project types by practicality. Following your ten rules, each of our firms can be a leading brand within these parameters. Each can be a local representation of our collective brand: Architecture.
The other aspect of branding Architecture for me is to infuse our culture with great stories of architects and architecture – history, biography, fiction – books, film, television – to let our potential clients and our society at large know the value of good building design. I know that only a few of us aspire to be writers or filmmakers, but we can all LIVE the stories. We can all be powerful local brands.
Again, Mark, thanks for this post. I will share it and promote architectural brand-building.
I appreciate your support Collier.
Thanks for your dedication to promoting the brand of architecture by preaching the power of storytelling.
Another thought-provoking post, Mark. Thank you. Since I came across your blog over a year ago, I’ve been inspired to think about re-branding my firm (away from the traditional “Name, AIA”). Questions for you – you and your wife are both architects; is there a reason you shied away from “architecture/architects…” in choosing “studio”? Typically, design firms without “architect” in the name tend to be labeled as “non-architects” (Or is that just our own profession putting too much weight on the wording?). Do you promote both FiveCat Studio and McCarthy/LePage separately to perhaps grab a wider clientele? If so, any thoughts on this? Finally, were the results of your rebranding to Fivecat in line with your expectations? Thanks so much!
John,
I don’t know you, but based your body of work and your about page (“No ego here… It’s your project – count me in on your team to achieve success.”), I sense you already have a powerful brand.
If you know your clients are receiving benefit from this approach, then your brand is in place and your name is integral to it. Remember the proverb, “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches” and resist the urge to change the firm’s identity for something more catchy. (I’ll spare the details, but I worked for two firms where removing the principal’s name was an issue.)
If you are expanding your services, are contemplating a new business model, or facing an ownership change (Mark’s 2nd rule about transferability) then a “re-branding” may be in order. If not, just keep building on your good name and reputation.
Collier, thank you for the kind sentiments and the practical advice from experience about name changes. I feel a need to constantly improve. There are several name brand residential architects in my immediate area who command fees well into the hundreds of thousands range (think 20% of $2.5MM project). I dare say I can and do design as well as any of them, yet I fight to get fees around 1/10 of theirs (granted, they are providing more services, but they are raking it in). I’d like to think I’m their competition, but my name hasn’t quite reached that level of recognition and perhaps I haven’t penetrated deeply enough into the clientele in that stratosphere. Not complaining, just trying to figure out how to do better.
It is perhaps the transferability aspect that draws me toward the renaming of my “brand”; if I chose to retire and/or sell my life’s efforts some day, it would make sense to have a brand that has transferable value.
John: Officially, the firm’s brand name is Fivecat Studio Architecture. McCarthy LePage Architects, PC is our corporate entity, but we only market the name Fivecat Studio Architecture. In our case, it wasn’t really a rebrand. We were Fivecat from the beginning in 1999. In 2002, we incorporated and took the legal entity,
Mark –
Another very well crafted post that makes me really think about what I am doing in a little different way. Brands really transcend those that create it and evolve beyond people.
Thank you –
Chad
Thanks Chad.
Mark – I think you have written a lot of great things here. However, I am having a hard time understanding how your firm name ties to your brand. Don’t get me wrong…. I think Fivecat Studio is a really cool name! When I first heard it, I envisioned 5 cool “Cats” (architects) wearing black in a real zoomy studio listening to jazz while they created.
You say….”The name Fivecat Studio begins to tell the tale about who we are and where we come from.” How is having 5 cats relevant to your practice or brand? How is it relevant for the successor generation you speak of? A cool name, yes – but what about this name creates an image or metaphor for what you provide?
A brand involves name brand recognition. So, as you state, yes it is built on reputation. But what if one does is beginning a firm and does not have a reputation? Should they pick something arbitrary or something that just sounds cool. Or do they pick something with meaning – and yes partner’s names do have meaning as they imply a very personal professional service.
When you say “A powerful brand is differentiating.” What is it about “Fivecat’s” name brand recognition that differentiates you from a similar firm with the name Smith & Jones Architects or John Q Smith, Architect (especially when john Q is well known in his community) ? What about a brand name that speaks more to the work you want to do., say “Westchester Residential Design group”….?
You and your wife have a beautiful website with beautiful work. Yet, from my perusal, I cannot find anything that explains the Fivecat brand on the website.
I am wondering how it all ties in.
Edward,
A name is just a name. It is not your brand. A post on naming would be a great topic for another day, but… a unique name does allow one to build a powerful brand by following the rules I presented above and have a memorable identity to tie it all together.
What does Apple, the most powerful brand in the world, have to do with computers? Yet, when we hear the name, very specific thoughts and feelings are triggered in our minds. Those thoughts and feelings are the brand. The name Apple, is simply a name.
Fivecat is a name that people remember. It’s a name that lets prospects know that “we do things differently here.” And, in time, we hope to partner our firm with our foundation (which we have yet to launch) that will benefit homeless pets. A name is just a name. John Q. may very well have a more powerful brand than Fivecat, if John does a better job at executing the rules of branding.
The Fivecat name has lots of personal meaning, but at the end of the day, it is just what you stated it is… a cool name : ) The “Fivecat Brand” is built by following the rules the best we can (…and we are still working on many of them).
Thanks Edward for your thought provoking comment. I always appreciate your point of view.
Mark – I will have to ponder this further. I did re-read your original article a few times. When I read your article, I think it very much IS about building a brand with name brand recognition. However, I am now seeing that the naming/branding does not have to necessarily be ted to your firm mission, focus, philosophy, etc. – but be something unique that tells your story.
Good thoughts!
Mark:
Keep up the good work.
“A powerful brand begins as an empty container; a carrier of your reputation”
Totally agree.
cheers,
Sam
Thanks Sam
Mark,
Having retired from and sold my interest in a four person name firm over two years ago, I was confronted with the naming and ultimately the branding challenge. However, having worked for over 40 years an an architect and exhibit designer (in name firms) focused on the planning and design of museum buildings and exhibitions, I decided upon expressing what I do in the name of my new firm in which I am the sole principal. After much thought and some focus group testing, I opted not to use my surname and I decided upon studioMUSarx. Why? I wanted to convey the notion of a studio sized practice which can provide personalized service, and a MUSEUM focused practice offering architecture “ar” and exhibit “x” design. The proof has been in the acceptance by museums and non-museum clients who want “museum level” quality. Yes, some persons ask us to spell it after an initial pause in comprehension, but it gives us a chance to say that it’s short for a practice specializing in museum architecture and exhibits and they never ask a second time once they get the answer and our story sinks in.. They provide the reinforcement we’re hoping for. In any event, we still have a lot of work to do in building brand recognition.
We are now working on a new web site that will better convey the experience of working with us. Thank you for reminding us that a powerful brand is about building a memorable impression not only now but well into the future.
Keep thriving,
Joe