1. Marketing architects is a fairly recent discipline. What makes marketing architecture firms challenging?

In architecture, marketing has been one of the easiest tasks in the previous years, but it has evolved rapidly due to increased competition, the presence of social media, and branding. Marketing here requires a lot of good communication and critical thinking to streamline the process. However, this progression has experienced several barriers and challenges in architecture which makes it far from being optimized. The first barrier is transitional change whereby the industry has experienced the revolution in the technology sector resulting in changes in the market. Marketing in a highly digitized and requires a lot of skills and resources that small firms may not afford. Poor communication between the architects and their customers makes it difficult to market their products. When architects develop products that fail to meet the expectations of their customers, it becomes a challenge to trade them in the market. They must, therefore, invest in high technology to create products that satisfy the customers. Another problem is the inadequate budget which makes it difficult to penetrate the market. Marketing requires the availability of resources to reach out to a large number of customers. Thus, when the budget is limited, small firms struggle to promote themselves.

2. When deciding “Go/No-Go?” what issues do firms consider when deciding about pursuing a project?

Before settling on undertaking a project, business firms examine several factors which may result in a go or no-go decision by the management. The first factor is the available knowledge and expertise regarding the project to be undertaken. In case the knowledge available is not adequate and the business owner feels strained in managing the project, the decision is likely to be a no-go. In this regard, the project should not strain the limited available resources. The other aspect is the open market and the level of demand. The business first explores the organization to establish the need for the products from the project. If the application is high, the company may decide to undertake it. However, if the project is producing commodities for the firm to sell, the market and the customers have to be identified. Another factor that affects the decision-making process is the total costs of the project. This is an important process to consider before starting a project. The management assesses the available resources and the total amount required to run the project. It also identifies whether the startup costs are within the firm’s capabilities. A favorable decision is made if the project is proved not too expensive for the firm.

3. Which of the following should firms emphasize in an interview? What they’ve done in the past or what they will do for this potential client? Please explain.

During interviews with potential clients, firms must ensure that they list their previous experiences which they currently use to plan for the future of their projects. It is a long and complicated process for the firms, which have significant history and have managed several projects before. For small firms with less number of previous projects, the process is short and straightforward. Clients may be interested in how successful the business has been before in the same sector. This will determine whether they will invest or not. It is also important to present to them the firm’s plan for the future, which includes details of how and where the business intends to invest. Business clients are always attracted to ideas that will prove to be profitable since they are in the industry to prosper and make profits. Organizations have to create databases in which they store information on each project and can easily be accessed by the client when needed. A file system is the simplest method for organizations without a primary data to store. Therefore, during interviews with the clients, the management has to put more emphasis on talking about previous projects.