Advent Blog
xmt-003: Experiential Office Space
by Todd Austin
[This is a transcript of the free audio program, Experiential Marketing Today. The audio version of this content is available at: Episode 003: Experiential Office Space]
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Announcer: Welcome to Experiential Marketing Today.
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John Roberson: Welcome to this episode of Experiential Marketing Today.
This show is about the theory and practice of using experiences to engage audiences with the authentic nature of brand or company. We believe that it may be the most powerful tool markets have, but it’s also something of a mystery.
My name is John Roberson and I’ll be your host for this episode.
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John: Episode three, “Experiential office space, the first frontier.”
In this episode we’ll talk about how strong companies are effectively using their office space to create a strong and lasting first impression for their brand.
In today’s competitive market successful companies are realizing that you have one chance to make a strong first impression and they’re not going to leave the impression of their brand to chance.
Successful companies are thoughtfully considering using their office space to create a brand connection, one that is relevant, one that’s interactive, one that’s personal, and one that creates a lasting memorable encounter between their audience and their brand.
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John: We’re joined by Todd Austin. Now Todd, we’re going to talk about something that’s going to make the audience maybe question whether or not it should be on the experiential marketing map.
Todd Austin: OK.
John: We’re going to talk about office spaces. How are office spaces a part of experiential marketing?
Todd: Well I admit that offices spaces don’t seem very exciting when you just look at all the things out there that people do in what they call experiential marketing. But when you think about it, we spend so much time and effort on marketing out there away from us, it only makes sense to think about, “Well, what happens when someone comes to see us?” That’s a critical time.
When someone comes into our space some experience is going to happen. Just because we’re not managing it doesn’t mean it’s not an experience. It’s better if we take control of that experience and not leave it on autopilot.
John: It’s very interesting. I’m also reminded that in a day and age where the folks who would be visiting our office are so over-stimulated by all of the flood of email marketing, web-based marketing, television, Internet, satellite radio, and all of those things that are coming at them and vying for their attention, it seems as though when we finally persuade them to visit our facility we’d like to control that experience like you’re saying. We’d like to create a cocoon, if you will, so that what we would like to express to them comes through.
Todd: So maybe it helps here if we talked a little about what happens when you leave that experience on autopilot.
John: Great! Let’s do that.
John: Well, there’s some really noteworthy stereotypes of what bad offices are like. There’s the stock or standard issue beige office. You know, it’s that newly leased office space and you just kind of throw in some furniture from the office yard. And it’s just stock. It’s really beige. The overwhelming message is: beige.
Todd: It’s, “I’m the same as the guy next door.”
John: Exactly.
Todd: And the guy next door might be a well drilling company.
John: That’s right.
Todd: But I look the same as he does.
John: That’s right. And you just happened to select the wrong door to come in, you know?
[laughter]
John: In the strip mall, you selected the wrong door.
And then there’s the dentist office. And who of us haven’t been to a stereotypical dentist office where there are old magazines? There’s this cutesy decor and it really has no relation to the brand whatsoever.
Todd: So we’re not talking specifically just about dentist’s offices here. We’re talking about the idea of my space could be the same as a dentist office.
John: That’s right. Anyone could have out-of-date magazines.
There’s also the ‘50s office. We’ve seen this a lot as we’ve dealt with clients: dark paneling, cubical style metal reception desk, florescent fixtures. You know that plant that no one ever threw away? It just keeps growing and growing and growing and they paper clip it here and paper clip it there and it’s like the plant that ate New York.
Todd: And those florescent fixtures have to be buzzing in this scenario.
John: They’re buzzing or flickering a little bit and everybody looks a little bit green.
[laughter]
John: Then there’s the sterile office. It’s clean, it’s modern, but it’s cold and it’s aloof. And it’s like it’s in outer space and no one really is comfortable sitting down. You can’t tell if it’s a coffee table or is that a bench?
Todd: I sometimes think of that as a museum office.
John: Exactly.
Todd: Look, but don’t touch.
John: Exactly. And then there’s the law office. And we heard this recently in a client conversation. They said they recently visited their attorney’s office and they were reminded that they must be overpaying their attorney because the office was so opulent that it communicated excess, money, and lavishness. And obviously that must translate into excess fees.
Todd: It’s sad that that’s the first impression you get. But I’m the same way. I see all that dark wood and I just think money.
John: That’s right.
Todd: And I’m sure that’s not the impression they want me to get.
John: OK. So we’ve talked about these stereotypical bad experiences where the office space is either on autopilot or we pull almost a costume from these stereotypical casts of bad offices.
But Todd, talk about some good experiences where the overall impression of the person who makes contact with the space is not left to chance.
Todd: Well one of the first things that comes to mind, always when you think of this, is the job that Apple has done with its Apple stores. Now that’s a retail example but it’s one that most of the audience can probably connect with.
Everything about the environment of those stores when you walk in is on message for the Apple brand.
John: It’s on message, but it’s also very interactive. It’s very light overall. It’s very hands-on, “Our technology is approachable.”
And isn’t it interesting that unlike the office warehouse store, each piece of technology has space between it? It’s almost as though the space has to be shown in order to elevate the high design that’s there with Apple.
Todd: You’re right. They’re not cramming every square inch full of something.
John: It is more like a museum or gallery in the way that it’s spaced out but much more approachable, friendly, and hands-on than the typical big box office warehouse store.
Todd: Right. The other example that comes to mind is not a business example but it’s the impression you get when you walk into a couple of different types of homes.
The first would be the home where everything is so carefully placed and looks so expensive that you’re just uncomfortable the whole time you’re there. You’re afraid to touch anything.
John: Right.
Todd: And the opposite of that would be the place where you walk in and you immediately feel welcomed, you feel like you can interact with things, you can pick them up and ask questions about, “Well, who’s this?” It just draws you in to that family.
John: And there’s a purpose to that arrangement. It’s not haphazard. There’s a purpose to it but it’s almost as though the overall design elements create comfort for us. They create hospitality and welcome for us.
Todd: Right. And they tell the story of that family.
John: That’s right.
Todd: Let’s talk for a few minutes about some clues that you may need to consider this for your business.
John: Well, as we have worked with clients now over a number of years to help them bring their brand into their permanent environment we’ve noticed that a litmus test arises, these five questions that we ask if you are a good candidate for a brand environment or a branded environment.
So these five questions are: number one, “Do customers and prospects visit you in person?” That’s a very important test. If they visit you in person typically what that suggests is there’s a level of do-diligence there that’s where they’re checking you out. They’re validating their desire to do business with you. But a site visit is part of that selling process as a part of that buying process. So that’s question number one.
Todd: OK.
John: Question number two is, “Do you need to make your mission vision and values clear to the people who visit?” The reason we say this is because at the heart of effective brand marketing is the concept of differentiation. And at the heart of experiential marketing is the concept of making the authentic nature of the brand come to life in ways that are interactive, that are perceptive, and are relevant to the audience.
And so if you need to communicate who you are, what you do, and how you do things differently, then that makes you a good candidate for a brand environment. That’s another question that you might ask is, “Do you need to make that mission vision of values clear to the people who visit?”
Todd: And then our experience, this one is especially important to not-for-profit companies who often have volunteer staff, who have donors coming in; they have media company in, people they want to influence about the cause they’re working on. They need their space to tell that story as well.
John: That’s right. And you know, as we talked about in the introduction, we don’t want to leave this exercise to chance. It’s not on autopilot and there’s very much a purpose about it.
We often hear the phrase that you’re audience or your customer’s perception is your reality. Well, here’s a good example of that. If you’re trying to clearly convey a mission, a vision, or a set of values then you can’t leave that to perception. You have to be purposeful in the way you communicate that.
The third thing that we see and we’ve seen a number of projects that we’ve done with clients where this is the case, is that “Do you need your employees to be ambassadors of your brand?” You can see why that’s so important.
Todd: Yes, that language is very interesting. And I think sometime in the future we’ll talk about brand ambassadors as a separate episode.
Our employees are the front line of our interactions with our customers and prospects. They have to represent the company and the company’s values and missions. So they have to understand it and buy into it.
John: And so what’s happening is the brand environment is bringing the story around them. It’s wrapping the words, the message, the script of the story around the people who are touching it everyday. And so it becomes second nature for them that they can reinforce that brand to the folks who are coming and visiting that facility.
Question number four, “Are you growing rapidly?”
And we see this being so important because often it’s rapid growing companies that need to be number one on their A-game. And number two, they just constantly are selling.
They’re selling to prospective customers, they’re trying to recruit top talent with employees, they’re selling to banks. They need expanded lines of credit or emceeing capitol or they need a round of funding from some sort of venture capitol firm. They’re constantly selling these rapidly growing companies. And so they’re often very good candidates for a brand environment.
Todd: And when you’re growing that fast you often have difficulty keeping everybody on the same page that you’ve hired. You’re bringing in people so quickly that you can tell them what your company’s about, but then you’re off to the next thing and they’re trying to catch up.
John: That’s right. And when you’re growing that rapidly that brief interaction where someone is paused in the lobby area, you want them to use that free time not to read an out-of-date copy of Men’s Health Magazine or Sports Illustrated, rather, you want them to spend that time hearing your story.
Todd: Right.
John: Seeing your story come to life.
And the fifth question is, “Are you trying to sell your business or rise around a financing back to the capitol investment?” Are you in a zone where rather than selling to customers you’re really selling to investors?
And if that’s the case they need to clearly know you’re in control of your story and the way you present your brand to the outside audience.
Todd: All right.
John: So Todd, we talked about these five signs or five questions that you might ask yourself if you’re a good candidate for a brand environment.
Now the question becomes, “How?” How do we go about implementing this? And how do we think about creating this brand environment, this story? What do you think are those elements that we consider?
Todd: Well, it’s easy at this stage to jump to the end and start thinking of all the things I can do in my space. But I think we would strongly encourage people to harken back to the last episode which was about trade show planning and apply some of those lessons here as well.
And that’s first, think about what you’re trying to do. The very first thing I would do would be to think about: who is it that’s coming into my facility that I want to influence?
The very first thing that comes to mind of course is prospects or customers. And we’ve made the case for why you want to influence them but we sometimes forget that we have other people visiting us.
You mentioned investors. That’s a group that we do care about. But there may also be community influencers. We may host charity meetings in our office in a boardroom and have people coming in that are business leaders from all over the community. We need to think about how our business looks to them. How we communicate what we do to them.
And then of course, the fourth audience which we need to consider is our own employees, our own people.
John: OK. So we have this understanding now of to whom or with whom we want to communicate, what’s next?
Todd: The natural next step is, “What are my objectives for each group?” If I care about influencing prospects and customers what do I want to influence them to do? What is the outcome? What action do I want them to take?
We often ask a question when we approach this with a customer. And that is, “What conversations do you want your space to start?”
John: That’s really interesting. I once heard a sales trainer who said that when you introduce yourself at a cocktail party you say, “This is what we do. We do experiential marketing.” What you want the audience to say is, “Wow! How?”
Todd: Right.
John: And so what I hear you saying is what we want is that audience who’s interacting with us, we want to think about what those questions are. We want them to ask in reaction to this encounter. We want them to say, “Wow! How do you do this?” Or, “Tell me more about your commitment to sustainability or your commitment to giving back to the community.”
Todd: Or even, “Wow! I didn’t realize you guys did that.”
John: Exactly. You have an add-on sale that expands the relationship, very interesting.
OK, so we have the audience. We think about what these communication objectives are for each group. Now what, pragmatically, where do we go next?
Todd: Well now we take our brand catalog, our brand guide, and look at the colors that we work from on our brand. We look at the messages that we promote in our marketing pieces. We look at all those elements that make up how we communicate, what we do, and how we do it differently. And we match that up against the messaging elements that we have available for our space.
So we may want to have a wall that’s focused on customer success stories. So naturally we think of pictures of customers and stories about what they do. We may have messaging elements that are just a listing of our service offerings. It just depends on our business.
John: I think it’s an important insert here Todd, is we’re not taking just the brochure and overlaying it onto the space. That would look like Disney World or a carnival.
Todd: Right.
John: It would be too color saturated. This is space where people are being productive, they’re interacting, they’re coming to work everyday. So we do have to think about what range of colors are appropriate for an office environment that are derived from the portfolio of brand colors. So that’s really important.
The other thing is: you just can’t take that brochure and snap it on a space. It doesn’t fit. There are things like time-lines, histories, and customer testimonials as you were describing, that need to be brought to life. Because this is three dimensional, it’s multi-sensory.
And so we’ve got to find a way to let someone interact with this. Because that’s, as we said in the first episode, that’s what experiential marketing is all about. There’s this personal interaction involvement.
Todd: That’s right. Putting our brochure up on the wall is just as inappropriate as taking our TV commercial and playing in a loop over and over again.
John: Exactly.
Todd: It’s just going to be annoying. It’s not going to work.
John: That’s right.
So to summarize, we want to think about who’s visiting this space. We want to think about what we’re trying to communicate to them. We want to think about what is our brand portfolio? What is the brand context? What’s the brand messaging that we want to infuse into the space? And then we want to implement it. We want to actually do it and have an action plan for doing it that doesn’t string on forever but actually can be done succinctly so that the business of work continues.
Todd: Exactly. We’ll spend a few minutes talking about some examples because examples always bring this to life.
John: Well, one that comes to mind is one of the first engagements that we were involved in with a client. It’s a client who’s in the private label publishing business.
We actually were called because one of their big accounts was coming to visit there facility and they were having a bake off. Now you’re familiar with that term, “bake off”?
Todd: Yes, some people call that a beauty pageant.
John: That’s right. The ad agency and design terms, it’s where the business is being bit off against a definitive competitor.
So they were the incumbent. They had this account but they were at risk of losing it.
Todd: Right.
John: Interestingly, the officials from this customer had never visited their facility. There was a new management team involved and they had never visited this facility. So making an impression was really important.
In this world of technology they had looked up and seen the space of their competitor and they knew their competitor was a little bit sharper than they were. It was going to present a strong message and impact.
So in collaboration with the client we went through a series and a tool that we call a discovery tool. We tried to extract from that client the essence of their brand. And because they were in the private label publishing business, we came up with this key positioning phrase that they had not had before that simply said, “Your story starts here.”
And I think our audience can see in some of the show notes from this episode some of the visuals that go with that. But as you approached the glass interior corridor that opened from the common office space into this particular company’s offices, you saw the brand logo come to life. You saw these color blocked walls that approached you in different strong but unifying colors that were derived from the brand color palate. And you saw this clear positioning statement that said, “Your story starts here.”
And then because they design magazine layouts as a part of this private label publishing business that they did, there was a photo montage that was just to the right of the logo in this lobby. The images that were selected where actually protruding from the wall at various depths so the montage was actually, without it moving, it showed movement just in the texture and the topography, the different depths of this montage.
Todd: That’s hard to picture but we’ll make sure we put a photo of that in the notes.
John: That’s right, and so there’s these images that are there in this three dimensional montage.
And then we looked at even details because they’re in the publishing business and publishing has long been a part of design. There are folks who are listening to this episode who’ll know what Printer’s Greek is. It’s that block of type that often design specialists use just to fill up a space when they’re thinking about different layouts and concepts.
And we actually wrapped Printer’s Greek around the reception counter in a customer wall covering. Immediately when you walked in you saw this Printer’s Greek that was watermarked in the reception counter that spoke of layout and design. You saw the company’s logo, you heard this key positioning statement that actually was there on the wall, in type on the wall and it said, “Your story starts here.” And then you saw these different layouts from magazine spreads that they’ve done that were jutting out at you and protruding to you right in that lobby.
And so clearly in the lobby you got this very clear understanding of their business.
Todd: And what was the outcome?
John: Well the outcome was that they actually won, re-won that business. They won that account and secured that business for another multi-year contract and we were delighted to do that.
The other thing that was kind of interesting about that project is we had to do it on a very short time frame. We had to do it in a few weeks, totally transform the space within a few weeks.
Todd: So clearly a lot of the things you do when you remake your space thinking experiential marketing, you don’t have to move walls necessarily. You don’t have to call an architect necessarily. There are many things that you can do and get them done quickly and really make your space work for you.
John: It’s very important that we point that out to our audience because often architects are too big a tool for these kinds of projects. They often are very concerned with the structure and the bones of the space, whereas business people tend to be concerned about the communication objectives.
And interior designers who are very competent at selecting colors and furnishings that will compliment the space often don’t contemplate what that messaging is going to be. They don’t think about what the brand positioning is and what the imagery of the brand is in making this a full life experience. However, they might collaborate on the team.
Todd: Right.
John: – Be a part of the overall project.
Todd: Did you have a second example in mind?
John: A second example that I had is client of ours who is in the technology business. This was very intriguing to us that they sought us out because they wanted to make their space very compelling. But their number one audience was actually their employees.
Todd: So they weren’t worried at all about customers walking in?
John: As we visited with them we found that very few customers visited their space. And so this total makeover of this space into a branded environment was really about them having a compelling space for them the recruit top technology talent which as you know, is very hard to do.
Todd: Right.
John: And retain people by putting out their platform of being very proud of their space, of an environment that communicated the value that they provided for their customers. So that these ambassadors, these technology specialists who go out in the field and work on the networks and technology that their customers have in their offices, these ambassadors could go out and speak to the full gamut of services, the four or five service offerings that were a part of their product and service mix.
And so they could be a very effective salesperson because as you know, technology professionals as a rule aren’t great salespeople.
Todd: Right.
John: But by reminding them of the service offering and reminding them of the things that made them different and were competitive advantages for them in their surroundings, they were empowering their people to go and be successful on their behalf.
Todd: So then when conversations came up and they were searching for the words they will have already suggested those words to them?
John: That’s right. And just to underscore how important this is, we did a project many years ago for a particular firm and later, if you recall, we interviewed one of their employees.
And we asked this young lady what made a great employee. She said, “Five points.” And ironically we knew those five points where the five core values of this firm.
Why? Because we had put those core values on wall coverings and wall hangings that were in the environment of this office.
And so we could tell them as quickly as she could. And she was espousing these as great attributes of a great employee when we knew that they were the core values of ABC Company.
Todd: So clearly the message had an impact with her?
John: It obviously did. Her retention of it was very clear.
Todd: How do we want to wrap this up John?
John: Well, I think we want to tell people obviously this is a very visual subject matter. And we’re going to have links in the show notes in with this episode where people can see more about some of the projects we’ve gotten to collaborate with clients on. Maybe see some of the “before and afters” that transform the space.
But I think what we want to do is if we can put ourselves in a position of lobbying the audience, we want to lobby them, then a really important place for experiential marketing to be is in their own lobby.
Todd: Experiential marketing can happen anywhere you come into face to face contact with your customers.
John: That’s right. And you just don’t want to leave that on autopilot. You want to be purposeful and intentional about it and create an authentic encounter with your brand.
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John: That wraps up this episode. We hope that you found some best practices that will improve your own experiential marketing.
You can find links to any of the resources mentioned in this episode in the show notes on our website. Specifically you’ll find links to the photos of the case studies we described in this episode in showing how we took spaces from before to branded environments.
You’ll also find the link to the full transcript of this program. All of these resources can be found at our website: www.ExperientialMarketingToday.com.
If you’ve got questions or comments regarding some of the things we’ve discussed you can sent those to us using the email address feedback@experientialmarketingtoday.com. Or you can post comments on the website.
You can also record a voice message using our comment line. To do that, call 615−742−3355 and follow the instructions.
We hope you’ll join us for the next episode. We’ll see you soon.
Announcer: Thanks for listening to Experiential Marketing Today.
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July 9th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
[…] Full transcript of episode three […]