Barbara Houton and Carrie Hawley, Senior Principals of marketing at HLB Lighting Design—a major lighting design office in the U.S. with seven offices nationwide—introduced marketing strategies for lighting design offices.

With seven dedicated employees for marketing, HLB’s business includes the creation of various marketing contents. Marketing at HLB can be summarized by three keywords: Enlighten, Engage, and Educate.
“Enlighten” involves the brand, website, name cards, pamphlets, and social media. HLB has changed its logo five times, and the latest one is an icon shaped to accommodate social media. Houton said that logos should always be handled in a consistent manner regardless of the type of media. It is important for name cards to have “impressive designs.” HLB recommends that templates be prepared for paper media, such as pamphlets, enabling efficient updates. Likewise, websites should be set so they can be easily updated. Deliberation of the balance between textual information and image information is also required. In particular, utilization of a lot of image information, including videos, is becoming mainstream lately. Regular updates to social media are essential to constantly provide information for the proper target.

 “Engage” has three phases: plan, strategy, and deliver. In the planning phase, market research surveys and examinations of geographical advantages and projected sales are conducted to collect information in advance. In the strategy phase, SWAT analysis, trend analysis, and due diligence are carried out. In the delivery phase, marketing campaigns are conducted on various media. When a campaign has certain target companies, the target companies are typically narrowed down to ~25, and optimized contents for the target are prepared.

 “Educate” means participating in industry groups and other various communities and expanding the social network. Regardless of careers and titles, social exchanges at any level, from employees with no title to executives, are recommended for this type of activity. Creating contact points on multiple levels through such activities will maintain strong overall relationships, even when a contact point fails. This is called the Zipper Effect, and it is vital to start building networks when you are young, they said.

At the conclusion, they pointed out the importance of recognizing that “marketing has a beginning and middle, but never ends.”
【Date & Time】10:00‒11:00, March 7, 2019
【Venue】Room 101, 1F, Conference Tower, Tokyo Big Sight
【Speaker】Barbara Houton, Sr. Principal, HLB Lighting Design
Carrie Hawley, Senior Principal and founder, HLB Lighting Design’s Boston Office
【Organizers】IALD Japan, JLMA, Nikkei Inc.