Yesterday, I observed how leaving the safe zone (from traditional perspectives) can help you score a potential marketing home run. With a few minutes to spare, I decided to wander over and listen to one of the speakers giving a presentation at the side of the show floor at the Construction Specifications Canada Toronto Chapter No Frills Trade Show.
Usually, these presentations are boring, product or service-specific promotional exercises; usually following scripts and not terribly well executed. Show organizers give these spots to exhibitors as part of the pay off for purchasing booth space.
However, John Hackett, an architct and vice-president, practice risk manager at Pro-Demnity Insurance Company, had an entirely different (and disturbing or refreshing message, depending on your point of view.)
He spent a half hour taking pot shots at the LEED certification program, the process of earning points through the organized program to encourage Green building construction. He cited flaws in design, construction, and misappropriated resources, where buildings are not functional, don’t really contribute to the environment and create havoc for professional liability insurance companies such as his.
My jaws almost dropped. I hadn’t come prepared for a real news story, so scribbled my notes on the back of a magazine I had grabbed from another exhibitors’ table and used my cellular phone to catch visual notes from the overhead. I also made sure after the presentation to get his business card and co-ordinate a full-scale interview for a proper story in our upcoming publications.
After the presentation and on the train ride back to Ottawa, some highly respected, experienced and well-connected construction specifiers told me in confidence they agreed entirely with Hackett’s perspective. They also asked that I not attribute or quote them in any way. This stuff is too hot to handle for most of us, it seems.
Of course the vice-president of the company which handles, effectively, malpractice claims for Ontario’s architects, has a unique perspective of the industry, its practices and its regulations. He also sees the problems: Claims which his company doesn’t need to pay because they don’t fit within the policy limits, but remain sensitive because the building owner and/or user is dissatisfied with the results. He cited concrete examples, and credible U.S. research, to suggest the problems he sees are not minor, and are not going away.
One of the specifiers told me he had heard that “LEED won’t last another 10 years.” I don’t know if that is true, but I know there is a story here.
A few minutes later, excited by the refreshing insights, I rushed over to listen to another trade show presentation, hoping for more of the same. Well, I got “more of the same,” the standard, ill-prepared and boring stuff intended to hype and market the presenter’s service. I exited, stage left (actually, there was a door to the hall outside the trade show floor. I used it.)
Of course, it is hard and sometimes dangerous to go out on a limb and speak against commonly-held assumptions. You need to be prepared for a backlash and if your clients have invested in the traditional approach and you are disputing it, you may not win many friends.
However, if you sincerely believe in something and it meshes with your real business objectives, contrary thinking can sometimes be a brilliant approach to marketing. Maybe most architects, consultants and contractors have nothing to gain and much to lose by speaking out against LEED and the environmental rating/consulting industry it has encouraged. However, we aren’t employees of malpractice insurance companies, are we?