by Bill Reed
Estate agents and designers love to hate each other. Every review of an agency branch in a design magazine has a preamble about the misdemeanours of its professional occupants, and designers in turn are viewed by agents as freespending eccentrics bent on fashion rather than function.
This mutual antipathy has until now continued relatively unchecked, because neither party had much need for the other: estate agents’ only competitors were other agents, and as all their branches were equally dismal no one suffered: designers, in any case, were fully occupied with the “retail revolution”.
Things have changed, however, and independent agents now compete with building societies, banks and insurance companies — rivals who have both the will and resources to make their branches more productive. Meanwhile, designers discovered — although were loath to admit it — that there are only so many ways of displaying a pair of shoes, and it is not necessarily in everyone’s interest for a shop to have a total refit every few years as a matter of course.
Estate agents now need designers to help them integrate branches into an overall marketing strategy to meet the new competition, just as designers need fresh pastures where there are genuine problems to be solved, not contrived stylistic ones.
My guess is that it will not be long before agents and designers forget their differences — which were largely based on ignorance anyway — and wonder why they did not get together before.
Background
The growth of financial services has been the catalyst leading to the recent restructuring of estate agency, but the repercussions are only just becoming visible on the High Street, principally in the form of revamped fascias with a common subscript.
The five largest agency groups are now owned by financial institutions, and they continue to consolidate their increasingly extensive national networks by eating up small independent groups where branches are seen more and more as outlets for financial services. As competition in this sector increases, commissions on agency work may well reduce to a level where it becomes a loss leader to achieve market penetration for mortgages, insurance and pensions.
The challenge
The lines of demarcation between estate agents, building societies and banks are becoming increasingly blurred, so that in certain areas they are competing against each other rather than only within their respective sectors.
Estate agents have traditionally managed to avoid very much strategic thought or commitment about how they presented themselves, and the cultivation of any corporate culture or identity in its true sense has been largely absent. Apart from a few recent exceptions, the underlying feature of branch design has been short-term pragmatism. The rigid segregation of services reinforced this approach: branches were uniformly dull and customers were just not aware of the possibilities. However, now that estate agents are no longer competing exclusively among themselves change is inevitable if they are to compete with the new-look banks and building societies. Furthermore, the chains owned by financial institutions have the resources to package their products and market themselves on a par with any successful multiple retailer. Agents should see this challenge as a unique opportunity to be embraced, not resisted.
The benefits
Design can never compensate for poor management, but it will give a well-run firm the winning edge over its competitors. The right combination of interiors and graphics can entice potential clients into the agency, and then their aspirations can be harnessed to add value to the properties for sale.
The reason why shops such as Next have been so successful is not because they have either the best product or the cheapest price, but because the merchandise is presented and sold in such a way that its perceived value is raised above its intrinsic worth. It is now quite common for agents to enhance prestige properties by describing them as an entree to an enviable lifestyle, not mere bricks and mortar. Very few agents, however, have taken the idea further and used their branches as an extension of their sales brochures that can apply to all property.
One of the benefits of good design is that it can be used to convey any message, not just to make things appear more expensive. At Andrews & Partners’ branch in Milton Keynes, one of my practice’s projects, the interior design said, among other things, “we have more properties than our competitors” and “we utilise high technology”. Design is the medium by which an agent’s profile and offer is initially conveyed to the customer, just as clothes give the first clues to a person’s character. In both cases unfulfilled promise leads to disappointment — worse than no promise at all.
Strategy
To reap the benefits that design can offer it has to be properly managed, and that requires continuous reference to a clearly defined strategy, which applies to every detail from business cards to fascias. This positioning statement will be evolved from a firm’s inherent strengths, weaknesses, geographical location and customers. it will identify an opportunity for growth and the means of achieving it, which is just as applicable to a small independent chain as to a national network. Branches should be encouraged to develop their own character by responding to the immediate surroundings and local population, but certain aspects such as corporate identity should be rigorously uniform.
Management
Before embarking on the design process, the agency must ensure that it has established the framework within which it will succeed. Someone of suitable seniority should be appointed “design manager” and be given the necessary authority to enforce the agreed strategy. In large firms the design manager will probably be a director of the company; agents with only a few branches are probably better off appointing an outside consultant with a wide brief. Graphics are crucial, and all printed matter must be centrally vetted prior to being ordered, and no detail is too small to be overlooked. It is particularly vital that design management is a continuous process that evolves, not one that stops when a branch is opened or the novelty of a design wears off.
The process
Most people do not know what to expect when they approach a design consultancy. Many are unaware of the distinction between designers and interior decorators, and are consequently taken aback when they are initially presented with a management appraisal rather than with mere colour palettes. But this is not really surprising if one considers that the usual motive for calling in a designer in the first place is increased profits, not pretty decor.
The first thing a designer will want to do is to learn about the client company, the market within which it operates, and the relationship between the two. This often involves interviewing staff and inviting constructive criticism — so incompetent management should certainly think twice before hiring a good consultancy: the design process is often a catalyst for fundamental change as staff are encouraged to consider their company more objectively. Far from papering over cracks, it makes them more visible so that corrective action can be taken before it is too late.
When the familiarisation period is over the design consultancy will present an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the agency, identify opportunities for growth, and recommend a strategy for achieving it. Whereupon — if the whole process is going well — the client is fired with enthusiasm and asks the designer to proceed with the design.
Up to this point the designer’s work has been a logical progression of steps, and ones that could just as easily have been taken by management or marketing consultants. A rigorously applied procedure can define the problem and implement the solution, but unfortunately it cannot solve the problem. This requires intuition, based on experience, knowledge and talent. The designer has to consider, among other things: the target customers and their aspirations; the client’s corporate character and broad functional requirements; the cost and speed of shopfitting; and the limitations of the branches themselves and what local authorities will allow to be done with them. A good designer is really crucial at this stage, particularly as it is not always easy to envisage whether an idea is likely to be successful or not. Sometimes it takes the client company a while to grow into a new scheme, and sometimes inexperienced designers just produce the wrong solution. Market research will not necessarily identify winners and losers either — in the end clients must rely on their gut feeling and faith in their designers, based on previous performance. The worst that can happen to an idea is for it to be watered down with compromise and lack of commitment. Client committees without a leading light are also usually fatal.
The detailed design stage adapts and refines the concept, but keeps its essence intact. The designer works closely with negotiators to learn how they operate in the smallest detail, from the potential vendor walking through the door to the completion of the sale of their property. The detailed design can make the negotiator’s life easier in real, tangible terms, just as the design idea can boost his commission in more esoteric ways. A good design firm can produce tailor-made furniture and fittings for no more than the off-the-peg equivalent, and agencies should take advantage of this.
The final phase of the process consists of implementing the scheme, and being on site involves much the same expenditure and angst whichever way the design had been evolved. The difference is that experience enables potential problems to be anticipated and dealt with before they interrupt the critical path.
Conclusion
It is very common for clients to overestimate the capital cost of implementing a design strategy and to underestimate the amount of management input it requires. Printing a well-designed brochure usually costs the same as printing a poor one: the difference is in the single-minded perseverance required to achieve consistently high quality, and exactly the same is true for the branches themselves.
If staff are trained to understand and appreciate the agreed design strategy, and the fact that it exists to complement their talent and motivation rather than restrict it, they will see it make a tangible contribution to their own commission as well as the agency as a whole. Commitment not capital, produces the best dividends from design.