Читать книгу Professional Practice for Interior Designers - Christine M. Piotrowski - Страница 23

You will read in the chapters concerning marketing, strategies and methods that the business must utilize to attract new business. Your boss will spend a great deal of time cultivating business and projects for the firm. Certainly some client opportunities walk in the door because of a referral or something the client saw on the Internet or in a magazine. Those are part of the strategies and methods that the owner must use to cultivate clients.

Design firms work very hard to create an image that they hope will appeal to potential clients. That image is commonly referred to as the company's brand. A design firm's brand is the combination of images and encounters that the customer perceives, accepts, and experiences with a company providing services and (depending on the company) selling products. You and your work express that brand to clients.

Clients have an impression of what it is like to work with an interior designer. That impression has been fostered by what clients see in the media, movies, and previous experiences with designers or others in the design–build industry. For many, the reality of working with you or others in the studio will be different from what their reference impression is. That is why your boss, your professors, and this textbook stress the importance of professionalism. The more professional you are in your interactions with clients, coworkers, vendors, and others who come in contact with the firm, the stronger the firm's brand will grow.