How Do Specifiers Feel?

Oh come on! Building and Construction and touchy feely emotions don’t mix. Do they?

It may not seem important. But human beings are emotional. Even the professionals and executives. And they always buy or, in our case, specify for two groups of reasons.

First and most obviously there are the logical reasons. The reasons they give to the boss and the client. You know, stuff like…

“This light will save you 52% on your overall energy bill and reduce carbon emissions by…”.

Value for money, durability, safety, return on investment, ease of use. That’s all logical stuff. But all that logic hides the real reason anyone buys anything. Even when it comes to specifying a particular light fitting in a building design.

Our emotions are what drive our logic. Even the most hardened and seemingly unaffected still purchase, or make any decision based on some sort of emotional concern. The big surly bloke at the bar buys a beer because he has so much emotion he doesn’t want to face it. The cold spinster who manages the database in your office buys lipstick. Guess why?

So what’s the motivating emotion behind building specifiers?

It’s never too hard a question to answer. All you need to do is take a look at the outside behavior and figure out what it might cover up. After all the only reason you would do anything is to fill some perceived lack. You drink a glass of water because you have a perceived lack of moisture. You buy a new car because somehow the old one just isn’t enough.

Building designers become building designers for a reason. What is that reason(s)?

Perhaps another way to ask is – What does being a building designer provide that no other job in the world can? I mean after all, they wouldn’t have put themselves through 4 years of university study and all the rest of the sacrifice if they weren’t interested in what being a building designer could provide them. Instead they’d be getting by in a cafe or casually working the end of a shovel.

Find the answers to those questions and you’re well on your way to understanding who you are advertising to. And understanding the emotions which drive their entire existence. Every decision they make in their professional lives and most of the ones they make for their personal lives.

And once you know that, you can start to create promotions that drive deep into their psyche and engage them in a way no other building industry manufacturer is today.

Hint: It’s tied intrinsically to why sustainability is becoming such a big issue today.

Yours for a Greener tomorrow,

Scott
The Unlikely Ad Man