Marketing importance and marketing performance measurement of architecture firms in Singapore: an exploratory study

While marketing is a known element of successful practice, architects are yet to be convinced of its full potential. Little was known about the marketing practice in architectural firms in Singapore. Attempts were made to determine the realities of formalized marketing approaches and their importance to architectural firms in Singapore through a questionnaire survey (where 95 architectural firms participated) and follow-up interviews. A total of 34 usable responses were collected. This was investigated using the ‘Architecture Business Development Process’ as a framework, which found evidence to suggest that marketing has been recognized as an important component of architectural practice in Singapore. The results show that the adoption of the ‘marketing concept’ in the architecture profession is still in its formative stages. Architectural firms – and small and medium ones in particular – need to fully capitalize on this area of business knowledge in order to influence, command and understand the market for them to remain financially viable as a practice. Despite little attention being paid to measuring the performance of marketing outcomes, almost all the respondents and interviewees acknowledged its increasing importance. With greater corporate governance, these firms are beginning to realize the significance of marketing, and are evaluating their practices to ride the market for success. This move indicates a positive step in bridging the disparities between architecture practice and design.