One of the many wonderful things about architecture firms and school planners is the high-design of many of our press releases, brochures, RFQ documents, client PowerPoints, and other “hey, look at what we can do!” media-darlings. Seems impossible to imagine a day when we wouldn’t all be invested in showcasing our firm’s ability, culture, and services in high-gloss ways, esp. in an effort to tell a great ’school design story.’

The question is, however, does it really matter? To the client, does all of this really end up making a difference?

According to Seth Godin (PR-god; author of the Purple Cow and other marketing gems), it doesn’t matter one tiny ounce…but read his words to learn for yourself:

A: The thing you must remember about just about every corporate or organizational brochure is this:
People won’t read it.

I didn’t say it wasn’t important. I just said it wasn’t going to get read.

People will consider its heft. They might glance at the photos. They will certainly notice the layout. And, if you’re lucky, they’ll read a few captions or testimonials.

At its best, a brochure is begging for someone to judge you. It says, “assume that because we could hire really good printers and photographers and designers and writers, we are talented [surgeons, real estate developers, whatever]” And more often than not, people do just that.

At its worst, a brochure solves a prospect’s problem (the problem of: what should I do about this opportunity?) by giving them an easy way to say “no.” “No,” she thinks, “I don’t need to talk with you… I’ve reviewed the brochure.”

So, the strategies of your brochure might be:

1. Overinvest in paper and design. Spend twice or even ten times more than you planned. If you can’t afford to do that, don’t have a brochure. Especially if your competition does.
2. Use less copy. Half as much.
3. Use testimonials. With photos. Short captions. It’s hard to have too many of the good ones.
4. Make it funny enough or interesting enough or, hey, remarkable enough that people will want to show it to their friends.
5. Show, don’t tell. Don’t say you have a tranquil setting… I won’t believe you.
6. And most important, make sure you leave several obvious things out… so that people need to talk to you.

So, is Seth right?

Should we worry one way or another about any of this? And at the end of the day, is it more important that we ’sell’ our fine talents or advocate for the ideas of our client communities?

Your thoughts?