Is advertising for LA’s still considered unethical?

[Alan Ray, RLA]

Henry, good idea…I do perfer the high end residential market….I enjoy designing outdoor living spaces for individuals…

I got burned out on the “deadline/budget” noe one cares about the design will it be in budget and on time?????

Have you seen such an ad for LA’s in these mags?

There are a few such pubs here, maybe the publisher needs a plan.

[Alan Ray, RLA]

Thanks Andrew….I’m seriously considering it.

There is sooo much high dollar work being done by amatuers and I’d like the public to know they have better choices. i.e., me

[mauiBob]

Okay, so decades ago some pencil pusher decides it was “unethical” to advertise any A & E firms to tv and radio? Who made this guy king? Honestly, if I had my own shop, I would advertise locally on radio and maybe a one or two spot tv commercial. It would be much more entertaining than any local pizza shop commercial. I don’t give a hoot what ASLA thinks, lawyers and doctors do it all the time. Call it thinking outside the box. ASLA going to take me to court?! Please do.

[Alan Ray, RLA]

Yeah, I’m beginning to think that too…plus I haven’t felt ASLA’s relevence in decades….if even then. I was under the  false impression  that they were there to help educate the public about what we do….how’s that worked out? They have difficulty telling Us what we do….

 

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

I just broke out regional, one of several, lifestyle type magazine for my area – Cape Cod. I see architects, interior designes, and even a civil/survey ad in it. It was a winter edition with no landscape related articles ( just a really nice shot of a fine rock garden of mine unrelated to the article),so no LA adds in this issue.

Sure does not look like anyone is worried about it. 

 

Also, if you have an interesting built project, these magazines need articles so you might want to call their attention to it – even if the bigger story is the house and you can just ride in there as an accessory to it. We got into one at a previous firm as an accessory and the next year they did a story on a landscape that we had done as the main story.

 

This is a link to the builder’s website that has that first article:

http://www.timberpeg.com/files/shared/pdf%20files/cape_20cod.pdf

[Heather Smith]

Great advertising ideas! Especially as some of our landscapes mature…Jon worked at one house last summer that will be very cool probably next summer.

I just made up a post card that I sent to a local business that was specific to them, an image of their building with an improved photo shopped entrance-haven’t heard anything but Lord they need to invest. I can tell they are trying to save money on the outside after a huge investment in the building itself and the interior is amazing(Orthodontics office)…but there are people that think it is abandoned during certain times of the week. They have irrigation lines, weeds and horrid little shrubs plunk, plunk, plunked…and when I walked by yesterday I saw who was probably someones middle school son mowing the back area. He had done a few strips the day before, did a few strips again and then left the rest.

Sorry for the rant…I definitely think you can pinpoint some potential clients out. haha.

[Jon Quackenbush]

My firm has a regular daily ad that runs on NPR.  I hear it twice a day while at work… we are an Engineering, LA, Land Planning firm.

[Jon Quackenbush]

I’d go with a billboard.  Just big bold letters:

“IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT DOES”
You Must be an Idiot.
[Name of firm here]

Simple.  Tasteful.

(ಠ_ಠ)

[Jason T. Radice]

You have to get your name known, and that you are in business. People ain’t gonna call you if they don’t know you are there. There is no reason why you should not advertise, just be careful to target to your audience and not overdo it.

 

You would only look small time if your ad MAKES you look small time. Its best not to be flashy and verbose. A simple, clean ad, maybe with a picture of work you have done. The name of the firm/yourself, your title (landscape architect) a phone number and a website address. Maybe you can state a specialty, like ponds or patios. Keep it simple, high contrast (lots of BLACK/Gray in a newspaper) You don’t want your ad to look like joe-schmoe landscape or william-robert’s garden center. That’s all I see even with the big guys in the trade mags. Maybe even get a table at the local home/garden show. I’ve seen residential LAs have displays there as well.

[Christopher Patzke]

Alan this is really an interesting topic.  Three random things pop into my mind:

• I remember the AIA running TV ads a while back promoting the architecture profession.  While I share your views on the ASLA, I actually think a similar campaign could promote the profession while educating the public.  This way no individual firm feels the burden of educating society.
• I grew up in very humble circumstances.  Some of the “gentlemen’s code” that has given the profession charming, yet antiquated, ideas of “right” and “wrong” should not really apply anymore.  Landscape Architecture is a business.  It is a business that can affect profound changes in society, but it is a business.  It makes little sense not to advertise in this economy.  I once worked for a firm that refused to advertise.  I was there for 6 months and subsequantly laid off.  Two months later the business closed and the Principal formed a partnership with another Landscape Architect (taking only one of his 5 staff members with him).  When I worked there we had very coveted clients who spent lavishly on their landscapes.  The market dried up and the Principal still refused to advertise.  As they say in Virginia “That dog don’t hunt.”
• Finally, it perplexes me that the profession finds advertising an ethical conundrum yet it has no problem with denying basic professional benefits most, if not all, degreed professionals receive.  (yes…this last point is a bit of a rant).

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

I see the ASLA National Ward winning LAs down here make up post cards and send them to all the other professional offices and have seen some others copy very similar looking card (color and layout). I don’t think they target end clients so much as those higher up the pipeline – archs, engineers, developers,…

[Jordan Lockman]

It WAS not unethical, just not “professional”. The same went for hospitals, lawyers, colleges, architects, etc. I wonder if it is the baby boomers that changed that. Since over my lifetime you have heard a more steady increase of professionals advertising.

 

I think that we can advertise or market anyway that we want to now.

[Alan Ray, RLA]

I’m convinced that the newspaper or radio  is not the way to go…..I have put a business card in a  very nice local neighborhood magazine recently to see what happens…..I have been here 36 years and have made it pretty well on referrals for 23 years I’ve been self employed but It seems to be getting slower each year during the “Great Recession”….so, thanks for the good advice.

[Alan Ray, RLA]

I’ll tell you that in the past you’d be considered real sleezy if you advertised….I’m glad to find out that most don’t see that stigma any longer

[Jarrod D. Lee]

Alan, I live in Nashville as well.  If you listen WPLN, Nashville Public Radio, Street, Dixon, Rick runs an ad, i.e. sponsorship, quite often.  I think the idea of not advertising is a hold-over from the days when social morays held sway over daily life.  It was distasteful to advertise your services as a doctor, banker or lawyer because it was seen as flaunting your station in society.  In the past, you were more than likely the doctor, the banker, or the lawyer in town.  That is certainly not the case anymore.

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