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Construction Business Computing - October
- 1999
How to Improve Your Image With
a Multi-Media
Presentation
By Dan Jacobs
You are in the grocery store and you see
two items side-by-side. You read the ingredients
for both and the ingredients are the same.
Why does one item cost 20% more than the
other? The answer is often nothing more than
packaging.
You're very likely to be competing in a market
that consists of many contractors that construct
the same type, style, size and price projects
as you. They use the same suppliers and the
same subcontractors. If that wasn't enough,
they are often building the same house in
the exact same neighborhood, or similar buildings
in the local technology park. So, How do
you differentiate yourself from the competition?
If your answer is, "my reputation is
better then theirs," get real. Even
if it is, that alone is no longer enough.
Discovering Multi-Media
Every contractor on the block hands out paper
collateral material, and many are starting
to utilize the Internet for promotion and
informational use - and you should too. But,
if you really want to set your company apart
from the pack, think about going high-tech
with your presentation materials. Consider
investing in professionally mastered media
presentation.
The presentation should be a self-running
CD that includes all the information found
in your printed materials, but with pictures,
movies and sound to support the message.
You will convey a high tech image and, more
important, provide another opportunity for
a prospect to see and hear your message.
Think about it: - What is more powerful:
a picture of Mr. CEO with a caption that
he'd hire your firm again - or Ms. CEO telling
your prospects that she would ?
I know what you are thinking: Things like
"Multi-Media CD's" cost a great
deal to implement, right? Wrong. If you own
Microsoft Office 2000, for instance, you've
got most of the tools you need already. Add
a video-editing package such as Adobe Premiere,
and you're all set.
Leverage Web Technologies
The explosion of relatively inexpensive digital
video equipment and Web-development tools
has made it possible for you to produce the
pieces in-house, and then have a professional
production house clean everything up and
then master and duplicate the final product.
With some planning, much of what goes on
your CD can also provide content for your
company website.
Here is a short list of some
tools you'll
need, and some resources to get
you started:
- Static Documents and Presentations
You'll also to include electronic
versions
of all your paper documents
on your CD. For
this, go no farther than your
desktop. Office
2000 offers the ability to
save any PowerPoint,
Word, Excel, or document directly
to HTML,
the format of the Internet.
Your presentation CD could
be based around
a distributed PowerPoint presentation
with
all your documents, video,
and audio clips
embedded. Microsoft provides
a free PowerPoint
viewer which can be distributed
on your CD
or website.
Another option is to produce
the entire CD
in HTML so it could be viewed
in any web
browser. A good strategy is
to include the
latest browser update on the
CD. In fact,
Microsoft offers the IEAK -
Internet Explorer
Administration Kit - which
allows you to
customize a version of IE for
distribution
- for instance adding your
logo to the interface,
or pre-loading the menus with
your shortcuts.
-
Video
The key to producing inexpensive
audio/video
is to start digital. A Mini-DV
camcorder
starting at under $1000 can
provide acceptable
full-motion video, quality
audio, as well
as digital still image from
a single device.
Look for models which provide
a direct IEEE
1394 (or "firewire")
link to your
PC. Firewire is a new technology
that provides
up to 400mbps transfer speed,
making it ideal
for editing digital video.
You'll probably
have to add a matching card
to your PC, although
new models by Sony and others
are showing
up with Firewire installed.
Video clips will need to be
compressed and
converted into a web and/or
CD-friendly format
such as Apple's "Quicktime."
The quality of this compression
can make
or break the whole project,
so a good strategy
for a busy contractor is to
leave this fine-tuning
to a production house. You
shoot the video
on your site or interview with
clients, make
a log sheet indicating the
portions you'd
like on the CD, and the production
house
can take it from there.
One tip on shooting video -
avoid long shots
or lots of pan and zoom. Since
compression
works by removing the portions
of each frame
that are the same, you'll get
the best result
from tight shots such as you'd
use in an
interview .
- Make the best of both worlds
If you base your presentation
CD on HTML
to begin with, the same material
can be easily
made accessible on the Internet
- but don't
try to reuse the exact same
video/audio or
image files. Because a CD runs
locally, file
sizes are not as critical on
a CD as they
are on the World Wide Wait.
Use that to your
advantage - create higher resolution
(better
looking) versions for the CD,
and then compress
the files to a size appropriate
for the Internet.
- Cyber-Proposals
A multi-media CD is not the
only route to
setting yourself apart from
the competition.
Instead of printing a proposal
for a prospect,
try offering the proposal in
print form as
well as in HTML on the web.
Your prospect
will be able to view the proposal
via the
Internet. You can even add
hyperlinks that
link to your Web page when
a particular community,
floor plan, etc. is referenced
in the proposal.
Add an e-mail link and the
result is an interactive
proposal.
- Cyber-Meetings
Office 2000 also has the ability
to launch
Microsoft NetMeeting to conduct
online meetings
with other users across town,
in another
state or around the world.
While meeting
online, all participants can
view or edit
a document online.
An inexpensive product like
NetMeeting can
give you a taste of what "project
extranet"
services or software take to
a higher level
- and is a good place to start.
If you find
real time collaboration useful
you can step
up to one of the commercial
products designed
specifically for the construction
industry.
REPRINTED FROM CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS
COMPUTING,
October 1999
Copyright © 1999, Institute of
Management
and Administration,
29 West 35th St., New York, NY
10001. |
