Challenge
Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart (SRSSA), a multi-million dollar architecture firm headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, has many satellite offices in Asia including Singapore, Beijing and Shanghai. With the Asian marketplace gaining momentum in the international business world, SRSSA needed to clearly communicate its architectural expertise with eastern markets in order to penetrate deeper into this expanding market.
Solution
Merge determined that the tools SRSSA was already using to communicate with their American customer base were excellent. These communications tools were fresh and innovative. However, a language barrier stood in the way of using the English tools to communicate effectively to their Asian markets. Utilizing the freshly redesigned and redeveloped English-language site, Merge adapted the Web site presentation into a Mandarin-language site to accommodate the firm’s Asian satellite offices. This Mandarin site clearly communicates SRSSA's extensive architectural portfolio to the ever-strengthening eastern marketplace. The Mandarin site has the same functionality as the English site, which includes extensive, database-driven portfolio sections, job postings and an “On The Boards” area to highlight upcoming projects.
Results
The site has proven to be just as useful a tool in Asia as it has been in America. Since the launch of the Mandarin site, there has been a notable increase in the number of company inquiries generated from the Asian markets. This project illustrates that sometimes clearing the most basic and obvious of communication roadblocks creates the outstanding results.
