Sales and Marketing Director Lauren Purves talks new ventures and creating a voice for a brand

The moment Lauren Purves began her career, she knew she had “it”. Impossible to define just what “it” is, a good sales person knows when they possess such an attribute. It comes naturally, an innate talent that weaves through various personality traits since childhood. For Purves, she was always confident, intelligent, and assertive without being pushy, a killer combination for one who dreams of a career in marketing. She is strategically aware when it comes to just how to be successful in all areas of marketing from partnerships, to sales, to campaign strategies.

“When I worked my first sales job, I realized not everyone could be successful at sales and marketing. I got the thrill you get from knowing you are good at something and that confidence further boosted my interest and my success,” she said.

Purves is now an industry leader in her home country of Canada, making headlines with her work with Spacing Magazine, which features articles about urban issues in Canada including architecture, civic engagement, history, urban design, and more. The magazine features articles on transportation, urban affairs, cycling, parks, neighbourhoods, and all the good and bad that are associated with those topics. Purves helped turn the small magazine into one of Canada’s most unique publication brands, something she is no stranger to throughout her lucrative career as a Sales and Marketing Director.

“What I do is create a voice for a brand. I do this through creating a brand storyline and background narrative, I ensure I know the market and demographic, I create a quality and well-designed plan or product, and I approach all of this with a strong passion and eagerness to strive for success in all that I do. When I get passionate about a subject, I know how to promote and love to naturally push the company/brand forward. I love sharing good ideas and it’s in my personality to do so. I also love connecting like-minded brands and people together to make something great. All of these naturally have become instigators for my success,” she said.

Purves’ talents know no limit to industry, and whether marketing a media company like Spacing, a sustainable recreational beach brand like her upcoming venture, Parrot, or even real estate for Margo, Purves knows that the fundamentals of sales and good customer service are the same no matter the product.

Margo was a side project that Purves worked on for several years up until 2016 with architect Dylan Collie. Purves was responsible for marketing, publicity, and partnerships for two personal house renovations led by Collie. Collie took two historical homes and created thoughtful design-focused units. The houses had a unique set of design principles that provided innovative ways of perceiving the urban landscape’s need for utilizing single family homes in dense areas of Toronto, particularly giving-way to creating more affordable options in central locations. It was Purves’ hope to help promote this through her marketing background and expertise.

Margo aligned with many of Purves’ interests. A big part of urbanism is having an influx of people moving to cities as opposed to moving to suburbia, and due to affordability from the housing stock, which is not set-up for people moving there. Margo’s concept is this hidden middle for living conditions, which is the look and feel of single-family home, but less square footage than you would find in a suburban setting. Therefore, two to three apartments can fit into one single family home. Margo’s mission was to introduce this housing type, and Purves thought this extremely innovative.

“I liked being able to utilize both my love for architecture, cities, and marketing towards bringing success to this project. The conceptual notion of how these architectural projects were divided from a single-family home to two completely different apartments was interesting to ensure this was distinctly pitched to press outlets as such,” said Purves. “Encouraging a different and innovative housing model is fundamentally a very important topic, especially with the way the housing market is going and the increasing demand for wanting to live in cities, giving-way to creating more affordable options in these prime areas.”

No matter the product, Purves is able to align the brand to the right outlet to create a streamlined approach from a client’s/projects idea, ensuring to focus on the highlighted aspects of the project, and then endlessly creating a strong marketing strategy to frame the story and relate it to the correct audience. Selling apartments was no different. She created partnerships with large brands like HGTV, Apartment Therapy, Toronto Star and different press outlets to really try and press forward not only these particular projects, but this housing typology approach and sustainable urbanism to cities at large. When she is passionate about a brand’s mission, her job is easy.

“I really liked being able to align the brand to suitable media outlets. I’m inherently a creative designer/thinking and being able to strategize the right way to promote the projects through time management, prioritization and the right type of marketing was exciting. I naturally love connecting and executed special partnerships, so it was interesting to see the metrics on where the brand reached to further enhance the reputability of the project,” she said.

Due to Purves’ outstanding marketing of the homes, both residential projects sold in under a week over asking price. Such results were gratifying for the Marketing Director, as she always works as hard as she can to bring a project to both financial and critical success.

“It’s not always easy to change people's minds as they are set on what a home is. The hard work paid off and the project turned into something special,” she concluded.

Written by Annabelle Lee

Published March 16th, 2019