Design Method Group opens in historic building

Managing principal Aaron Peteranecz said the staff of five has been juggling several projects, helping roughly 15 of Ridgecrest’s companies and clients rework their image and marketing strategy.

‘‘I definitely think we’ll have to hire more and will be looking to expand,” Peteranecz said Tuesday. ‘‘We’re not for lack of work.”

Design Method Group, with proprietary software that organizes and tracks databases of contacts, is forging new marketing plans and Web sites for companies linked to Ridgecrest, a private equity and investment firm, and is using those projects as a platform to build its own customer base.

Peteranecz, whose stepfather John Laughlin runs Ridgecrest, characterized the heavy workload as a trial phase to fine-tune the company’s focus.

‘‘Our goal is to branch out from the Ridgecrest clients,” Peterancz said. ‘‘We’re preparing for that now.”

Ridgecrest typically invests in large, underutilized buildings that are often old and empty, such as the Highland Center Business Complex in Frederick, the Westview Center in Hagerstown and the Interwoven Mills in Martinsburg, W.Va. The company also invests in new construction, including the Frederick SportsPlex and a Mount Airy gas station, according to its Web site.

Peterancz, who has a bachelor’s in environmental design from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a master’s with honors in architecture from Catholic University, has worked for Ridgecrest Investments since his college days. The Baltimore resident, who grew up in Frederick, is planning to move to Hagerstown soon.

Design Method Group, which launched its own Web site last week, is creating brochures and Web sites for clients as a foundation service, but will then offer services through its custom marketing software.

The company already helped one client that was spending 25 percent of its budget on advertising in newspapers and magazines; it helped cut those costs to roughly 5 percent with its mass e-mailings targeting particular clients, Peterancz said. The software tracks which recipients have opened e-mails, clicked on links and expressed interest in the client’s services.

‘‘As we build our portfolio, we’ll be branching out quick,” he said. ‘‘We’ve had a lot of success with it.”

E-mail marketing, which helps companies identify segments through behavior tracking, is an advertising trend that is growing along with other segments of the online advertising industry, according to eMarketer , a New York market research firm.

Roughly 68 percent of U.S. businesses that responded to one survey in an eMarketer report planned to invest in e-mail campaigns in 2007, compared with 50 percent in 2006. Another study concluded that about 65 percent of Internet users between the ages 25 and 44 had made purchases as a result of receiving e-mail marketing.

Peterancz’s brother, Kit Peteranecz, plus Jeremy Duenas, Hranush Sargsyan and Derek Knecht are also on staff in various capacities – from Web design to marketing.

‘‘We might seek to locate 200 potential sales prospects and send an initial e-mail or other communication to them ... until we’ve narrowed our focus to the best opportunities,” Knecht, director of data mining operations, said in a statement. ‘‘For our clients, this is like fishing in a stocked farm pond rather than fishing in a huge lake.”