Marketing professionals are the unsung heroes of the AEC industry, driving synchronization, strategy, and success in securing projects.
I celebrated 25 years in marketing for an AEC-industry firm this year. This is a significant achievement and certainly brings some positive feelings along with it.
However, as I was fielding congratulations, I was also hit with current industry news that diminished the moment. The overall sentiment was reflected in recent articles from The Zweig Letter and can be summed up by these snippets:
- “Skeptics still view marketing professionals as just overhead expenses. It’s time to view our marketing team not as a line item cost but as a pivotal resource driving substantial ROI.” (From “Building Value” by Kraig Kern.)
- “We tend to restrict our marketing leader’s role to promotion, and not get their involvement in any of these other areas that greatly impact their success and/or that of the company.” (From “More Marketing Involvement” by Mark Zweig.)
What is going on in the AEC industry where we are still questioning the value that our marketing professionals bring to our firms and industry?
One of the very first articles I wrote for The Zweig Letter (“What’s New?”) recognized the restrictions that were placed on architectural firms regarding promotion and specifically, advertising. I said it then and I’ll say it now – that was in 1909!
These restrictions are long gone but the shadow they cast still looms over many firms.
As an architect, engineer, landscape architect, or planner, there are myriad skills required to take a project from concept to completion. That is the core work of the AEC industry – creating technical plans to enable projects to be built. And that is a massive undertaking!
However, there is a whole other set of skills required to secure those projects in the first place. That’s where your marketing professionals thrive.
Consider another passage from a recent article: “Work consistently to reinforce the idea that those who get it have the right mindset and to ‘convert’ those who don’t. That means you have to keep sharing the vision of what the promised land looks like and how you will get everyone there. You need role models inside the organization for everyone else. And you need lots of education on business, why growth is necessary, how to sell, marketing, billing and collection, recruiting, project management, people management, and how to manage the firm.” (From “Getting Your People to See the Big Picture” by Mark Zweig.)
By and large, these are your marketing people! From where I stand, we are the unsung heroes of the AEC industry which immediately led me to think of the coxswain.
During the 2024 Summer Olympics, the event that most captured my attention was rowing. They call each team “the eight” – but there are actually nine. The coxswain is the non-rowing member of an eight-person rowing team.
Never heard of a coxswain? I’m not surprised.
Taking a look at the role of this ninth, officially unnumbered, teammate, I learned the coxswain keeps the rowers in sync. They are responsible for steering around obstacles and responding to the movement of the other boats around them. They coordinate the movements of all the other team members as well and are charged with motivating them to optimum performance. In addition, when out of the boat, the coxswain often takes the lead in regard to coaching and rowing styles, equipment, and technology. All this responsibility is on the shoulders of the only person in the boat who doesn’t row.
Does this sound like someone in your organization?
Marketers synchronize. Marketers troubleshoot. Marketers keep track of the competition. Marketers coordinate. Marketers motivate.
Just as your licensed technical professionals must adapt to advances and changes in their fields, marketers stay abreast of their own collection of best practices, trends, and creative approaches.
Marketers handle all the details, before and after events, so the rest of the team can focus their time only on the event itself.
Going further, the best marketers are also experts on AEC projects: project processes, project schedules, and the details of the actual projects in-pursuit, in-process, and completed by the firm. Principals and project managers know their own projects – those they have worked on and have responsibility for. Multiply that project load by the number of principals and project managers you have – current and past. That is the realm of your marketers.
Now let’s talk about your project imagery and final photos, your client references, all of your outreach activities, and your firm culture with its stories and lore. Your marketers get it. And they have ways and means of communicating the big picture both externally and internally. This includes acting as an important conduit between technical staff and clients, supplying important translation services to best communicate from the realm of technical expertise to the world of the client. Sometimes this work is behind the scenes – when crafting proposals or collateral. In other cases, it is forward-facing, at conferences, trade shows, and sponsored events.
If this is the point when you are tempted to proudly tell me that at your firm, your AIA, PE, PLA, and AICP staff handle all of these activities completely, I’ll direct you back to those eight-person teams. Picture them in the water, with their boats. One team with a coxswain and one without. Who do you think has the better chance of winning the race?
Jane Lawler Smith, MBA, is the marketing manager at Derck & Edson, LLC. She can be reached at jsmith@derckandedson.com.
