A marketing plan of a different color

Few followers of Fort Worth design and engineering giant Carter & Burgess would accuse the firm of putting its marketing cart before its horse.

The privately held firm, formed by two area engineers in 1939, has stoically built its reputation through tried and true methods like word-of-mouth.

A new picture is emerging as the firm re-invents itself under the direction of Ben G. Watts, the president and chief executive officer, who took the reins of the firm following the death of chairman and president Jerry W. Allen in December 2002.

“Changes in the marketplace encouraged us to look beyond the traditional ways of marketing our services,” says Watts.

One-stop shopping, familiar to consumers who flock to Wal-Mart and Target, has made it to engineering and design firms like Carter & Burgess. It is hardly the only company in its industry to recognize that its customers – typically governmental entities, large corporations, educational institutions and developers – are demanding one-stop shopping. An example includes environmental engineering firm ENSR International, which was acquired by wastewater and environmental management firm AECOM last September.

“We knew if Carter & Burgess is going to reach its full potential, we had to make our One Source, One Firm operating philosophy a priority,” says Watts. “Redefining our marketing efforts will help us better present this suite of services to clients.”

As part of that redefinition, Watts brought Laurin McCracken, 63, on board in March as chief marketing officer, a newly created post. McCracken recently added Michelle Jones, 41, as marketing director. Jones comes with extensive experience in corporate brand development, an area that McCracken admits Carter & Burgess paid little heed.

“That was not their strong point. They built their name by what they did, which was great. But that will carry you only so far,” he says.

As the company offers more, such as architectural services, the marketing department will be called on to cultivate and handle business development and client relationships, he says.

“That calls for some major change on the part of the top management and that’s one reason they created the chief marketing officer position,” he says.

“One Source, One Firm” is Carter & Burgess’ newly minted slogan that reflects the firm’s more diverse offerings.

While the firm was founded as an engineering firm, its architectural services account for about 25 percent of revenues.

“It’s our fastest-growing division,” says McCracken.

Growing a business

Carter & BurgessÂ’ own growth mirrors that of Fort Worth. Two childhood Fort Worth friends, Eugene Hudson Carter and John Jarvis Burgess, founded Carter & Burgess in 1939. Prior to founding the company, Carter had helped design and develop the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, a Depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA) project.

During the post-war boom, Carter & Burgess was involved in several major residential and commercial developments in Fort Worth, civilian airfield improvements throughout the Southwest and continued military work in the region, including Cold War-era air-defense systems. During the 1960s, the firm was involved in major urban renewal projects, and in 1967, it was selected to plan and design Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. It currently is involved in several major projects, including development in and around Alliance Airport.

The firm also has branched out around the country. It currently has 28 offices in 17 states and Washington, D.C., with a total of 2,800 employees. Industry publication Engineering News-Record ranks the firm as the 29th largest of the nationÂ’s top-500 design firms.

McCracken says one of his first duties is to hit the road, meeting with researchers and decision-makers in investment banks, universities, real estate investment trusts, think tanks and government offices.

“I’m going to be meeting with people who know the debt and equity side of our business to find out where the money’s going to be,” he says. “I came to Carter & Burgess to find the crystal ball that will show us the flow of money. Then, I ask these questions: Do we have the strength to get there and meet it? Can we get there in a timely manner? How do we get there? It’s easy to see what’s going to happen in 12 to 18 months. But the crystal ball gets a little cloudy three to five years out.”

Market demand, for instance, is not a good indicator of future business, says McCracken.

“It is the flow of money into the real estate and construction market, overlaid with the basic demographics of our industry, that will allow us to be able to provide the right services to our clients when they will need them,” he says. “My job is to look outside our company and even our industry to find out where that money is going to be and when it’s going to be there, to look ahead five or 10 years and see the places where money and demand intersect.”

If it sounds like Carter Burgess is attempting to think outside of the traditional engineering firm three-dimensional rhombus, McCracken would be a likely advocate. His nearly 30 years of experience in marketing professional services has been in the context of a career as an architect. With a bachelorÂ’s degree in architecture from Rice University and a masterÂ’s degree in architecture and urban planning from Princeton University, he is a registered architect in New Jersey and Texas, and a registered interior designer here in the Lone Star State.

McCracken began his marketing-professional-services career in 1976 at Fujikawa, Conterato, Lohan Associates in Chicago, where he created a marketing program that helped double the size of the firm; billings there increased by 300 percent during his tenure. He then guided the international expansion of RTKL architecture firm in Dallas. He has also held positions at HNTB Architecture in Kansas City and Alexander, Va., McClier Architects in Chicago, and the Global Design Alliance in Washington, D.C.

In 1997, McCracken was awarded an SMPS marketing achievement award for outstanding contributions in marketing for the architecture, engineering and construction industries.

It was that background that impressed Watts, who overcame the somewhat natural rivalry between architects and engineers to bring McCracken aboard.

“I never would have thought we’d hire a registered architect to be our chief marketing officer,” says Watts. “He thinks strategically. That’s what I like about him.”

A passion for excellence

In his spare time, McCracken is a watercolorist. He spends hours drawing and then painting detailed, meticulous still lifes that more closely resemble oil paintings than traditional watercolors. His still lifes are influenced by 16th- and 17th-century Dutch painters.

McCracken began painting about five years ago, but he has already been in several prestigious exhibitions, and his work has been featured in national watercolor magazines. He is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society, and some of his original paintings sell for as much as $5,800.

"I am as passionate about my job as I am my painting," he says.

Carter & Burgess is becoming more passionate in hiring. Once the company hired primarily from the engineering and construction industries, but several recent hires have other backgrounds. Jones, the marketing director, came from the information technology industry.

“I think the firm needed some new ideas and those often come from outside the industry,” says Jones.

That change is not just window-dressing, says McCracken.

“I came in at an officer level,” he says. “My office is just a few doors down from the CEO. That says a lot.”

Jones says the investment made by Carter & Burgess lured her from Michigan to Texas.

“What’s appealing to me about Carter & Burgess is that they’ve made an investment in marketing in order to grow the company,” she says. “They are also thinking about things differently. They are now looking at how their customers buy their services, rather than just what they sell. That’s a huge change and that’s very smart. That really impressed me.”

It also has impressed some of Carter & BurgessÂ’ customers. The company recently held a conference for some of its major clients in the education market, one of Carter BurgessÂ’ fastest growing sectors.

“We thought it was very innovative of Carter & Burgess to bring us all together to discuss issues we face on a daily basis,” says Jack K. Colby, president of the Association of Higher Education Facilities’ Officers (APPA) and assistant vice chancellor for facilities operations at North Carolina State University.

“It was a chance for us to hear from others around the country and it was also a chance to tell Carter & Burgess what our needs are now and what they’re going to be in the future,” he says.

For instance, a manager of facilities at the University of Nevada – Las Vegas (UNLV) discussed how difficult it was for the firm to construct a new building, because massive housing and casino construction in the area has siphoned off labor, supplies and equipment that pay a premium that educational institutions cannot afford.

“For Carter & Burgess to hear those kind of problems we deal with every day should help them understand why we don’t want a complex project that takes a lot of time to build. UNLV may need something that is simple and fast to build because they can’t afford anything else. It just won’t get built,” says Colby.

For McCracken and Jones, hearing that kind of feedback is vital.

“We’re here to change the way things have been done. That’s a great challenge and a great opportunity,” says Jones.

Contact Francis at rfrancis@bizpress.net.