Professional Marketing in Small Civil Engineering Firms

Abstract

A study was made to explore marketing efforts of local and regional civil engineering firms with less than 300 employees. The study comprised both library research and a mail survey of 103 principles of the firms. The firms were divided into two classes with respect to the level of their marketing efforts. Firms in one class are typically not concerned with growth and show minimal marketing effort. Firms in the other class are growth‐oriented, and view marketing as a major concern. Even among the more aggressive firms, however, marketing efforts are not as effective as they could be. The study identified, three key obstacles to more effective marketing hy CE firms. They are: (1) Lack of a well‐developed marketing management function integrated within the overall management of the firm; (2) lack of refinement in the marketing approach; and (3) inadequate knowledge of marketing concepts and how to integrate them into the firms overall management.