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WINTER
Issue
2013
A refreshing look at marketing today.
Feature: HOW TO LEAVE THE RECESSION BEHIND
by Nancy Parker at Raba Kistner, Inc.
If you’ve been in the business for about
five years, then you’ve experienced your
first–but not likely your last–recession.
Surprisingly, this is good news for your
career development, because it is the
hard times that make you a more strategic
thinker, a more decisive decision maker and
a better marketer for your company for the
long term.
My grandmother, who survived the Great
Depression, used to say, “You should
manage your assets like the good times
won’t last forever.” You’ve probably heard
this, too. However, it took me surviving a
few recessions (and the resulting kicks in the
behind) to realize that if you go back to how
you did things before the recession, you are
almost certainly destined to repeat many
budget-breaking mistakes.
As we in the A/E/C community begin to
see better economic times on the horizon,
it is tempting to run toward our old, prerecession marketing habits. But what have
we learned that can be tried and true
takeaways from the last five years? Here
are some ideas to consider before tiptoeing
back into good times:
1) During the recession, you had to get
smart and efficient—now stay that way.
Don’t fall victim to the belief that if you have
your marketing budget almost back up to
former levels, you should spread it around
to all of your services equally, marketing all
services and in all mediums at once. My
best suggestions include:
• Keep marketing the services that are your
top, more profitable and most competitive
lines identified by strategic planning. All
of your service lines will benefit from this
focus, whether they can see it immediately
or not.
• Limit your communication mediums to
only those that you can support with both
your money and time. Working with media
is at minimum, a two-way street. No
longer can you afford to buy ads, respond
to a few blogs, drop off your releases and
turn your attention elsewhere. Your various
mediums have multiple opportunities and
resources that you can take advantage
of, so pick a few that are best for your
company and start communicating more
often and more consistently.
• It’s okay if you can’t afford to do what
everyone else is doing. Sometimes using
a little creativity in your efforts will make
your audience remember you longer. I
like to use the example of when a client
of mine won a giant, high-profile award,
but my company couldn’t afford the $850
(the cheapest) table at the ceremony. As
a result, I hired a Barbershop quartet to
come to sing to her on her special day.
Five years later, she doesn’t remember
who came to the event but she sure
remembers my red & white striped
messengers ($200).
2) Put your money where your people
are passionate. If a staff member is not
volunteering on boards or committees, don’t
put his memberships back into your plan just
because you now have the money.
Make sure your staff is committed to their
professional organizations even when
they’re really busy at the office. Attendance
is not the same as leadership, and a strong
company should invest in its leaders first.
3) You developed a team of professionals
in your office who got involved in
marketing like never before. Keep the
good ones motivated. When you were
short of resources, you got your technical
professionals busy helping you with
marketing, which likely started them on the
road to becoming “thought leaders” in their
community and realizing other professional
benefits. Gain continued support from
the ones that really took to marketing so
they can give you the technical resources
and time that will help you market your
company. It will make your job easier with
each passing month and will lessen the
impact of future business downturns.
Continued on page 3
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Project Spotlight:
: freshly squeezed info
UHS ROBERT B. GREEN CAMPUS
Welcome New Members
Leave the Recession Behind, continued from page 1
DECEMBER
4) Don’t go back to your former staffing profile
too quickly. When things got tough, you figured
out pretty quickly who among your marketing
staff you wanted to hang on to the longest and
why. As things get busy again, consider using
qualified free lancers or subconsultants for at
least a while in place of the ones you were
willing to let go early. Using freelancers will give
you time to figure out if it’s a solid recovery. Oh,
and give the ones you kept a raise.
Stella Gutierrez – Ford Engineering Inc.
Jenna L. Schwartz – UTSA Student Chapter
JANUARY
As a result of a national design competition, Overland Partners and RTKL were
commissioned by the University Health Systems (UHS) to design a new downtown
health clinic. As the most eastern facing building, the new clinic helps encapsulate
the downtown campus, while providing visual gifts to the City of San Antonio through
its integrated art. The clinic sits southeast of the historic Robert B. Green Memorial
Building, and is sensitive to the existing historic icon by enhancing the views,
reinforcing existing entries and reconnecting it to outdoor spaces.
The project includes 269,000 square feet of new and 60,000 square feet of
renovated space. The program spaces include: an urgent care center, surgery suite,
medical clinic, medical offices, pharmacy, and dining facilities. The clinic has six
inhabitable stories with a mechanical mezzanine on the 7th floor.
The clinic is now serving the population in a way it previously did not. It has brought
new life to the heart of downtown. “This is more of a concierge – hotel environment.
It really doesn’t give a clinic feel. We want to enhance the patient experience,”
remarks Sergio Farrell, Senior Vice President of Ambulatory Services for UHS.
One unique art feature is the feather wall—a kinetic shade structure for the clinical
pavilion. Composed of 5029 tilted aluminum vanes that sway in the wind, the
artwork, created by Ned Kahn, seeks to dissolve the boundary between architecture
and atmosphere, linking the building to the ever-changing and normally invisible
currents of air.
The clinic is only a portion of the transformation the downtown campus will take. As
part of the health system’s $899 million capital improvement plan, UHS will be able
to vacate and demolish the existing Building B, allowing the feather wall, and the new
clinic, to frame a parking lot and pocket parks.
Consultants: MEP – SSR Engineers; MEP – Cleary Zimmermann Engineers; MEP
– CNG Engineers; MEP – K.M. Ng & Associates; Structural – Walter P. Moore;
Structural – Alpha Consulting Engineers; Civil Engineers – Pape-Dawson Engineers;
Civil Engineers – Bain Medina Bain; Interiors – Valla Design Group; Landscape
Architects – Bender Wells Clark; Energy Modeler – SSRcx; Art Consultant – Olana
Group; Code Consultant – Rolf Jensen & Associates; Restoration Consultant –
Seventh Generation Design; Program Management – Jacobs Engineering; Program
Management – Foster CM Group, Inc.; Project Management – Parsons
Note: Market Juice would like to note that Lopez Salas Architects was on the team for last
issue’s Project Spotlight, the “City of San Antonio Public Safety Headquarters.” The firm
served as the Local Architect on the Design-Build team.
Rebekah D. Perez – Ford, Powell & Carson
Christina Taylor – H2MG, LLC
Madeline A. Biasiolli – Embrey Partners, Ltd.
Daniela Velasquez – UTSA Student Chapter
Members on the Move
SMPS recognizes members at new positions:
Linda M. Koch, FSMPS, CPSM, Director of
Marketing & Business Development at Pfluger
Architects
Felicia T. Love, Communications Manager at
Marmon Mok Architecture
Jennifer L. Pena, PMP, Director of Marketing at
Galaxy Builders, Ltd.
Moving on Up
Congratulations to these members for earning
promotions in their companies!
Bunmi Adeeko was promoted to Manager of
Corporate Marketing and Branding at Bartlett Cocke
General Contractors
Amanda Busbee was promoted to Marketing
Coordinator at Civil Engineering Consultants
Kevin Kardos was promoted to Business
Development Coordinator at Bartlett Cocke General
Contractors
In conclusion, if necessity is the mother of
invention, recession is the mother of much
untapped marketing creativity. As soon as things
turn around, however, it’s easy to forget what
made you vulnerable to the business downturn
in the first place. During the last five years, you
probably changed your decision matrix, and
some of those changes are worth keeping. You
may have realized that there were things you
could have been doing more efficiently. And, you
might have learned that the greatest creativity
and marketing results don’t have to come with
the highest price tag. Consider capturing these
changes in your own “white paper” of lessons
learned that make you a better marketer and
your company more competitive and profitable
moving forward. You may find that the best way
to leave the recession behind is to take a little of
it with you. <
Melissa Lewis, CPSM was promoted to Vice
President of Marketing at Pape-Dawson Engineers
Member Spotlight:
BUNMI ADEEKO
Behind the scenes, Bunmi Adeeko of
Bartlett Cocke General Contractors has
really made her mark on the SMPS San
Antonio Chapter in just three years.
As a member of the Communications
Committee, Bunmi has designed many
of the chapter communications and
collateral that members see in their
inboxes and around chapter events each
month.
With a Bachelor of Fine Arts in
Communication Design from Texas State
University-San Marcos, Bunmi found
her calling when she first joined SMPS.
Because of her skill in design and her
team oriented approach, she had no
problem applying her education to her
voluntary involvement. “I was quickly
embraced by the members of the group
and felt a part of it in no time at all,”
said Bunmi.
Owner’s Breakfast
An Opportunity for Firm Principals, Partners & Executives to Connect
Firm principals, partners and executives are invited to join
Dr. Brian T. Woods, Superintendent at Northside ISD
for breakfast and an intimate roundtable discussion.
D’Anna Woodmansee was promoted to Marketing
Friday, November 30th
Coordinator at Raba Kistner, Inc.
7:30 – 7:45 Registration
7:45 – 8:00 Breakfast Served
8:00 – 8:45 Discussion with Speaker
8:45 – 9:00 Questions
9:00 Adjourn
The Victoria House at the Marriott Plaza Hotel
555 South Alamo, San Antonio, TX
Got Announcements?
If you are interested in featuring an industryrelated article/essay/commentary or an
announcement in our newsletter, please submit a
request in Word format or include in your email
to onlinenews@sanantoniosmps.org.
$40 per person
When
Where
Cost
This event is limited to 20 people and is
exclusive to firms with at least one SMPS member.
Only one attendee per firm please.
San Antonio
Breakfast Sponsors:
Looking back, she has two favorite
projects. First is the development
of a new look for the Owner’s
Breakfast. Since the event was
moving to a new venue, Bunmi took
photos of the venue’s exterior and
its resident peacocks. Then, she
says, “Incorporating some of the
photos I took, along with some stock
photography…I played around in
Photoshop until I achieved the look I
wanted.” Another favorite project was
a collaboration with Charlie Jakubisin
to introduce a new brand for several
monthly communication pieces for
the 2010-2011 year. “There’s always
a sense of pride when you see your
work, or at least some of your design
influence, being incorporated for the
bigger picture.”
Bunmi is an artist who, from an early
age, dabbled in various creative
mediums like illustration, sewing, story
and poetry writing, photography and
painting. In 8th grade, she won an
illustration contest where her work was
featured on a billboard in San Antonio.
With all of Bunmi’s successes, including
her recent promotion to Manager of
Corporate Marketing & Branding, it is
clear that her passion for design has
transcended from childhood to her
career.
4
5
: real marketing flavor
Event Spotlight:
TSPE ENGINEERS WEEK MIXER
SMPS’ 2013 E-Week Mixer was a complete
success! Every year during TSPE Engineers
Week, SMPS San Antonio celebrates our
engineers by giving away gift cards and
serving wonderful appetizers and beverages.
Over 100 attendees mingled at Sherlock’s
Pub & Grill on February 21st as we celebrated
our Engineer of the Year, Davy Beicker, PE of
Beicker Martinez Engineering, with ‘Beicker
Bucks’. Special thanks to the Membership Committee for making the event a hit!
Pencil it In
MARCH
5 Celebrity Putting After Dark – Silverhorn
Golf Club
21 Talk Marketing – The Importance of Internal
Marketing and Communications
27 Monthly Luncheon – New Braunfels Growth
Outpacing State Average: What’s in Store
for the City’s Future?
29 Owner’s Breakfast
Community Involvement:
APRIL
11Talk Marketing – Client Perception Studies:
SPREADING SMPS CHEER
18 Fiesta Mixer/Annual Membership Drive
For the fifth year in a row, SMPS
San Antonio members did their
part to spread some holiday cheer
to children in the Janey Briscoe
Children’s Center at University
Hospital. The toys donated by SMPS
members who attended the annual
Christmas luncheon were delivered
to the Children’s Center and will be
given to the young patients of the hospital, not only during the holiday season, but
throughout the rest of the year as well. A representative for the Children’s Center who
attended the luncheon expressed her gratitude for the SMPS San Antonio donation,
as we were one of the only groups to support this cause in the 2012 Holiday season.
What the Client is Really Thinking
24 Monthly Luncheon
MAY
9 Talk Marketing – Career Development:
Making Yourself Invaluable
22 Monthly Luncheon
Did you Read Me?
Win $20 Cash!
We love our readers! That’s why we are
giving you the opportunity to win $20 cash.
For the March luncheon, just remember:
SMPS SHOWERS BRING MARKETING
FLOWERS!
In Case You Missed It: SMPS Southern Regional Conference 2013
This year’s SMPS Southern Regional Conference in Fort Worth, Texas was well worth the trip to our
state’s so-called “Funky Town!” More than 220 members attended the conference to learn from keynote
speaker Dana Williams, Marketing Director of Southwest Airlines and Candace Fitzpatrick, Founder and
CEO of CoreClarity, LLC, among other creative and marketing leaders. Much of the event’s success
can be attributed to members of our San Antonio chapter who served on the 2013 SRC Planning
Committee, including: Conference Co-Chair Amy Hartsock, CPSM, Goetting Rowe Engineering;
Conference Co-Chair Linda Koch, FSMPS, CPSM, Pfluger Architects; Past Chair/Keynotes Chair Lauren
Guido, CPSM, Guido Brothers Construction; and Public Relations Chair Charlie Jakubisin, Element
Thirty. Looking forward to next year!
2012-2013
SMPS Board
President  Jennifer Soto
The Brandt Companies, LLC
President-Elect  Eva Ramirez
RVK Architects
2012-2013 SMPS Sponsors
Annual Presenting Sponsor
Treasurer  Rosie Hartman, CPSM
RVK Architects
Platinum Sponsors
Secretary  Felicia Love
Marmon Mok Architecture
Past President  Melodye Tomsu, CPSM
Cleary Zimmermann Engineers
Communications  Adrian Lindsey, CPSM
Foster CM Group, Inc.
Community Relations  Larisa Langley, CPSM
Coyle-SDA, Inc.
Bainmedinabain
E N G I N E E R S & S U R V E Y O R S
Pantone 151 CVC
Pantone Cool Gray 6 CVC
Education  Abby Deras, CPSM
Cude Engineers
Membership  Lauren Guido, CPSM
Guido Brothers Construction
Programs  Christy Rhone
O’Connell Robertson
Sponsorship  Jeff Young
Ascend Group
Annual Education Sponsor
Annual Student Chapter Sponsor
For more information about our
2012 - 2013 Board of Directors,
please visit our website at
www.sanantoniosmps.org/about_powers.
In-kind Sponsors
: beverage servers
Communications Committee
onlinenews@sanantoniosmps.org