Julie Luers, FSMPS, Selected as Recipient of 2003 Marketing Achievement Award

"Throughout her career, Julie Luers has made significant and lasting contributions to the art and science of professional services marketing," begins an endorsement of Luers' nomination for the prestigious SMPS Marketing Achievement Award. This award salutes an individual whose achievements and lasting contributions to the fields of business development and marketing are exemplary.

A Fellow, Past National President, and Past Foundation President of SMPS, Luers' career in professional services marketing spans almost 30 years. She is currently the associate vice president and director of marketing for Hammel, Green & Abrahamson Inc. (HGA) in Minneapolis, MN; previously she has represented firms including Ellerbe Becket, The MountainStar Group, and TSP One.
National Chapter Delegate Harlan Hallquist, FSMPS, says of Luers: "In review of her credentials and accomplishments over the years, it is very clear that Julie has demonstrated an uncanny and generous benevolence of mentoring, leadership, and creativity in helping individuals, chapters, and companies through her efforts in research, as an educator and innovator, and through sharing her talented marketing communicational skills."

Research
Throughout her career in marketing A/E/C services, Luers has been a proponent for using market research to support decision-making in all areas of strategic and tactical marketing planning. In the mid-'80s, she recognized that secondary research needed to be enhanced with primary research studies. Luers began a program of targeted primary research that addressed market trends, selection criteria, and client satisfaction feedback for the marketing plan. This combined use of both primary and secondary research continues to be an integral part of her marketing planning and a topic on which she frequently lectures.

Education
In 1990 the University of Minnesota College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (CALA) selected Luers to be the instructor of the first marketing class in its curriculum. "Marketing for Architects" (ARCH 015) became a popular class under Luers' skillful direction (1991 to 1998) with more than 150 individuals studying the fundamentals of marketing architectural services.

Luers has conducted numerous workshops for SMPS Chapters across the country and has spoken at the national conferences of the National Association of Women in Construction, American Council of Engineering Companies, Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), and SMPS and at the American Institute of Architects and AGC state conventions. She has been published extensively, including chapters on technology and lead tracking to the 1994 Handbook for Marketing Professional Services (published by SMPS) and the 2000 Marketing Handbook for the Design and Construction Professional (updated by the SMPS Foundation and published by BNi Publications Inc.), respectively.

Professional Leadership
Luers has the distinct honor of having served the longest presidential term in the history of SMPS National: 14 months due to a change in the Society's fiscal year. Her enthusiasm for SMPS has focused many of her professional leadership activities on the Society. She has a total of nine years of SMPS National Board service (including as a Regional Director) and six years of service on the Twin Cities Chapter Board. She is credited with reorganizing the SMPS Foundation, creating a vibrant, motivated, and results-oriented organization providing benefits to all professional service marketers.
Luers has continued to lead nationally, co-chairing SMPS National's annual Chapter Presidents' Leadership Symposium in recent years, and regionally, helping to launch new initiatives and programs such as the 2000 Regional Conference in Lake Geneva.

Marketing Communications
Says HGA CEO Stephen Fiskum, AIA, "Julie developed and executed an effective marketing program that resulted in [HGA] adding three new geographic locations. During the same period, her results-driven business development initiatives increased our revenues by over 50%…Julie has a gift for effective communication that motivates our firm's principals and marketing associates to achieve higher levels of energy, collaboration, and success."

One of the most complex areas of marketing communications is the design and implementation of new corporate identity systems. Julie undertook the challenge to direct and coordinate new corporate identity systems four times while at Ellerbe Becket and once for TSP One Inc. Her ability to develop pieces that send a consistent message communicating the values and benefits of her firm resulted in numerous direct-mail and advertising campaigns. While at Ellerbe Becket Construction Services, she initiated the firm's first full-scale advertising campaign with Modern Healthcare magazine, resulting in more than 150 inquiries in one year.

Innovation
While at Ellerbe Becket, Luers was responsible for developing the firm's marketing tracking system, MARS. She worked to restructure this lead-tracking program into a user-friendly database accessible to marketing personnel in all offices. She developed a monthly reporting system that tracked leads, budgets, new client marketing activity, and continuing client marketing activity, then published this information in an easy-to-read, monthly report.

Another significant innovation was the use of client focus groups to learn first hand about issues affecting client's businesses and to measure the level of satisfaction with the services provided by her firm. She began this program in the late '80s at Ellerbe Becket, holding six focus group sessions. The findings resulted in the Ellerbe Becket "All-Day Seminar." This seminar taught client communications and marketing skills and was attended by 600+ members of the firm. The success of the focus groups also led to formal project debriefings and additional focus groups conducted at the national conventions of client organizations.

For these and other accomplishments, Luers was honored by SMPS and her peers during the Awards Gala at the 2003 National Conference in Phoenix in August.

Nominations for the Marketing Achievement Award are solicited in the spring each year. This year's panel was chaired by 2001 Marketing Achievement recipient Jean Valance, FSMPS, vice president of strategic development, Symmes, Maini & McKee Associates, Cambridge, MA. Serving on the panel were Dianne Ludman Frank, FSMPS, Principal/Owner, Dianne Ludman Frank PR, Birmingham, MI; Bonnie J. Sloan, FSMPS, principal, The Learning Curve, Wakefield, MA; Carla D. Thompson, FSMPS, Vice President of Marketing, MulvannyG2 Architecture, Bellevue, WA; 2000 Marketing Achievement Award recipient Randolph W. Tucker, P.E., FSMPS, Senior Vice President, The RJA Group Inc. Houston, TX; and William C. Viehman, AIA, Principal, Perkins & Will, Atlanta, GA.