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A/E/C CMOs has released two new research reports examining how construction companies present their brands, demonstrate expertise, and build credibility online.

The Brand Distinction in the Built Environment report evaluates how effectively leading contractors differentiate themselves through visual identity, messaging, storytelling, careers content, project presentation, and other brand elements.

The Construction Authority Research Report examines how well contractor websites demonstrate the experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust signals that increasingly influence buyers, recruits, search engines, and AI-powered discovery.

Together, the two studies provide a broader view of how construction companies compete for attention and credibility in a crowded market.

Studying How Construction Brands Stand Apart

The Brand Distinction research was created to answer a straightforward question: How many contractor brands are actually memorable?

A/E/C CMOs reviewed the websites of contractors in the ENR Top 400 and evaluated them across 10 dimensions of brand distinction, including visual identity, photography, positioning, brand voice, audience clarity, company story, employer brand, project presentation, and the broader brand ecosystem.

The report groups companies into five levels, from Hard Hat Wallpaper and Beige Builder to Recognizable Contractor, Memorable Market Player, and Ownable as Hell.

The study highlights a challenge familiar throughout the construction industry. Many companies are credible, capable, and successful, yet their brands still look and sound remarkably similar to their competitors.

The report identifies where that sameness appears most often and what more distinctive construction brands are doing differently.

Measuring Construction Industry Authority

The second study focuses on a different question: Which construction companies are actually demonstrating authority online?

The Construction Authority Research Report evaluates contractors’ public authority footprint across areas such as original thought leadership, subject matter expertise, content quality, credibility signals, and evidence of real industry experience.

Companies were categorized across six levels, from Limited Public Authority through Industry Authority.

The research reinforces an important distinction between being an experienced contractor and publicly demonstrating that experience. A company can have decades of expertise, highly capable employees, and an outstanding project portfolio while still giving search engines, AI platforms, prospective clients, and potential employees little evidence of that expertise.

The strongest companies are turning institutional knowledge into visible, useful content that helps them become recognized resources within their markets.

Why the Research Matters

Construction companies increasingly compete long before an RFP is released, a recruiter makes contact, or a business development conversation begins.

Prospective clients research companies online. Candidates compare employers. Search engines evaluate credibility. AI platforms synthesize information from available sources. Owners, developers, architects, engineers, and partners build perceptions of companies before many contractors ever know they are being evaluated.

That makes brand distinction and authority increasingly connected.

A recognizable brand helps a company get remembered. Demonstrated authority gives buyers and talent a reason to trust it.

The two reports help construction leaders, marketers, and business development professionals benchmark where their companies stand today and identify practical opportunities to strengthen both.

Both research reports are now available through the A/E/C CMOs Research library.

A/E/C CMOs President Perryn Olson recently joined Menke’s ESOP Radio to discuss how construction companies can strengthen marketing as they grow, transition ownership, and prepare for the next generation of leadership.

For many architecture, engineering, and construction companies, growth has historically depended on referrals, repeat clients, and relationships founders build. That model can work for decades, but it becomes harder to sustain when a company expands into new markets, completes an acquisition, or transitions ownership through an ESOP.

The conversation focused on marketing’s role in helping ESOP construction companies scale beyond relationship-only growth. Perryn discussed defining an ideal client profile, aligning sales and marketing around shared revenue goals, strengthening positioning, improving the company website, and creating content that demonstrates real project experience and problem-solving ability.

The topic is especially important for employee-owned construction companies preparing for generational change. A strong reputation may transfer to the next generation, but the personal networks that helped build the company often do not. Strategic marketing gives the organization a way to preserve that reputation, communicate its value, and build new relationships that don’t depend on a handful of longtime leaders.

Listen to the conversation on the ESOP Radio website.

The decisions are yours now.

Perryn Olson’s new book, Choose Your Own Construction Marketing Journey, is officially available from Plumb & True Press.

Written specifically for construction marketers and company leaders, the book takes a different approach to business education.

Rather than giving readers another collection of marketing rules, Olson presents realistic construction-industry situations and asks readers to choose what happens next.

Every scenario offers three paths. Every decision has consequences. And there is rarely one universally correct answer.

The book draws on more than two decades of construction marketing experience to explore questions involving business growth, pursuits, positioning, marketing leadership, client relationships, differentiation, and the sometimes messy realities of trying to improve marketing inside a construction company.

Readers will also find Executive Briefs, practical Field Manuals, CMO’s Take commentary, deeper Plumb & True observations, and Reframes designed to challenge conventional industry thinking.

The book can be read individually, but its scenarios are also designed to spark conversation among marketing teams, business-development professionals, and company leadership.

Ask several people inside the same construction company to solve the same scenario, and you may discover they are solving completely different problems.

That is part of the point.

Choose Your Own Construction Marketing Journey is available in paperback for $24.99.

ISBN: 979-8-9972837-0-4

How strong is your construction company’s marketing?

A/E/C CMOs has launched the Magnetic Marketing Grader, a simple self-assessment designed to help construction leaders evaluate the maturity and effectiveness of their marketing.

The grader asks 10 questions covering the fundamentals behind a stronger construction marketing organization and brand. Instead of requiring a lengthy audit or producing a complicated report, the assessment gives companies a quick indication of where they stand and where improvements could have the greatest impact.

The goal is not simply to tell companies they need to “do more marketing.”

Better marketing should help a construction company attract better-fit clients, improve differentiation, strengthen client retention, support recruiting, generate more intentional growth, and ultimately increase the value of the business.

The grader is built around A/E/C CMOs’ broader Magnetic Brand philosophy: the strongest construction brands do more than create awareness. They attract the right clients, employees, partners, referrals, and opportunities because the market understands why the company is valuable.

After completing the assessment, participants receive their score along with recommended steps for improving it.

You do not need perfect marketing to build a great construction company.

But understanding where the gaps are is a pretty good place to start.

What would you do?

That question is at the center of Perryn Olson’s new book, Choose Your Own Construction Marketing Journey, now available for preorder from Plumb & True Press.

Instead of simply telling construction marketers and leaders what they should do, the book puts readers inside realistic industry situations and asks them to make the decision.

Each scenario offers three possible paths. Readers choose one, turn to the corresponding section, and discover the consequences.

Some decisions work.

Some create problems no one anticipated.

And a few may feel painfully familiar.

The scenarios explore the realities of construction marketing, including pursuit decisions, growth, positioning, client relationships, marketing leadership, internal politics, limited resources, and the challenge of getting marketing taken seriously as a business function.

Additional Executive Briefs, Field Manuals, CMO’s Take commentary, Plumb & True insights, and chapter Reframes help readers apply the lessons to their own companies.

The approximately 250-page book was written specifically for construction marketers, business-development professionals, and company leaders who want marketing to contribute more to the business.

Choose Your Own Construction Marketing Journey will be available in paperback for $24.99.

Paperback ISBN: 979-8-9972837-0-4

A/E/C CMOs has officially launched as a construction marketing firm focused primarily on fractional CMO leadership for companies across the built environment.

Founded by construction marketing executive Perryn Olson, FSMPS, CPSM, CCMP, A/E/C CMOs was created to help construction companies move marketing further upstream—from executing requests to influencing growth, profitability, client retention, recruiting, differentiation, and business strategy.

Olson has worked with construction companies since 2005 and created A/E/C CMOs to build something larger than a traditional one-person consultancy.

“Construction companies do not need more marketing activity for activity’s sake,” Olson said. “They need experienced marketing leaders who understand how this industry actually works and can connect marketing decisions to the business.”

A/E/C CMOs provides fractional CMO leadership for contractors and other companies serving the built environment. Its Construction Marketing Officer™ approach reflects the realities of the industry, including long sales cycles, proposals, business development, backlog, capacity, market sectors, geographic expansion, talent acquisition, client relationships, and the pursuit of better-fit work.

The firm will also invest in original construction marketing research, publishing, education, and tools designed to raise the standard of marketing throughout the industry.

The goal is straightforward: help construction companies build more valuable, differentiated, and magnetic brands.