Research Approach and Methodology

Consulting Engineering firms in Ontario face fierce competition for securing work that
generates adequate profit margin to sustain growth. Since there can be only one cost leader,
other firms are at risk of not winning significant projects if they dont have a marketing strategy
to differentiate their services.
Secondary research will be conducted via an academic literature review of the current
marketing strategies for professional services firms. The information will be used as a baseline
for primary research, which will focus on collecting information on the shortcomings of
engineering firms in marketing their services (ie, applying these common strategies).
Secondary Research
The secondary research will be performed on public-private partnership (PPP)
procedures, private sector engineering projects, and the contractor selection criteria.

The

research will look into marketing strategies for engineering firms and other professional services
firms.
The main keywords used for searching for online literature review will be marketing
strategies for professional services firms, the Ontario public-private partnership (PPP)
procedure, the professional services firms organizational structure, major engineering firms
in Ontario, target markets of professional services/engineering firms in Ontario, and a
business strategy for engineering services firms. Sources for the search will be the Royal Roads
University library, Google Scholar, online search engines such as about.com, Toronto public
library, and the websites for the municipal, federal and provincial government and agencies that
are part of the government (such as the Toronto Transit Commission, the Toronto port authority,
and Canadian Railway). Research will also be conducted by reviewing government requests for
quotation from professional services firms through government contract portals such as

biddingo.com in order to locate PPP projects and documents on how the competition is weighted
in order to award the contracts (such as experience, value added services, creativity, insurance
coverage, etc).
Primary Research
The primary research will be done by phone interviewing members of a few engineering
firms, including technical staff, marketers, owners and managers. This will give a broad view of
marketing strategies that are currently being implemented (or are not being implemented) in
Ontario engineering firms, from different perspectives in a firms hierarchy. Interview was
chosen over survey questionnaire because it will cover more information, and there is
opportunity to dig deeper.
Personal visits (ie, observations) will be paid to a few PPP information sessions that are
held by the government publicly for interested firms in order to observe the proposal process, as
well as a follow up visit regarding which firm won the project and why (ie, cost, experience,
differentiation, proposal clarity, value added service, client networking, insurance and
guarantees, etc). This tool is the only feasible option available to gain insight into the clients
(ie, the governments) prospective on which marketing strategies affect their decision making.
Other tools such as interviewing and survey questionnaire are not feasible due to the
confidentiality of governmental information with regards to awarding contracts to private
companies, as well as difficulty accessing the government decision makers who are normally
higher up in the management chain.
Collection, Sorting and Analyzing the Research Data
The secondary research will be collected from the aforementioned databases and the
common themes of the research will be summarized, specifically the common marketing

strategies and patterns for professional services firms as well as the common pitfalls in marketing
professional services. The interviews and observations (primary research) will also be conducted
and the data from the research will be recorded. Then, the common themes and interview
highlights will be summarized and interpreted. Specifically, the main state of the art marketing
strategies for professional services firms will be summarized based on the secondary research.
Then, the information on how well are these strategies implemented in practice (or if they are not
implemented and why) will be collected qualitatively via the primary research. The result of
summarization of the primary and secondary research as well as the recommendations will be
tabulated per the below format.
Order of
importance
1

Marketing Strategy

Findings

Recommendations

(Secondary Research)

(Primary Research)

Offer value added services to

These services are often not

Offer value added services that align with

increase

offered.

customer values.

the

customer values.

delivery

of