The newly launched CIM Foundation course for the Construction industry marks a real step forward in the drive to make an academic qualification that is of immediate relevance to practitioners – and about time too.

Marketing is a broad (and much misunderstood) discipline, whose principles need to be learnt and understood.  The principles hold for any market sector, but the application is necessarily different depending on the industry in which you work.  Sometimes so different that it is difficult to apply the principles without some transitional guidance.

However, it is surely impossible for a central organisation to supply training tailored precisely to meet the changing requirements of a hundred unique industry sectors: a collaborative approach that combines an established and authoritative training programme with insight from current industry practitioners has to be the ideal solution.

The construction sector is the first to have undertaken such a collaboration: marketing professionals currently working in the sector provide practical guidance based on first-hand experience of the specific challenges of this diverse industry.  One small example illustrates the point.  Marketing training will demand that you focus on the customer – but in the construction industry, who is that customer?  The architect who specifies? The contractor who builds? The commissioner who pays, or the occupant who lives with the consequences?

With its complex supply chains and various influencers, the sector is difficult to navigate and also very much in need of skilled and enthusiastic professionals.  The new course draws on the experience of marketers who have had to adapt their learning to meet the needs of the construction sector and are happy to help smooth the process for new entrants.

The result is the very best hybrid – a measured and expert framework in which the unique and specific application of knowledge is explained and demonstrated.  Candidates completing the course will come away not only with an understanding of marketing principles, but also with the interpretation to enable them to apply those principles in a construction environment immediately.

The first course begins in September, with the closing date for registrations at the start of August.  More information is available here. bit.ly/2tKWgZm

About the author:  Anna Hern is MD of Ridgemount PR, a consultancy specialising in the construction sector, and CIMCIG committee member