The Art of Alignment: Branding in Decentralized AEC Firms

When AEC firms grant decentralized offices free rein to create their own messaging, the results can be damaging: wasted resources, confused clients, weakened competitive positioning and marketing teams that unknowingly sabotage each other's work. Yet many firms continue operating this way, treating brand fragmentation as an inevitable cost of doing business across multiple markets.

In this episode of "Spill the Ink," Michelle Calcote King sits down with Amy Zelenka, Director of Marketing at Affiliated Engineers, Inc. (AEI) to explore what happens when AEC firms allow their decentralized structure to fragment their brand identity across offices, markets and practice areas. According to Amy, the solution isn't centralized control, but rather strategic alignment that preserves regional flexibility while ensuring consistent messaging.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn

• Who Amy Zelenka is and her journey from Fortune 100 companies to AEC marketing.

• About Affiliated Engineers and how the 900-person MEP firm tackles complex building challenges.

• Why decentralization can create bigger brand challenges for AEC firms than for other industries.

• The hidden costs of brand fragmentation, including wasted time, lost credibility and weakened differentiation.

• How the seller-doer model can contribute to inconsistent messaging across offices.

• Why a hybrid approach works better than purely centralized or decentralized marketing.

• Why effective brand guidelines must go beyond visual identity to include strategic messaging.

About our featured guest

Amy Zelenka has spent 25 years building marketing expertise across diverse industries, from Fortune 100 companies to startups, before finding her calling in architecture and engineering. She previously served as Global Marketing Director at Jensen Hughes and led marketing across three business units at Johnson Controls International. At AEI, where she's Director of Marketing, she drives brand development, digital strategy, communications and marketing database management.

Amy holds an MBA from the University of Wisconsin and combines strategic thinking with hands-on execution for AEI's 900-person organization. Her approach blends creativity with data-driven insights, connecting AEI's engineering talent with opportunities to tackle the industry's most complex building challenges.

Resources mentioned in this episode

• Check out Affiliated Engineers Inc. (AEI)

• Follow AEI on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram 

• Connect with Amy Zelenka on LinkedIn

• Say hello to Michelle Calcote King on LinkedIn

Sponsor for this episode

This episode is brought to you by Reputation Ink.

Founded by Michelle Calcote King, Reputation Ink is a marketing and public relations agency that serves B2B professional services firms of all shapes and sizes across the United States, including corporate law firms and architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) firms. 

Reputation Ink understands how sophisticated corporate buyers find and select professional services firms. For more than a decade, they have helped firms grow through thought leadership-fueled strategies, including public relations, content marketing, video marketing, social media, podcasting, marketing strategy services, creative servic