In Memoriam: Bruce W. Marcus

Accounting and legal professions mourn loss of pioneering innovator in professional services marketing.

By Rick Telberg
CPA Trendlines

The accounting profession lost a pioneer and innovator when Bruce W. Marcus died last month. And many of us lost a beloved friend.

Bruce W. Marcus started life as a child actor and went on to become a newspaper reporter for the legendary Brooklyn Eagle, an NBC radio dramatist, a speechwriter for national politicians, an advisor to Fortune 500 companies and, finally, a renowned pioneer in marketing and advertising for law and accounting firms. He died Dec. 1, 2014, at the age of 89 after a long illness and had lived in Branford, CT.

Marcus had a far-flung career that spanned the worlds of politics, economics, finance, advertising, and even theater and entertainment.

“I remember serving on the board of the Association for Accounting Marketing with Bruce, in the early years, when so many possibilities lied ahead for the organization,” said Jean Marie Caragher of Capstone Marketing. “He was a man with definite thoughts and ideas and encouraged us to think outside of the box. Bruce was a true pioneer of professional services marketing with a distinctive voice. He will be missed.”

From the United Kingdom, Martin Bissett said, “I know such heavy terms are lightly thrown about these days but not only was Bruce W. Marcus ahead of his time, he also personally took time to get to know me and give me advice that proved vital when I started my business. I’ll miss you, Bruce, and thank you. The story and writings of this pioneer of professional services marketing is one that we should should all give grateful thanks for.”

“The accounting profession has lost a pioneering thought leader,” said Hitendra Patil of Pransform Inc. “One of the greatest things that is so fortunate for the profession though is that his legacy and guidance will be available to future generations of accountants, through his books and writings.”

“His influence was something you could not ignore,” said Sarah Johnson Dobek of Inovautus Consulting. “He paved the way for so many of us that have followed in his footsteps in helping firms market and grow. He was truly a thought leader.”

“It’s still tough today to be an in-house marketing person in an accounting firm,” said Michael A. Bowlan, marketing director at Brown Smith Wallace CPAs. “Can you imagine what it was like to be the first?! Bruce persevered, initially in person with other strangers in this strange land, and later via his newsletter and books. He counseled marketers on how to handle this beast, including its expansion into law and other professional services, while advising partners on how they should market and why they needed marketers. Bruce made an immeasurable contribution to the practice of professional services marketing. His insights live on in his writing.”

Marcus was a contributing author and strategic advisor to CPA Trendlines since its founding and an affiliated professional of Bay Street Group LLC, the research and advisory firm that publishes CPA Trendlines. He had a guiding hand in the creation of AccountingToday magazine more than 20 years ago, served as an inaugural member of the newspaper’s editorial advisory board, a longtime contributor and a member of the exclusive group of figures included among the Accounting Today Top 100 Most Influential People.

As a speechwriter, Marcus worked for political figures including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Senator Jacob K. Javits, authored a major report for President Jimmy Carter and devised op-ed pieces for Mobil Corp.

As a corporate strategist, he served a diverse clientele that included Booz Allen Hamilton, Andersen Consulting, Towers Perrin, most of the Big Four accounting firms and many major law firms.

As an economic consultant, he advised the governments of Turkey and Puerto Rico, and served as president of the New York Association of Business Economists.

As a specialist in capital markets and investment banking, he consulted to Goldman Sachs; Lehman Brothers; Blyth Eastman Dillon; Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette; Citicorp and Chemical Bank.

At both Arthur Young and Co. and Coopers & Lybrand, he was responsible for external communications, public relations, advertising and marketing. He was a senior partner at the Financial Relations Board, and a senior executive in corporate relations at Mobil Corp. and Ruder & Finn Inc.

As a marketing strategist, he advised the American Bar Association on advertising policy, served on the ad hoc communications advisory committee of the New York City Bar Association and was part of the team that successfully convinced the legal profession to switch to Microsoft Word.

He was awarded the Silver Anvil of the Public Relations Society of America for the outstanding program in national and international public relations, and served as an adjunct professor at Fordham University Graduate School of Business Administration, where he taught the first course on professional services marketing ever offered in a United States M.B.A. program. He was on the board of directors of the Association of Accounting Marketing and a member of the Law Marketing Association.

In 1951, with a degree in economics and philosophy from The New School in New York, he joined the Big Eight accounting firm Peat Marwick Mitchell to establish the firm’s corporate library, where he developed one of the marketing profession’s first content-driven marketing strategies with branded thought leadership articles and professional education seminars. There, he became the first communications director of a global accounting firm.

“In the early days of professional services marketing, for marketers, it was horrifying,” Marcus told an interviewer. “There was no hospitality in law or accounting firms for non-lawyers or non-accountants. It was an uphill battle.”

Marcus authored more than a dozen books, was instrumental in the formation of several professional organizations and publications, and provided marketing and strategic counsel to hundreds of business clients, including many of the Fortune 500. His writing appeared in major business, professional and financial publications for more than 30 years.

“I learned so much from him over the years professionally and personally,” said August Aquila, who met Marcus when they worked together at Coopers & Lybrand in 1979 and who later became a collaborator.

“He was a unique voice of reason and truth in this oft-compromised world,” recalled Timothy Powell, president of The Knowledge Agency and author of “Competing in the Knowledge Economy,” adding, “He could smell B.S. from across the room and was seldom afraid to call it out.”

“His wisdom will live on in so many he touched,” said Gerry Riskin, founding principal of Edge International, strategic consultants to the legal industry.

Marcus’ 16 books include his most recent, “Professional Services Marketing 3.0” (Bay Street Group, 2011), and previously, “Competing For Capital” (Wiley, 2005), “Client At The Core” (with August Aquila, Wiley, 2005), “New Dimensions in Investor Relations” (Wiley, 1997), “Competing in the New Capital Markets” (Harper Business, 1991) and “Competing for Clients – The Complete Guide to Marketing Professional Services” (Probus, 1986, revised 1991).

“Throughout his extraordinary career, Bruce has been teaching us to grasp the fundamental unchanging truths of professional marketing even as we respond to the inevitable changes and challenges that expanding marketplaces dictate,” said Richard S. Levick, president and chief executive of Levick Strategies, in reviewing Marcus’ “Professional Services Marketing 3.0,” which Levick termed, “a wise study of where we are now, how we got here and where we need to go next,” adding, “Here, simply, is the voice of a master.”

“ ‘Competing for Capital’ is a must-read for those in the securities industry,” according to Donna L. Brooks, partner, Shipman & Goodwin, LLP, “providing insights into securities markets, the information age and technology, and their impact on the job of investor relations professionals.”

Marcus served on the advisory boards of professional magazines, including AccountingToday, Partner-to-Partner, Practice Development for Solo & Small Firms, and Law Firm Partnership and Benefits.

His speaking engagements included presentations to both the American and Canadian Bar Associations and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, in the United States and abroad.

He produced and wrote innumerable brochures and successful direct response campaigns, as well as corporate annual reports, for which he won a number of awards.

Born to Pauline and Louis Marcus of Brooklyn, N.Y., he graduated from Brooklyn Boys High School, served in the U.S. Army during World War II and was graduated from The New School with a degree in economics and philosophy.

“I really have had a checkered background,” he once told an interviewer. “starting life in the theater, first as a child actor, then as a director, and later, with a job at the old Brooklyn Eagle as a stringer and reporter. In the Army Air Force during WW II, I was a radio operator in Alaska and Aleutians, and served in Intelligence. When the war ended, and before my discharge, I worked as a public relations representative for the Air Force at Elmendorf, Alaska, Air Base. Then after the war, but still in the service, I organized the first Anchorage Community Theatre. I also wrote a column for the Elmendorf Air Force base newspaper.”

“When I got out,” he continued, “I held a number of jobs, including writing for radio, including an NBC soap opera, and a syndicated column for several local newspapers, and finished college. I had worked my way through college as a clerk in the Brooklyn Public library, and when I graduated in 1951, I was hired by what was then Peat Marwick Mitchell to build their library.”

His book “Competing For Clients” in 1986 was one of the first to delineate the new practices of professional services marketing, followed by more than a dozen books on professional services marketing, real estate marketing, investor relations and international accounting standards.

His first newsletter, The Marcus Report, launched in 1986, was followed by the award-winning website, MarcusLetter.com, in 1995 — one of the longest running publications on marketing for lawyers and accountants.

“I lost a dear friend and great mentor,” said Gerry Riskin, co-founder of Edge International, a law firm practice management consultants. “Bruce had a long and amazing life. He could outfence people half his age even close to the end — his mind was even sharper than his saber.”

He is survived by wife Mana Marcus of Branford, CT; children David, Jonathan, Joseph and Lucy; grandchildren Maree, Arital, Robert, Samantha, Leah, Rebecca, Benjamin and Max; and great-grandchild Tait. He was predeceased by a son, Michael.

Posted on January 20, 2015