Legends of residential Marketing for 2009

Since 1992, The National Sales & Marketing Council has saluted homebuilders and marketing professionals who have stood apart as giants in the new home marketing field as “Legends of Residential Marketing”

Legends are selected based upon their professionalism, and commitment to our industry and quality of their new home marketing.

This year we induct 1 Legend honoree

Adrienne Albert is nationally recognized as one of the foremost marketing and sales experts in residential real estate.  With her firm, The Marketing Directors, Inc., Ms. Albert has been personally responsible for the marketing and sales of over $29 billion in residential sales.  Over the past 28 years, The Marketing Directors has served dozens of clients on a wide range of projects, from single family homes to high density multi-use developments, in locations from Canada to California.

After earning a Master of Architecture degree from MIT, Adrienne was partner in an advertising agency in Toronto, Canada.  It seemed counter productive to her that advertising would bring in bodies and sales found them unqualified leaving the developer  at risk.  Therefore, she founded The Marketing Directors in 1980, a truly full service marketing and sales organization specializing in new homes. The Marketing Directors brought a new vision of how real estate should be presented and sold.  The service that was provided was also groundbreaking.  Even today, The Marketing Directors, under Adrienne’s guidance, is known for an analytical approach to marketing, relying on facts rather than emotions and opinions.

Through her company The Marketing Directors, Adrienne and her team were the innovators that brought the notion of pre-selling to the residential real estate market.  They were the first to introduce full size off-site furnished models, replicating true views,  computerized building models, miniature furnished models, robots, interactive virtual presentations, international sales, computerized customer tracking systems, and customized outreach programs, all of which are now the industry standard. 

In the mid-eighties, the firm expanded, accepting assignments along the east coast and Canada.  The methodology was applicable to any market and success followed. Developing tracking systems that are diagnostic tools, pricing mechanisms that maximize return and a sales methodology specifically geared to high density onsite applications, The Marketing Directors catapulted to national leaders, and earned hundreds of awards for marketing and sales excellence.

Adrienne was awarded Marketing Director of the Year from the NAHB in 1985, has earned Woman of the Year from the ABO of Greater New York in 1989 and 2001, The Emma Lazarus Award from the ABO in 1996 and 1999.  She was Chairman and Co-Chair of the MIRM/NSMC award in 1993 and 1992, Chairman of the Membership Committee of the NAHB in 1990 and 1991, Chairman of the NY Sales and Marketing Council in 1987 and 1988, and  MIRM awards Judge in 1992.  Additionally, she has received numerous additional awards for her service to the industry over the last 27 years.

Ms. Albert is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York, a MIRM since 1984, a Member of the Association of Real Estate Women, is a Governor of the ABO of Greater New York, is a member of the NAHB Sales and Marketing Council, a member of the Urban Land Institute, was an IRM II Course Instructor, an adjunct faculty member at NYU Real Estate Institute, has taught at Columbia University and Queens College.