Fontaine Bros., Inc.

Nick Sommer

Marketing Leadership Authority

Nick Sommer is the Director of Marketing & Brand Strategy at Fontaine Bros., Inc., where he leads brand development, strategic communications, and marketing initiatives that strengthen the company’s presence across the construction industry. With a strong focus on storytelling and market positioning, he drives campaigns that highlight innovation, project excellence, and client value. Nick brings extensive experience in aligning marketing strategies with business objectives, fostering brand growth, and enhancing stakeholder engagement through impactful and results-driven communication.

Something shifted in how people find information, and most companies haven't caught up yet.

The companies showing up in AI-generated recommendations aren't always the biggest or the most established. They're the ones that have been clearly describing what they do, in writing, for long enough that there's something to pull from.

For years, the game was pretty straightforward. Show up on Google, get some press coverage, and keep your website from looking like it was built in 2009. People searched, they scrolled, they clicked. You had some control over what they found. That's not gone, but it's no longer the whole picture. Conversational AI is becoming part of how people research vendors, employers, and partners. It works differently than a search engine. It synthesizes. It summarizes. It gives answers, not options.

"The loudest companies won't win this. The clearest ones will.​"

The implication for construction companies is specific. This industry still runs on relationships and reputation, which is true and important. But people are now validating those relationships before they pick up the phone. Architects, owners, developers, and potential hires are asking questions and getting synthesized answers based on whatever your company has put out into the world. If that content is thin, inconsistent, or nonexistent, you're not starting the conversation from a position of strength.

What works isn't complicated, but it requires consistency. Project write-ups that actually explain what was hard about the work. Employee stories that show how the team thinks. Clear language about what kinds of problems you solve and for whom. Not a brand campaign. Just an honest, ongoing record of what your company does and why it matters.

The loudest companies won't win this. The clearest ones will, the ones that have been telling a consistent story long enough that there's actually something there when someone goes looking.

That's always been true of reputation. AI just made it more measurable.