Reports

1. INTRODUCTION

The client organisation is a leading supplier of steel building components used across the full spectrum of construction projects. The company wanted to develop a better understanding of trade awareness and attitudes towards the company in terms of general awareness levels, product range, level of service and support, overall satisfaction levels etc.  

2. OBJECTIVES

The overall objective of the research was the following:-

• To assess the level of spontaneous and prompted awareness of the company and its key competitors across the target audience of housebuilders, civil engineering contractors, and key distributors.

• To assess and quantify trade attitudes towards the company’s product range, performance standards, pricing and product development.

• To assess and quantify attitudes towards the level of service and support in terms of delivery speed and reliability, quotations service, sales administration, technical support etc. – and compare with performance of key competitors.

• To assess more conceptual perceptions in terms of overall image – innovative, progressive, professional, flexible, communicative etc.

• To identify any key regional differences in customer attitudes and perceptions. 

3. METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Process

The basic methodology for this research was to interview contractors and distributors within the UK market. 

The first stage involved the design of a questionnaire to meet the research objectives and appropriate to the analysis required. Following design and agreement on the structure of the questionnaire, we developed proposals to interview a sample size to reflect a mix of respondent groups on a regional basis

The sample size in this project was approximately 120 companies and telephone interviews were used to achieve the sample mix on a cost-effective basis..

The basis of the questionnaire was mix of quantitative and qualitative questions – quantitative assessments were required to provide a benchmark of analysis for further work

Following completion of the field research, AMA collated and analysed the information.

3.2. Questionnaire Content

The major contents of the questionnaire were as follows:-  

• Which suppliers are you aware of (Unprompted question) – followed by a prompted question indicating 5 leading suppliers – the question also identified a range of services offered by the client and whether contractors were aware of them.

• Which suppliers were used and why – most contractors were multi-sourcing to some extent.  – key reasons for choice of suppliers.

• How did customers rank client on a scale of 1-5 on a range of criteria – product range, quality, stock availability, delivery speed and reliability, design service, technical support, order processing etc.

• How did customers rank their major alternative supplier on same criteria to compare performance

• Qualitative comments on key areas of difference – both positive and negative

• Overall image of client and key competitor – list of variables

• Summary of overall strengths and weaknesses.

4. LOGISTICS

The timescales for a project of this nature are largely dependent on arranging and implementing a field interview programme. A project involving around 100-150 interviews with full analysis of findings, is likely to take around 6-8 weeks from date of commencement.

The total cost of this project would typically be around £8-12k, with costs depending on sample size, provision of database, ease of contact and level of segmentation of interview sample and results.

5. OUTCOMES

The outcome of the research was a revealing insight into contractor and distributor attitudes towards the client and key competitors. In particular, there were significant regional variations in the results, reflecting the relative independence of the client’s regional operations, historical strengths and weaknesses and different competitors between the regions.

Research findings were quantified wherever possible to provide the client with a benchmark level of awareness and attitudes, which could form the basis of comparison for assessments of changes in consumer perceptions in future surveys.