The Challenge

Our client, a major manufacturer of power tools, sells a huge portfolio of tools to a wide range of different trade audiences across Europe.  These audiences can vary from small one-man bands with fairly infrequent use of tools to much larger companies purchasing a range of tools for heavy use.  Decision makers can vary from small company owners purchasing in similar ways to a DIY consumer to procurement professionals. 

Our client needed to find a way to segment these audiences in order to understand how to tailor what they offer and serve each audience most effectively.  In addition they wanted to quantify the size of the opportunity so they could identify which segments to prioritise.

The Approach

We began with a market sizing piece across Europe in order to identify the size of each trades segment as defined by our client and the size of the power tools market.  This was conducted using a mix of desk research and expert interviews with industry associations and large distributors.  We also spoke to competitors to try and confirm the findings from the information collected.

Then in order to contextualise and help generate hypotheses about needs based segments we conducted a qualitative research piece.

• 30x 45-minute depth interviews spread across trades (light, heavy, industrial and utility/transport/rescue) and markets (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Sweden)
• Interviews undertaken with purchase decision makers who plan to use cordless tools, outdoor power equipment or lighting in the next twelve months.

Finally, we conducted a quantitative survey to provide us with the data to build a sample base for the segmentation.  We conducted 1,926, 15 minute surveys with trades across different regions.  Then we conduced a series of statistical steps to refine the variables used to complete the segmentation and then further profile and describe the audience segments.

The Results

As well as providing a comprehensive market overview and assessment of size by trade and by region, we were able to generate 4 segment clusters who shared specific behaviours and needs.  This number was much more manageable compared to a purely trades based segmentation that would have been in excess of 10 segments.  Our research helped our client understand which clusters should be a priority focus, how they should tailor their offer and communicate with them.

Construction Client