The Challenge

Our client, a manufacturer of furniture, fittings, ironmongery and hardware was looking to understand how they can better exploit certain European markets through a comprehensive market assessment.  Key objectives included:

• The size and structure of the market and long-term trends
• The supply chain, who is buying how much and from whom
• Identify and profile the competitors, their market share and their offer
• Profile the customer and understand their needs and wants and how the market performs on these identifying any unmet needs
• Assess the strength of our client’s brand

Our client’s audiences were extremely fragmented, including furniture manufacturers of varying sizes, distributors, carpenters/other trades and specifiers. Markets included Spain, Italy, France and Denmark and each had their own unique context.

The Approach

We adopted a multi strand, staged approach to this research.  We began with desk research using sources like market reports on furniture and furniture fittings, information published by manufacturers (websites, press releases), information from various associations and consultancies and sales information from our client themselves.  We used our knowledge of the market in collaboration with the client to develop intelligent estimates on the market.  The desk research helped us agree where to focus the next stages, where our estimates were further refined. 

We conducted a quantitative survey by phone of around 100 customers and non-customers of our client.  Our client provided a list, typically highlighting key customers to focus on and we sourced non-customers.  The interviews were conducted by a local partner in native language.  Purchasing data from these interviews was used to further refine market estimates. These interviews also provided valuable first-hand feedback on market needs.

Finally, we spoke to select competitors to attempt to validate our findings and obtain further information.

We agreed a standard template approach for these market assessments, but with plenty of opportunity for tailoring by market.  We worked in partnership with local country managers throughout to develop our approach and to ensure our findings were grounded in their understanding and expertise in the market.

The Results

Our comprehensive market assessment enabled country managers to develop a plan based on real evidence to grow sales using the model below. Retaining a consistent approach across markets meant that markets could learn from each other and central management could have an overall European picture.

Construction Client