Unlocking growth in dry construction materials through customer journey insight
Turning Early Decisions into Growth Opportunities
client name
PRIVATE
year
2025
Consumer behaviour among leading manufacturer
Discover insights on customer satisfaction research that drive business success. Explore methodologies, findings, and strategies to enhance your customer experience.
service: Customer Satisfaction I sector: Construction
The challenge
A leading player in the construction supply chain was looking to strengthen its position in dry construction materials, particularly within a complex decision-making environment involving contractors, installers and specialist trades.
Despite strong brand familiarity in the category, uptake of higher-value technical solutions lagged behind expectations. Decision-making was often driven by habit, perceived risk and limited knowledge rather than by product performance or long-term value.
The client needed a clear, evidence-based understanding of how professionals choose materials, where decisions are truly made, and how influence could be increased at the right moments in the customer journey.
Our approach
USP conducted a customer journey–driven research programme combining quantitative scale with qualitative depth to uncover both what professionals do and why they do it.
Key elements of the approach included:
- A large-scale quantitative study among generalist and specialist professionals to map purchasing behaviour, decision criteria and usage patterns
- Qualitative group discussions to explore motivations, perceptions and trade-offs in real-world project contexts
- A decision journey framework identifying critical moments of choice, influence and missed opportunity across the buying process
- A focus on practical barriers such as knowledge gaps, trust in performance, availability, and point-of-sale experience
Rather than producing a static report, the research was structured to directly support commercial decision-making, portfolio strategy and activation.
The impact
The study gave the client a shared, fact-based view of the market reality, enabling them to:
- Reframe how and where influence should be applied in the customer journey
- Identify concrete opportunities to shift behaviour from standard to technical solutions
- Align manufacturer and distributor roles around clearer guidance and education
- Prioritise interventions that build trust, confidence and perceived value, rather than competing on price alone
Most importantly, the insights translated directly into actionable strategic choices, helping the client move from assumptions to evidence-led growth opportunities in a challenging category.
Why it matters
In markets where professionals rely on experience and habit, growth does not come from more products, it comes from better understanding decisions.
By uncovering how choices are really made, USP helped transform a complex customer journey into a clear roadmap for commercial impact.
You might be interested in
Reframing Market Understanding in a Fragmenting Paint Landscape
The challenge A major paint company faced a shifting market: online sales grew, specialty stores competed for relevance, and brand trends evolved. The client wanted an ongoing, detailed view of market size, channel balance, brand performance, and consumer behaviour—not just a one-time report. Without consistent data, they risked making reactive, instead of proactive, strategic decisions […]
Using Customer Insights to Strengthen Brand Perception Across Markets
Background A manufacturer of professional tools wanted to better understand how its brand and product range were perceived in two European markets. Although the company had a long history and a broad assortment, internal teams suspected that customers were not fully aware of the complete product offering, and that perceptions differed significantly between markets. To […]
Entering New Markets Backed by Data
Context A planned acquisition in the HVAC distribution space, a client active in the insulation sector needed to evaluate market fit and competitive position across Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro. They sought to assess how a target distributor and affiliated product lines were perceived—while also identifying broader trends in sourcing, decision-making, and brand strength across local […]