Pricing Research for Installation
An installation product rarely has one price. The manufacturer’s net invoice price, the wholesaler’s selling price, and the price the installer actually pays after the discount ladder are three different numbers, and all three matter when you set price for a press fitting, a circulator pump, or a pre-wall toilet system. Installers also judge price differently depending on the job. A failed boiler on a Friday afternoon compresses price sensitivity to almost nothing. A planned commercial project with three quotes on the table sharpens it. Pricing research that ignores this distinction produces corridors that look precise and mislead completely. Our pricing research measures willingness to pay directly with HVAC installers, electricians, and plumbers by phone, and benchmarks real transaction prices at manufacturer, wholesaler, and installer level. We combine channel price benchmarking with Van Westendorp, Gabor-Granger, and choice-based conjoint, so the recommendation reflects both what the market will accept and how installation products are actually bought.
30+
years of exclusive focus on installation, construction, and home improvement
Van Westendorp, Gabor-Granger, and choice-based conjoint expertise in-house
Pricing collected at manufacturer, wholesaler, and installer levels
20+
countries of CATI fieldwork with installers and wholesalers
What We Measure
Price Corridor & Demand Curve
Van Westendorp price sensitivity meter: too cheap, cheap, expensive, too expensive intersections per product and country. Gabor-Granger demand curve: share of purchase intent at each candidate price point. Revenue-maximising and share-maximising price points identified separately.
Feature-Price Trade-Offs
Choice-based conjoint with brand, feature, and price as attributes. Marginal value of each attribute: efficiency class, smart connectivity, warranty, integrated press indicator. Brand premium quantified separately from feature premium.
Price Elasticity
How installer demand responds to a 5 or 10 percent move at a specific price point. Measured separately for replacement work and planned projects, where sensitivity differs sharply. Used to stress-test a price increase before it goes to the wholesaler negotiation.
Channel Margins & Pricing Structure
Price corridor at each step: manufacturer to wholesaler, wholesaler to installer, installer to client. Discount ladder structures by brand: list price versus what installers actually pay. Recommended wholesale margin to secure stocking and active counter advocacy.
Competitive Price Benchmarking
Actual transacted prices for direct competitors at wholesaler and installer level. By country, by channel, by product configuration. Collected from named installers and merchants by phone, not from list price catalogues.
Premium Acceptance for Technical Claims
Energy efficiency class, ErP compliance, F-gas readiness, warranty length, labour-saving claims. Premium each claim earns among installers and the conditions under which it holds.
Promotional Response
Rebate, volume discount, and bundle impact on installer purchase behaviour. Sensitivity by audience and channel, so promotions recruit buyers rather than reprice existing ones.
Subsectors Covered
Subsector
HVAC & Plumbing
Pricing runs through wholesaler discount ladders, and replacement urgency compresses sensitivity in ways planned-project pricing misses. Heat pump pricing carries country-specific subsidy effects.
Subsector
Electrical Installation
Strong wholesaler intermediation and project tendering mean list price and paid price diverge widely. EV charging and smart building products are still finding their corridors.
Subsector
Sewer & Waste Water
Specifier influence means the price decision and the purchase often sit with different people, so willingness to pay must be measured at the right point in the chain.
Note: This is a portion of the subsectors and product categories we cover within installation research.
How Installation Pricing Research Works - Example Project
Scenario: A sanitary systems manufacturer wants to lock list price, trade discount structure, and wholesale margin for pre-wall toilet systems across Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland before a range refresh. Design: CATI with plumbers and installers per country, plus wholesaler interviews per country. Van Westendorp on the key product configurations defines the installer price corridor. Gabor-Granger layered on top measures intent at five price points around the optimum. A competitive benchmarking phase collects what merchants and installers actually pay for the three nearest competitor brands in each country. Output: Recommended manufacturer net price with the supporting installer corridor, the wholesale margin needed to secure shelf presence, expected installer mark-up, and elasticity at the recommended point. Country comparison shows where German, Dutch, and Polish corridors genuinely diverge and where a harmonised price holds. Note: This is an example of a typical project design, not a fixed process. Pricing a new heat pump line among HVAC installers looks different.
Target Audiences
Note: Audience mix is tailored to each project. This is a portion of the audiences we cover.
HVAC Installers [CATI]
Price judges for heating, cooling, and ventilation products, balancing wholesale cost against job quotes.
Plumbers [CATI]
Price-sensitive on consumables, brand-loyal on systems. Both effects measurable and both matter.
Electrical Installers & Panel Builders [CATI]
Buy through wholesalers on negotiated discounts that must be captured, not assumed.
M&E Engineers [CATI / IDI]
Set specifications that constrain price competition before any purchase happens. Technical premium acceptance and lifecycle pricing.
Wholesalers [CATI / IDI]
The source for real transaction prices, discount structures, and the margin needed to win stocking.
Our Advantage
We collect the price benchmark at the right link in the chain. Asking an installer what they pay for a press fitting is one number. Asking the wholesaler what they charge is another. Asking the manufacturer what they invoice is a third. A generalist agency picks one. We collect all three when the brief calls for it, because the answer depends on the level you set price at.
Thirty years in installation means we know the reference products installers anchor on, the difference between replacement-urgency pricing and planned-project pricing, and which countries tolerate which corridors. Our questionnaires are written by people who know what a press jaw costs, and our respondents are recruited by phone, never from panels, because panel installers give unreliable price and volume estimates.
And we give you a price you can defend in a Monday morning meeting: manufacturer net, recommended wholesaler margin, expected installer mark-up, elasticity at the recommended point, and the country pattern, with sources you can cite.
Project Examples
A sanitary systems manufacturer commissioned pre-wall toilet system price benchmarking with installers and wholesalers, collecting real merchant and installer transaction prices for competing brands. Output: a brand-by-channel price benchmark and headroom analysis across three countries.
DE, NL, PL
A press fitting manufacturer facing a regulation-driven press indicator redesign measured whether the change would shift brand choice or trigger switching among installers, linking the design change to price-value perception across eight countries.
UK, FR, DE, NL, DK, SE, IT, HU
An HVAC brand combined brand funnel and NPS tracking with price positioning measurement, showing where price perception helped or hurt consideration across seven markets.
DE, AT, CH, UK, ES, AE, US
A refrigeration player assessed perceptions of ammonia and other natural refrigerants, including supplier awareness and market share projections, to inform entry pricing for an emerging category.
NL
Deliverables
- Van Westendorp price corridor with the four intersection points per concept per country
- Gabor-Granger demand curve and recommended optimum
- Conjoint utilities for brand, feature, and price, with an online simulator if the brief includes scenario testing
- Elasticity estimate at the recommended price point
- Recommended price by product and country with supporting rationale
- Raw data file (SPSS or Excel) with full cross-tabulation capability
- Workshop with sales, marketing, and product to lock the price strategy
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Can you combine Van Westendorp with conjoint in the same study?
Yes, and we recommend it whenever features and brand will move the acceptable price. Van Westendorp gives the corridor, conjoint shows which attributes shift you within it, and Gabor-Granger validates intent at the chosen point.
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How do you collect prices for installation products when there is no panel?
Direct phone interviewing with installers, plumbers, electricians, and wholesalers recruited through trade screeners, with structured price collection covering both list prices and the discount ladders behind them.
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What sample do we need for a credible price corridor?
Typically 75 to 150 installers per country per audience for corridor methods, more for conjoint, which needs additional observations per design cell. We size the sample to the precision your pricing decision requires.
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Can you run pricing in five European countries simultaneously?
Yes. Native-language CATI in each country, one harmonised methodology, local-currency collection, and one pooled analysis with per-country corridors.
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When should we engage pricing research in the product cycle?
Ideally twice. At concept stage with Van Westendorp to confirm the corridor before the spec is frozen, then at pre-launch with conjoint and Gabor-Granger on the final configuration to lock list price, trade price, and promotional structure.
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Do you measure prices at wholesaler level or installer level?
Both, and at manufacturer level where the brief needs it. In installation the relevant price depends on where you set it: the wholesaler margin decides stocking, the installer price decides usage. Measuring only one level gives half an answer.
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Can pricing run inside a product development or brand study?
Yes, routinely. One fieldwork wave with the same phone-recruited installer sample answers product, brand, and price questions together, which also saves budget against running them separately.
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