Home / Services / Market Exploration Research / Installation
Market Exploration Research for Installation
Whether you're assessing heat pump adoption across European markets, evaluating the distribution landscape for a new press fitting system, or trying to understand why hydronic balancing is accepted in Germany but resisted in France, you need research built for the installation world. We reach HVAC installers, plumbers, M&E engineers, panel builders, and wholesalers directly. Most often by phone, in-person or via online channels. With more than thirty years in this sector, we know how to ask the questions that generate real insights from professionals who spend their days on site rather than behind a desk.
30+
years of installation sector focus
Electrical
European Electrical Installation Monitor tracking Electrical installers.
Reach
20+ countries; CATI fieldwork with installers and wholesalers
What We Measure
A complete view of the European installation market, from brand competition and technology adoption to wholesale dynamics, regulation, and installer behavior. Every layer of the value chain covered, with each subsector researched separately to surface the patterns that actually drive decisions.
Examples
Market Structure & Competitive Landscape
Brand penetration by category and country, market share by volume and value across brands and purchase channels, and key player mapping across the specification and procurement chain.
Technology & Category Adoption
Pace of adoption for new products like heat pumps, press-fit connections, and smart controls, plus the barriers slowing them down - skill gaps, cost, regulatory complexity, and attitudes toward new materials (e.g., PVC+ vs. copper).
Distribution & Wholesale Dynamics
Wholesaler stock and destocking behavior, channel preferences by installer and project type, pricing across the distribution chain, and value-added service expectations such as training, technical support, and logistics.
Regulatory & Sustainability Environment
How energy efficiency regulations, new standards (F-gas, ErP), and government incentives shape product adoption, installer awareness, and decision-making.
Installer Behavior & Preferences
Product selection criteria at point of sale, brand loyalty drivers and switching triggers, the information sources installers rely on (sales reps, trade media, social), and unmet professional needs.
Installation Subsectors Covered
Subsector
HVAC and Plumbing
Heating systems, ventilation, cooling, water supply and drainage. Key dynamics: energy transition (heat pumps replacing gas boilers), strong geographic variation in regulatory frameworks.
Subsector
Electrical Installation
Low- and medium-voltage products, panel building, cable management, wiring devices, EV charging, and solar integration.
Subsector
Sewer and Wastewater
Replacement cycles for ageing infrastructure, specifier vs contractor influence, regional variation in drainage approaches.
Note: This is a portion of the subsectors and product categories we cover within installation research.
What we Measure
How Installation Market Exploration Works
Example Project
Scenario: A manufacturer of press-fit pipe systems wants to understand why adoption is strong in Germany and the Netherlands but low in France and the UK. They need to know whether the barrier is brand awareness, installer skill, wholesaler stocking, or price perception.
Design: 12-minute phone survey with 150 plumbers and HVAC installers per country (600 total across DE, NL, FR, UK), recruited directly by phone. The questionnaire covers current product use, brand familiarity, purchase channel, and perceived barriers. Parallel in-depth interviews with wholesalers per country map stocking and category advice patterns.
Output: A country-by-country gap analysis showing where the barrier is awareness vs trial vs conversion, with a specific commercial recommendation for each market.
Note: This is an example of a typical project design, not a fixed process.
Target Audiences for Market Exploration Research in Installation
Note: Audience mix is tailored to each project.
HVAC Installers
Specifiers and buyers of heating, cooling, and ventilation products.
Plumbers
Water supply, drainage, hot water, and heating systems.
Electrical Installers & Panel Builders
Domestic, commercial, and industrial electrical work.
M&E Engineers
The specification decision-maker on commercial and industrial projects.
HVAC & Electrical Wholesalers
Critical distribution link; stocking behavior and brand advocacy at point of sale.
Energy Companies & Utilities
Increasingly relevant as energy transition programs shift who influences product adoption.
Our Advantage
Why Market Exploration Research for Installation?
We treat installation as a distinct sector with its own decision flows, professional cultures, and commercial logic - not a sub-category of construction or engineering. A heat pump specification by an M&E engineer in Germany operates in a completely different context to a plumber replacing a circulator pump in a UK terraced house.
We have an international database of installers. Every respondent is recruited directly, by phone. The plumber in our sample is an active practising professional, therefore we can guarantee the quality of their answers.
Our syndicated European Mechanical Installation Monitor provides benchmark data that your exploration study can calibrate against.
Project Examples
Competitive Position Across Europe
A manufacturer of ventilation duct systems wanted to understand their competitive position across five European markets. Identified two under-represented markets despite strong product fit.
UK, FR, DE, NL, DK, SE, IT, HU
Tracking Wholesale Recovery
An HVAC equipment supplier needed to understand wholesale stock levels and future purchasing plans following post-Covid supply chain disruption.
UK, PL, FR, NL
Replace, Upgrade, or Switch?
A circulator pump manufacturer wanted to understand installer replacement behavior - like-for-like, upgrade, or brand switch. CATI with 400 HVAC installers and plumbers.
DE, IT, UK, FR
Deliverables
What You Receive
Actionable Insights, Not Just Data
Deliverables are always tailored to the needs of our customer. Together we choose the form in which the insights can make the most impact. This can be:
- Structured market exploration report (PowerPoint deck + supporting data appendix)
- Workshops with your marketing team or board, to get insights into an action plan.
- Interactive dashboards in Power-BI of Forsta Vis.
- Installer and wholesaler behavior profiles
- Barrier and driver analysis: ranked factors preventing or accelerating product adoption
- Verbatim quote bank from qualitative interviews, organized by theme and country
- Raw data file (SPSS or Excel) with full cross-tabulation capability
- Executive summary deck (5–8 slides) for board or investor presentation
- Optional: Country briefing sheets for local sales teams in local language
Multi-Country Capability
Installation market exploration rarely produces useful findings from a single country. Regulatory frameworks, heat pump adoption curves, distribution structures, and installer behavior vary significantly across markets. We run simultaneous multi-country studies with a single harmonized methodology, native-language questionnaires, and centralized data management - one integrated report, not eight fragmented national studies. We cover 20+ countries, including complex markets like Turkey, the GCC, and Southeast Asia.
Key European Markets
Americas
Asia-Pacific & Middle East
-
How do you recruit HVAC installers and plumbers for market exploration studies?
We don’t use online panels. Every HVAC installer, plumber, or electrician is recruited by phone, screened to verify trade and current active status to ensure we’re interviewing true professionals.
-
What sample sizes do you typically use?
This depends on the topic and size of the target group. Usually about 100–150 CATI interviews per key audience segment is sufficient. For qualitative IDIs: we typically advise 8–12 interviews per country, although when targeting niche experts, it can be fewer.
-
Can you run studies across multiple European countries simultaneously?
Yes. We manage the full multi-country workflow: questionnaire design, translation, country-specific CATI teams, centralized data cleaning and analysis in one report which makes it easy to compare. Up to 20+ countries in a single study.
-
At what stage should we commission market exploration research?
Market exploration is typically pre-product – to understand whether an opportunity exists, how the market is structured, who the decision-makers are. It can also run post-launch to understand underperformance or identify new opportunities.
-
How does market exploration in installation differ from a generalist agency?
A generalist agency uses a generic survey and recruits whoever they can find online. We design from the installation sector outward: we know which decisions are made by whom, which categories are regulated, which questions produce actionable data.
-
How long does a study typically take?
Single-country CATI + qualitative IDI: 8–12 weeks. Multi-country across 5–8 markets: 10-12 weeks. Although there are always possibilities to speed up the process if insights are needed in the short term.
-
Can you combine bespoke exploration with your European Mechanical Installation Monitor data?
Yes. Your bespoke study provides specific competitive and behavioral data; the Monitor provides the sector-wide context that makes findings interpretable.
Excellence trough expertise
Related reports
Contact us
Send us a message
Please contact our office or fill in the contact form and our specialists will contact you.
PHONE
+31 10 2066900ADDRESS
Max Euwelaan 51
3062 MA Rotterdam