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Shop Talk: What Will Help Building Material Suppliers Be Successful in 2027?

Explore the trends shaping building material suppliers, from M&A and contractor expectations to AI, productivity, customer service, and supplier strategy.

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Impacts of Dealer Consolidation on The Building Products Industry with Craig Webb [VIDEO]

Craig Webb joins Grant Farnsworth is this "Shop Talk" to discuss the latest figures in dealer consolidation activity in the building products industry and it implications. Plus, they explore the reasons behind the increase in acquisitions and discuss the challenges faced by dealers today.

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Building & Construction
Market Sizing

Home Improvement Product Purchasing Trends Among Light, Moderate, and Heavy DIYers

When looking at DIY homeowners and how to connect with them as a building products brand, it can be helpful to categorize these customers into three distinct segments - Light, Moderate, and Heavy DIYers. Take a look at these distinctions in how each segment behaves:

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Home Improvement
Customer Usage and Attitude

Study Finds Residential Contractor Revenues Up 6 to 10 Percent Compared to Last Year

Q1 of 2024 results from the Farnsworth Quarterly Contractor Index are now available to download with positive indications for Pros. The supply and demand fundamentals also continue to suggest that good times are ahead. Here's what contractors are telling us:

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Study Finds Material Prices Continuing to Drive Trade-Offs During Home Improvement Projects

Historically, our Farnsworth Contractor Index data shows that the second quarter often sees a positive bump in contractor activity and subsequent building material sales. However, this is not the case we see for Q2 of 2024. As homeowners are in a position to make trade-offs, competition levels remains elevated across the channel. In Q2 of 2024, Pro sentiments on business factors related to competition levels have continued on trend with what our team reported on for Q1 of 2024.

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Home Improvement
Customer Usage and Attitude

[CASE STUDY] Customer Attitude Research Among Power Tool Users

Based on recommendations provided by The Farnsworth Group based, this manufacturer was able to make better tactical decisions across divisions regarding their customer targeting and product strategies that will be used to increase their share and overall sales in the power tools category.

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Customer Usage and Attitude
Market Research Case Study

Are Lumber Prices Going to Go Down in 2024?

Two-thirds of U.S. lumber consumption can be attributed to new home construction and home improvement projects, according to CAIA Association. Volatility has defined the lumber market since 2020, but some stability returned in 2023.

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Market Sizing
Building & Construction

What Makes Female DIYers Tick?

A stroll through the aisles of any home improvement chain store shows that women are not the ones being marketed to—or at least not being marketed to correctly. Times are changing though, and manufacturers and distributors who make the effort to target female DIYers in a strategic and thoughtful manner will quickly see returns.

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Home Improvement

The Home Depot to Acquire SRS Distribution, Inc - So, What's Next?

In dozens of conversations since the announcement of The Home Depot's pending acquisition of SRS Distribution Inc., there seem to be more questions than answers. Here’s what we're hearing throughout the industry:

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Building & Construction
Market Sizing

Study Finds PPG Speedhide® Has Larger Specified Percentage Share in Home Centers

Recently, our firm had the opportunity to review analysis of over 60,000 commercially specified paint and coatings products over a three-year period (Jan. 1, 2021 to Dec. 31, 2023). The results show PPG Speedhide® as the product with the larger specified percentage share in home centers, averaging 15.6% per year.

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Market Sizing
Home Improvement

How to Position Your Building Product to Appeal to More Trade Professionals in 2024

In a nutshell, here’s what you need to know about how specialty tradespeople are shopping for, and ultimately purchasing products in 2024 based on findings in The Farnsworth Group’s Building Products Customer Guide.

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Customer Usage and Attitude
Product Development

Top Takeaways from 2024 IBS, KBIS, IRE, AHR Expo, and World of Concrete

Here are some initial takeaways we’ve gathered from 2024 trade shows to provide you with insights on where our industry may be heading this year and next. For starters, KBIS, IBS, IRE, AHR Expo, and World of Concrete all saw high attendance and high energy to kickoff 2024, and it only gets better from there.

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Building & Construction
Home Improvement

Landscaping, Lawn and Garden Market Size and 2024-2027 Outlook

As our team anticipated, slowing housing starts and slowed home sales resulted in a decreased demand for OPE products in 2023, especially among new buyers, but market size forecasts show a brighter outlook. Here's what we're seeing:

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Lawn & Ranch
Product Development
Market Sizing

How to Gain Share of the DIY Home Improvement Market

Because of inflation, the rapid pace of growth in DIY home improvement spending slowed down in 2023 for many product categories. This makes it imperative for building materials companies to be intentional and strategic when looking for ways to expand their market share. In other words, you’ll have to compete again. Here's how to get the upper hand:

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Home Improvement
Market Sizing

Your Guide To Writing Online Survey Questionnaires

When designing a questionnaire there are an enormous number of factors that must be accounted for. Many of these factors are diametrically opposed to one another and the questionnaire design team must make compromises between the conflicting interests. Here we will address some of the most significant factors and the trade-offs that can be safely made.

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9 in 10 Pros Are Satisfied When They Switch Brands

As observed in the 2023 Building Products Customer study, and again in the 2024 study, 9 in 10 builders and remodelers studied reported high satisfaction rates when they switched brands.

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Brand Health
Customer Usage and Attitude

How To Address the Halo Effect Bias in Your Brand Health Study

Business, especially large brands, see the Halo Effect bias when customers associate a brand positively and as a result feel that same positive connection extended to every product sold, regardless of its features or release. For example, Makita power tools have developed a strong perception of being fit for professionals and craftsmen because of their durability, while Ryobi power tools often appeal to entry level DIYers and handy homeowners because they’re cost-effective and a lower barrier to entry for the average homeowner.

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Brand Health

How to Use Triangulation in Qualitative Research To Understand Respondent Themes

Triangulating data in research involves combining multiple sources, methods, or perspectives to ensure the credibility, validity, and reliability of findings. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to triangulate data in research:

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Customer Usage and Attitude

Top Takeaways from the 2024 Building Products Customer Workshop

In October, dozens of building material manufacturers and suppliers gathered for two days of collaboration at The Building Products Customer Workshop. Attendees partook in deep discussion and debate on how to define customers, how customer behaviors are impacting supplier and product decisions, and how to improve the interaction of sales and marketing. Ultimately, manufacturers and suppliers know they can’t just keep doing what they’ve done for the last couple of years. Consider the implications for your company regarding these hot takes:

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Product Development

4 Top Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities in the Market Research Industry

Here is a look at some of the emerging and prevalent trends in the market research industry and the measures being taken by our team at The Farnsworth Group to stay on top of changes, continually implement best practices, and ensure the reliability of research findings:

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Business Research Methods: Best Use Cases of Mixed Mode Surveys (Online and Phone)

Mixed-mode research commonly refers to using more than one market research method for the same task, like using online surveys and phone interviews in the same research project. The most suitable mode of data collection varies depending on the purpose of the research, the size of your sample group, and your resources.

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Brand Health
Customer Usage and Attitude
Market Sizing
Product Development

How to Compare Market Research Firm Options

How do you know for certain you’ve selected the right market research partner? How do you ensure that your partnership investment will yield the right outcomes? Consider this:

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Contractors Confident in Future Business Outlook as Volume of New Leads Grows

Q3 of 2023 results from the Farnsworth Quarterly Contractor Index are now available to download. The mindsets of the consumer is strong and that is having a positive impact for home improvement, which we see in how professional contractors view the present and future outlook of their businesses. 

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Home Improvement

The Future of the Home Center within the Home Improvement Retail Industry

As new freestanding distribution centers are established to support warehousing for bulk orders placed by contractors, home improvement retailers will face new opportunities to cater to the needs of these entirely different buyers.

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Home Improvement
Market Sizing

Will the Housing Market Crash in 2023?

Various data sets suggest the housing market will not crash, but it will continue to correct. We expect this correction in the form of national home price declines of roughly 10-20%. Here's why:

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Building & Construction
Market Sizing

How to Achieve Trustworthiness in Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is, by nature, more directional than quantitative research. There is a misguided assumption that qualitative data is somehow inferior, or at least more questionable, than quantitative data derived from market research. It all comes down to rigor in qualitative research, and whether your study meets certain criteria for credibility, dependability, transferability and confirmability.

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Brand Health
Home Improvement
Market Sizing
Product Development

Research Design & Data Collection Practices for Brand Health and U&A Surveys

Understanding customer attitudes and motivations, as well as how they purchase and use certain products, is vital to creating a holistic strategy around new product design. Quantitative market research offers a means to confirm ideas and theories about consumer usage and attitudes (U&A) by delivering objective and definitive statistics or numerical data. 

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Brand Health
Customer Usage and Attitude

Better Understand Your Building Product Customers

Download informative reports to keep a pulse on how your target DIYer, Contractor, Builder, and Architectural customers' purchase behaviors are changing.

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