market sizing, growth & forecasting

Turning raw data into usable marketing information

There is a general shortage of reliable market information around. Even if you know what is happening to your own company, can you really know what is happening to your competitors businesses? Are you gaining market share, or is it simply that the market is growing and yours is too. And this is important for issues like pricing, planning new production facilities and other investment decision.

Forward planning can be a difficult task if you don't have an objective prediction of where your markets are going. Where do you allocate your sales force and plan production? How do you choose a sales target that doesn't leave the remainder of the market open to your competitors, or even set targets that are too ambitious?

With specific experience of statistical forecasting packages we can project the size of markets in the future. This helps to identify which sectors to target. Then you can target projects in sectors that are growing, before your competitors even get to know about them. You can also set realistic individual short-term targets for the split of sales calls by sector for each territory.

In the construction industry we have worked closely with Glenigan over several years to help clients make better use of project data. Traditionally it has been used as a lead generator, but it can be much more than that. Have you appreciated its use in providing real marketing information as well as sales leads. For example, we can take their planning data and analyse it for market shares and segmentation. It can also reveal architects and contractors' market shares, and how much each of them is winning.

You can find out who is letting most work and therefore the contacts that are crucial to business development. This is all vital marketing knowledge. For some of our clients we have used Glenigan data to look at sectors in depth. We can research a specific sectors by looking at specific projections in depth. You can also gain information on customer segmentation and characteristics in this way.

Leading Edge experts know how to unlock a hidden asset by maximising your return from planning data.

market analysis & modelling

Our computer generated 5-year model of the construction industry, covers the seven main construction sectors and the key heavyside building materials markets. This includes blocks (dense, lightweight & aerated), bricks (facings, engineering & commons), cement and readymixed concrete.

It gives a comprehensive background to what's happening in the industry and the reasons behind them. It also gives the assumptions we have made in case these change.

We have also used these 5 year forecasts on occasions as a basis to run companies' own historic data against them for bespoke forecasts. These include markets such as paint, electrical accessories, roof tiles, domestic glass and insulation. We also provide forecasts for particular geographical sectors as well as specific market sub-sectors such as offices, retail, leisure, health and education.

So, if you want to find out more about our £125 forecast....

What our clients have said when using us for market analysis:

• "It makes very interesting reading and I welcome particularly the way it set things in a broader strategic context, highlighting themes that the construction sector needs to address to be successful in the long term"
• "Worth half a market analyst per year. It is a small price to pay for being prepared."
• "Adaptable, offers advice on how information could be best presented."

Case Study

Using planning data to provide real insight into what is happening in a construction sector for your market intelligence

This European company wanted to understand the UK housing market with the view to expanding sales of their second fix items. They approached a published planning data provider and asked them for some help. The company’s specific interest was in housing, including flats. They wanted to know what had been happening over all and by individual regions:

• What type of housing/flats were being built
• Who was the developer/housebuilder
• Who was the contractor
• Who was the architect
• How were they being funded
• What was new or an extension.

The company was moving into the UK market and wanted to understand it better.

Although the data was crucial, it was important to the client to have some interpretation and to understand the drivers and barriers to this ‘foreign’ market. There have been several factors coming into play in this market.

The first was the Government targets on brownfield land and affordable housing. Developers need to maximise profit has led to a move towards building two bedroom flat with two bathrooms. This move has been re-enforced by a trend for young people to get onto the housing ladder by buying together.

The other driver was the fall in the stock market which has led people to invest in buy-to-let property. This also encourages the move towards two bedroom flats which are not too expensive and easy to let.

Leading Edge took planning data for the housing sector covering 3 years to analyse the market. All the information is available from the planning data and just needed to be organised in a way that would drive out the figures. The consultant then turned these into tables and charts that told the story of the market.

The data was allocated to a sub-sector which meant that developments could be analysed by whether they were predominantly houses, luxury houses, bungalows or apartments/flats to identify where their market lay.

By looking at all stages of planning, we were able to build a picture of what is in the pipeline and how this will impact on the market in the future.

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