{"id":28220,"date":"2018-10-27T18:21:35","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T18:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sisinternational.com\/?page_id=28220"},"modified":"2026-05-05T16:47:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T20:47:41","slug":"construction-market-research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.sisinternational.com\/nl\/construction-market-research-solutions\/construction-market-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Construction Market Research: Strategic Intelligence | SIS"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bouw<\/a> Marktonderzoek<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n
\"SIS<\/figure>\n

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Market Research is ever more important in Construction.  <\/span><\/h2>\n

Bouwmarktonderzoek<\/a> uncovers insights into Consumer and Business behaviors, new materials, competitive landscapes, and changing regulations. Construction projects can be large, so research-based planning and strategies are important to minimize cost and maximize returns.<\/span><\/p>\n

SIS Research and Strategy provides access to stakeholders, contractors, and Decision Makers, as a result, we often interview Engineers, Architects, Home Builders, Facility Managers, City Planners, Companies, and Contractors. There can be different levels of decision-makers and stakeholder influence in Construction, therefore, research uncovers the stakeholders to speak to meet your strategic priorities. <\/span><\/p>\n

Research solutions in the Construction Industry include Price Testing, Location Research, Customer Journey Research<\/a>, Usability Testing, including Strategic Analysis of Markets, also Distribution Channels.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Construction Market Research: How Leading Firms Capture Cycle-Resilient Growth<\/h1>\n

Construction market research separates winners from spectators when capital cycles turn. The firms gaining share right now read demand signals earlier, qualify suppliers faster, and price with discipline when peers chase volume.<\/p>\n

Global construction spend continues its expansion through urbanization, electrification of buildings, reshored manufacturing capacity, and infrastructure renewal. Yet aggregate growth masks sharp regional and segment divergence. A general contractor exposed to logistics warehouses sees a different market than one anchored in office redevelopment. Construction market research that aggregates the two produces noise. Research that disaggregates them produces strategy.<\/p>\n

What Construction Market Research Tells Leaders That Public Data Cannot<\/h2>\n

Public dashboards report permits, starts, and put-in-place spending. They do not report which subcontractor tiers have pricing power, which formwork systems are winning specifications, or which regional GCs are quietly consolidating their supplier base. That intelligence sits with practitioners and surfaces only through structured primary research.<\/p>\n

The high-value questions cluster around four areas: total cost of ownership across competing building systems, installed base analytics for equipment and consumables, supplier qualification audit results across regional bidders, and aftermarket revenue strategy for OEMs serving contractors. Each requires direct conversations with estimators, project managers, procurement leads, and specifiers. None can be answered from a database subscription.<\/p>\n

SIS International’s B2B expert interview programs across formwork, balcony systems, and adjacent building product categories in North America consistently surface a pattern: brand awareness among general contractors lags actual specification rates by a wide margin, because subcontractors and engineers drive product selection long before the GC sees the line item.<\/span> The implication is direct. Marketing budgets aimed at GCs miss the decision. Field engineering support aimed at specifiers wins it.<\/p>\n

The Segments Where Construction Market Research Delivers the Highest Return<\/h2>\n

Five segments concentrate the strategic upside.<\/p>\n

Industrial and logistics construction.<\/strong> Reshoring of semiconductor fabrication, EV battery plants, and pharmaceutical manufacturing has shifted demand toward firms with cleanroom, heavy-power, and tilt-up expertise. Intel, TSMC, and Samsung capacity additions have changed regional contractor economics in Arizona, Ohio, and Texas. Research focused on supplier qualification audit criteria for these owners reveals procurement preferences that differ sharply from commercial work.<\/p>\n

Multifamily and modular.<\/strong> Volumetric and panelized construction continues to take share in markets where labor scarcity raises stick-built premiums. Katerra’s collapse did not end the category. It clarified which capital structures and factory utilization rates make modular viable.<\/p>\n

Infrastructure renewal.<\/strong> The IIJA pipeline, combined with state and provincial transportation programs, creates a multi-cycle backlog for civil contractors, materials suppliers, and equipment OEMs. Research on bid-tab analysis and prime-sub relationships shapes win rates more than headline market sizing.<\/p>\n

Building decarbonization retrofits.<\/strong> Heat pump conversions, envelope upgrades, and embodied carbon reporting requirements in jurisdictions like New York (Local Law 97) and California create new specification battles for insulation, glazing, and MEP systems.<\/p>\n

Latin American urban housing.<\/strong> Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, and Guatemala each present distinct demand drivers, financing structures, and regulatory regimes. Pan-regional assumptions fail. Country-level fieldwork wins.<\/p>\n

How the Best Operators Use Construction Market Research<\/h2>\n

The conventional approach treats market research as a sizing exercise commissioned before a strategic plan. The output is a deck. The deck ages. The strategy proceeds on assumptions that calcify.<\/p>\n

The better practice treats research as a continuous intelligence function tied to specific decisions: a market entry assessment for a new geography, a competitive intelligence refresh before a pricing action, a voice of customer (VOC) program before a product reformulation. Hilti structures its research this way. Caterpillar’s dealer intelligence operates this way. Sika’s competitive intelligence on admixture chemistry operates this way. The output is not a report. The output is a decision made with conviction.<\/p>\n

In structured interviews SIS International conducted with senior estimators, project managers, and procurement leads across US and Canadian general contractors and specialty subcontractors, the consistent finding was that switching costs in formwork, fa\u00e7ade systems, and balcony assemblies are driven less by unit price than by field service responsiveness, engineering submittal turnaround, and rebar coordination support.<\/span> Suppliers who price aggressively without matching field engineering capacity lose the second project even when they win the first.<\/p>\n

A Framework for Construction Market Research Investment<\/h2>\n

Allocate research spend across four layers. Each answers a different question and runs on a different cadence.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Layer<\/th>\nDecision Supported<\/th>\nMethodologie<\/th>\nCadence<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Market sizing and segmentation<\/td>\nWhere to play<\/td>\nDesk research<\/a>, secondary triangulation, expert interviews<\/td>\nAnnual<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Concurrentie-intelligentie<\/td>\nHow to win<\/td>\nWin\/loss analysis, mystery shopping, distributor interviews<\/td>\nSemi-annual<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Voice of customer<\/td>\nWhat to build and price<\/td>\nEthnographic site visits, B2B depth interviews, focus groups with specifiers<\/td>\nQuarterly on priority segments<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Market entry assessment<\/td>\nWhether to enter a geography or category<\/td>\nCountry-level fieldwork, regulatory mapping, channel partner identification<\/td>\nPer opportunity<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n

Source: SIS International Research<\/em><\/p>\n

Firms that fund all four layers compound advantage. Firms that fund only the first layer build strategy on demographics.<\/p>\n

Regional Nuances That Reshape Construction Market Research Design<\/h2>\n

North American construction research must account for union versus open-shop dynamics, state-level licensing, and the divergent procurement cultures of public agencies versus private developers. A research instrument that works for a Texas merchant builder fails for a New York public authority.<\/p>\n

Latin American research requires bilingual fieldwork, recognition of informal sector activity, and direct engagement with national chambers like CMIC in Mexico and CChC in Chile. GDP-linked construction value series reported by national statistics agencies are starting points, not endpoints.<\/p>\n

European research is shaped by EPBD recast requirements, Cradle to Cradle certification preferences, and the structural role of family-owned mid-market contractors. Asia-Pacific research must separate the Chinese property correction from sustained infrastructure spending in India, Indonesia, and Vietnam.<\/p>\n

Across SIS International engagements in construction and building products spanning North America, Latin America, and Western Europe, the methodologies that produce the highest decision-grade output combine desk<\/a> research for sizing, B2B expert interviews for competitive dynamics, and ethnographic jobsite observation for product-fit validation.<\/span> Single-method studies underperform.<\/p>\n

The Capability That Compounds<\/h2>\n

The construction firms positioned for the next decade share three traits. They treat construction market research as continuous, not episodic. They invest in primary fieldwork because the highest-value answers do not exist in syndicated reports. They tie every study to a specific decision with a named owner.<\/p>\n

The firms that build this capability now will price with confidence when the cycle softens, and acquire share when competitors retrench.<\/p>\n

Over SIS Internationaal<\/h2>\n

SIS Internationaal<\/a> biedt kwantitatief, kwalitatief en strategisch onderzoek. Wij bieden data, tools, strategie\u00ebn, rapporten en inzichten voor besluitvorming. Wij voeren ook interviews, enqu\u00eates, focusgroepen en andere marktonderzoeksmethoden en -benaderingen uit. Neem contact met ons op<\/a> voor uw volgende marktonderzoeksproject.<\/p>\n

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Related SIS Resources<\/h3>\n