Building specification is now positioned as a genuine growth lever for manufacturers' brands. Yet it is a complex audience to grasp — one you must know how to influence, convince and support over time. Indeed, before they can become lasting partners, specifiers require a genuine groundwork effort! Gone are the ultra-operational exchanges between builders' merchants and tradespeople: architects and engineering consultancies have their own language and expectations. To “evangelise” them around your products, there is only one solution: understand who they are and implement an appropriate communication strategy.
Through a targeted effort, specification multiplies business volume and restores value to the product.
While the specification approach has historically been very present in certain segments of the built environment (facades, concrete, decoration…), more and more manufacturers from further afield are deciding to place this lever at the heart of their strategies. One reason may be the difficulty of standing out meaningfully in the traditional "manufacturer / builders' merchant / installer" channel, which is sometimes under strain: tight margins, difficulties animating networks, complexity in relaying campaigns, the rise of DIY superstores… Specification thus emerges as the new land of opportunity: through a concentrated effort, it could significantly grow brands' business volume. In a competitive market, approaching this audience would also give manufacturers the opportunity to restore value to the product they sell and thereby create new synergies. One can easily imagine that convincing a housebuilder or an architect around a technical system will inevitably generate operational spin-offs on site.
Specifiers / brands: a relationship that raises the game
For building specifiers to be able to recommend a brand, that brand must undertake genuine support work to develop long-term synergies. As is often the case in manufacturing, the frequent mistake made by manufacturers is to talk only about themselves and their products: a generally ultra-technical message that is, let's admit it, sometimes a little "self-centred". This is essential, but it is not enough to develop real influence! As a communications agency specialising in building and construction, we recommend playing to the construction industry's strength: an ultra-relational dynamic that "makes expertise known". The brand's vocation must be to help specifiers build their skills, enlighten them about a market, and reassure them! That goes well beyond mere technical information about the product or service provided…
Some brands have already taken this on board, as you will see in our case studies.
But not so fast! Often a catch-all, the consecrated word "specifier" actually conceals multiple profiles with specific expectations and habits. This is why we can already rule out (in theory, at least) the possibility of a "global specification strategy". Indeed, you do not talk in the same way to an architect, a quantity surveyor, a structural or thermal engineering consultancy, an interior designer and so on. Their behaviours, habits and motivations are far too different! Beyond that, multiple configurations exist for a single audience: from the engineering consultancy embedded within a construction group to the ultra-specialised independent (acoustics or building services, for example). Finally, one fundamental point must also be clarified in your analysis: the distinction between a specifier in the traditional sense and an audience that also performs an "act of specification". While the architect and the quantity surveyor clearly belong in the "traditional specification" box, many other profiles can be considered to perform an "act of specification" and influence product choices: tradespeople, site managers, works engineers, academics, institutional bodies, journalists…
As you will have gathered, as with any strategy, the key questions fundamentally arise: who should I address? To say what? At what moment? With what objectives? A good knowledge of the audience and its expectations is therefore an essential prerequisite, at the heart of the approach. One objective remains, however: for your product to appear in the next project specification document! To that end, getting support from a communications agency specialising in building and construction could prove a serious asset! Shall we talk about it over a coffee?