As a communication or marketing professional, you know it all too well: knowing your audiences inside out is the sine qua non for reaching them effectively! The successive crises and upheavals seen across the construction sector in recent years have inevitably transformed professionals' habits and needs; but have manufacturers adapted their communication strategies accordingly? What if yesterday's winning formulas were no longer tomorrow's?
Since crises are always windows of opportunity for brands, "relationship-based" communication could well prove a precious asset to build into your communication and customer marketing strategy. Here's our take!
Holding back and waiting to communicate "when things get better" remains the surest way to let the opportunities offered by periods of crisis slip by.
Crises are always windows of opportunity for brands
COVID-19, inflation, material shortages, soaring production costs, a critical energy situation: the construction industry seems to have been lurching from one crisis to the next for several years now! The philosopher Edgar Morin, true to his holistic vision of society, did warn us: "We navigate a sea of uncertainty, through islands and archipelagos of certainty".
Yet far from justifying any prevailing fatalism, these market disruptions - which come around in cycles - drive profound changes in professionals' habits and behaviours. They turn out to be genuine opportunities for brands, enabling them to secure strong, long-term positions.
So enough of the gloom and the wait-and-see attitude! Holding back and waiting to communicate "when things get better" remains the surest way to let the opportunity offered by the momentum slip by (the main risk being that your competitor, meanwhile, decides to move up a gear). While every occasion is a good one to create value and connection with your audiences (specifiers, tradespeople, developers, distributors), you will nonetheless need to adjust your stance and, at times, fundamentally rethink the way you communicate to support them through these uncertain times.
Adopting positive communication and offering an expert, solutions-focused perspective to guide your audiences through an unpredictable market could prove the winning formula for the decade ahead!
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Say less, say it better, say it straight
Proud of expertise that is often generations old, construction manufacturers tend to place their solutions at the centre of their messaging. This very "push" style of communication showcases the product's benefits without necessarily matching them to the needs and expectations of the target audience. So we sing the praises of a new hammer drill with a revolutionary impact rate, or a multilayer fitting with near-zero flow loss.
In a perpetual race for innovation, where each new product supersedes the last, the real expectations of construction professionals - tradespeople, builders' merchants, housebuilders, specifiers and so on - are sometimes forgotten.
Let's say less... certainly, to fight "infobesity" and the relentless flood of communications that makes brand messaging ever harder to read. But one thing is certain: let's say it better, and say it straight!
Rather than navel-gazing, advertising-led or promotional messaging (in other words, product-centred), let's choose instead to support professionals with communication that is genuinely useful to their day-to-day work and that meets their need for clarity in a troubled market.
New standards (RE2020, the French tertiary-sector decree...), health and safety, time savings, business management, decarbonisation, customer loyalty, energy-efficient renovation, recruitment...: there is certainly no shortage of topics, and it is up to manufacturers to embrace them fully and bring them to their audiences as so many springboards (or entry points) for communication. That is where the paradigm shift lies: the "product" to be sold is no longer an end in itself; it becomes the answer to a concrete problem.
We are convinced of it: in this period of multiple crises, the brands that will secure strong, long-term positions are those that manage to move away from product-centred messaging (specs/price) and position themselves as providers of solutions. We discussed this in a previous article!
So, as a construction or housing manufacturer, how can I make my audiences' daily lives easier, save them time or money, and showcase their expertise?
Towards relationship-based communication that creates value
Relationship-based communication aims to open a conversation with your audiences by providing tools and content that are genuinely useful and value-added.
Take the example of a tradesperson: their daily routine is not short of challenges! While your initial role is to help them choose the product best suited to their worksite, it is now necessary to go further, to:
- Make their daily work easier (worksite advice, tips, regulatory updates, time-saving services...)
- Support them in running their business (recruitment, training...)
- Help them grow their activity (sales tips, relationships with their residential customers, online visibility...)
- Showcase their expertise (customer reviews, online reputation...)
- And more.
By supporting them on the worksite as much as in managing and growing their business, you move from being a mere supplier to a partner in their daily work. The relationship then becomes a genuine "double act", each lifting the other higher.
Steer clear of time-consuming and costly loyalty programmes and identify tradespeople's pain points instead. Then offer them solutions through high value-added content (cheat sheets, memo cards, infographics...) and formats (newsletters, white papers, case studies) that meet their needs. That is THE formula for building a privileged, long-term relationship.
A practical example
As part of its "Électriciens et connectés" campaign, Schneider Electric helped electricians get to grips with digital tools (Google My Business, social media, Google advertising, etc.) to manage and grow their business. The pros had access to a relationship "toolbox" comprising a practical guide, a checklist, a webinar and video testimonials to understand digital and build their skills on the subject.
