This Report

This report will inform manufacturers who wish to plan a specification strategy in terms of marketing communications and sales force targeting. It aims to provide insight into the main factors that influence product specification by Architects, including contract type, and sources of information. It also considers the form of specification used and how likely an original specification is to remain firm until the time of supply. These factors were also compared against the respondents’ years of experience to see if this was a factor.

About us

The team at Competitive Advantage have been involved in the various aspects of specification strategy for more than 20 years. This includes researching the market for clients and reports like this. In addition we regularly review the material published by other sources.

We share our insights in published articles and blogs on the subject as well as speaking at conferences and seminars and providing specialist training on specification strategy for sales and marketing teams.

This report is in response to questions we have received and gaps that we have identified in the understanding of the decision making process of specifiers, in particular, Architects.

Report Overview

This research presents findings on the factors influencing product specification by architects. In the last two years there have been numerous developments and changes in the factors influencing how architects select materials to specify. The following areas are covered by the report:

• How specification of building products has changed in the last 2 years
• The most influential factors when selecting building products
• How product selection changes during the design process
• The impact of contract type on specification
• Perceived levels of product switching
• The levels of influence by profession on specification
• The influence of different sources of product information on specification
• The impact of age and experience of the specifier on the selection of building products

Large and medium architects’ practices were targeted for interview. All respondents were responsible for project design and product selection.

Research was conducted during March 2019 using telephone interviews, with a total of 150 interviews.

Architects were asked which were the principal sectors they design in, respondents covered a wide spread of sectors, of which the most highly represented were Residential, Leisure, Offices, Education, Retail and Healthcare.

We asked respondents how long they had been professionally qualified to learn if this changed the influences on their behaviour.

This report contains 50 pages with 43 charts and tables of data.

1. Objectives and Methodology
2. Management Summary
3. Sources of Information
4. Product Selection Factors
5. Forms of Specification
6. Role of BIM
7. Switching Specifications

This report contains 50 pages with 43 charts and tables of data.