By David Ing, Managing Director at Fabrick

The role of specification has changed considerably over the past few years with a larger number of people having influence and decision-making powers. A number of different consultants and engineers now have increasing input into specifications, such as façade engineers, M&E consultants, and sustainability consultants. This has made the role of marketing much more complex. So how do manufacturers adapt to addressing this ever evolving process?

This broadening of the specification process is reflected in research recently conducted by Futurebuild. This report, titled ‘Impacting the Specification process: Insight for Manufacturers’ includes responses from a wide audience including architects, quantity surveyors, contractors, housebuilders, cost consultants, engineers, end clients and many more. This shows how important specification is to so many different people and therefore how many different professions can impact specification.

It also highlights the fact that many audiences that I would class as ‘hard to reach’ also have an influence over specification. If manufacturers need to target architects or main contractors the routes are clear, however, façade engineers, sustainability consultants and approved inspectors are less easy to engage with. This has made influencing specification much harder for manufacturers.

Unfortunately, the challenge doesn’t stop there as the industry are facing a host of other challenges. We are facing something of a perfect storm. We need to build more than we have ever done and build to a much higher standard. However, we have fewer skilled tradespeople and we have much more stringent financial models. So how we do we build more, to a better standard, with less people and with tighter budgets? This is all set against an increased demand for accountability across design and construction as clients become increasingly conscious of their investment.

Focussing all of this is the fact we are on a road to net zero and the Futurebuild report shows that decarbonising projects and the role that product innovation will play in achieving this will be critical. Manufacturers will need to have a clear focus on reducing the environmental impact of their manufacturing processes whilst improving the performance and lifecycle of their products. There will need to be total transparency with test data becoming increasingly important and a need to communicate – the report showed that 52% of respondents stated that lack of knowledge or awareness of product innovations was one of their barriers when it came to specifying them.

With the introduction of initiatives such as CCPI (Code for Construction Product Information) which I am sure will continue to gain traction, manufacturers will need to raise their game when it comes to the information they provide and the language they use to present their products. The report shows that specifiers continue to place real value in standards such as BREEAM, ISO and FSC but there are many more factors that are now coming in to play making considerations and more onerous task.

So what does all of this mean for those responsible for marketing?

Manufacturers may need to rethink their marketing strategies, if they have not done so already. We need to find better ways to not just inform audiences but engage and influence – we can no longer talk at our audiences; we need to talk to them and understand the challenges they face.

Product innovation, which is critical for us if we are to meet net zero, will provide manufacturers with competitive advantage. Marketing teams will need to plan carefully how these innovations are positioned, who they are targeted at, and the data and information to support any performance claims.

There is all a need to understand what factors are impacting decision making and then in turn, how you can use these factors to your advantage. With that in mind, the Futurebuild report is one such piece of research that every marketeer should read.