Construction

Strengthening Brand in Construction Materials Across North America

A leading player in the construction materials industry sought to better understand how professionals in the U.S. and Canada perceive its brand compared to competitors. With an increasingly fragmented market and multiple product categories (e.g., rebar, soil stabilization, concrete-related products, paving materials), the client aimed to assess current brand health, measure equity, and identify opportunities to strengthen its positioning for long-term growth.

Business Challenge

The client, a multinational provider of construction solutions, faced challenges in:

Given the size and importance of North America in their growth strategy, the client needed actionable insights into brand awareness, preference, and drivers of loyalty.

Approach & Research Methodology

Jasper Colin designed a 450-respondent brand association study across the U.S. (n=300) and Canada (n=150). Key parameters included:

Screener & Profiling
Participants were filtered by country, age (25+), employment status (full/part-time), industry (construction/engineering/civil/structural/geotechnical), and role (engineer, contractor, geocontractor, or project owner). Respondents also confirmed familiarity with at least one core product category.
Survey Design
The study was structured into five sections:
- Brand Fundamentals - Unaided and aided awareness, recall, and spontaneous associations.
- Brand Attributes & Category Drivers - Importance ratings across quality, cost, sustainability, innovation, reliability, and technical support.
- Brand Health - Usage patterns, brand impressions, recommendation likelihood, and preference across product lines.
- Brand Equity - Evaluated on dimensions such as trust, uniqueness, availability, and self-connective attachment.
- Future State - Hypothetical investment exercise where respondents allocated $1,000 to brands they believed would lead future growth.
Data Collection
The survey was conducted online over 7 days, with quotas ensuring proportional representation across markets.

Key Findings

Awareness & Consideration
- Unaided recall was dominated by established players, with over 65% citing Nucor and CMC spontaneously.
- Aided awareness revealed Tensar and Geopier had strong category-level recognition, particularly in soil stabilization and ground improvement.
Category Drivers
- Quality, reliability, and cost emerged as top purchase drivers (85%+ rated them “very important” or “extremely important”).
- Sustainability and innovation ranked higher in Canada compared to the U.S., signaling regional variation.

3. Brand Equity Performance

CMC scored high on trust and industry leadership, but lagged slightly on innovation perception.
Geopier and Tensar were viewed as specialists with strong technical expertise, giving them higher “future growth” allocations in niche categories.

4. Future Potential

In the investment game, CMC and Nucor collectively captured 55% of hypothetical allocations, underscoring dominance.
Mid-tier brands like Solmax and Huesker showed strong upside among sustainability-driven buyers.

Recommendations

Launch targeted campaigns highlighting innovation credentials, especially in rebar and concrete solutions.
Leverage sustainability messaging in Canada to strengthen differentiation.
Reinforce technical support and reliability in U.S. contractor-focused communications.

Long-Term Strategy

Impact

Within weeks, the client leveraged study results to refine its marketing playbook, leading to:

Enhanced messaging consistency across North American campaigns.
Clearer articulation of brand strengths vs. competitors, enabling sales teams to address objections more effectively.

Way Forward with Jasper Colin

By integrating brand equity analytics with market fundamentals, Jasper Colin provided a 360° view of brand perception. The client now has a roadmap to:

This case underscores Jasper Colin’s role as a strategic partner - not just delivering data, but helping industry leaders turn insights into action for brand growth in highly competitive markets.