The first objective was to establish the market size, a notoriously difficult task in the absence of industry statistics. This was approached in three phases.

Desk research - published data was assembled to establish orders of magnitude and to prioritise the markets. This was still a long way from achieveing the degree of precision needed by the client for critical decisions in making marketing expenditure committments.

Primary research - The next stage was to drill down into building approvals and records in municipal panning offices in eight European countries and scrutinise their records and in some cases obtain customised printouts of planning approvals.

The data was entered into a pipeline database of over 6,700 projects over a period of three years and projected to annual values of offtake over the next five years.

Architects and specifiers were interviewed in each country to establish factors affecting choice, the decision process for the product and attitudes towards competitive products and suppliers.

National and company profiles were built up and a competitive market analysis developed for planning. Marketing recommendations contributed to the design of a pan-European marketing strategy with clear national differences and channel strategies.