Industry overview
What is shaping energy
The energy transition brings rooftop solar, clean cooking, EV charging and efficient appliances to homes and businesses. Adoption depends on cost, trust, financing and after-sales support.
- Rooftop solar adoption depends on financing and installer trust
- Clean cooking programmes need sustained use, not just connections
- Businesses are setting their own transition targets
Client background
An energy efficiency programme, working in Japan & Taiwan. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- An energy efficiency programme
- Sector
- Energy
- Team engaged
- Market Research
- Services
- Business panel, Quantitative research, Content marketing
Client challenge
Small manufacturers rarely took up energy audits despite subsidies. The programme wanted to understand why. Owners were busy running their businesses and saw energy audits as paperwork rather than a source of savings.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: helping small manufacturers cut energy costs.
- Understand the views, needs and behaviour of small manufacturers.
- Produce results that can be compared across groups and locations.
- Give the client evidence it can act on within 6 weeks.
Target audience
The work focused on 800 small manufacturers.
- small manufacturers800
Audiences we typically reach in energy
HouseholdsSmall businessesInstallers and channel partnersProgramme beneficiariesEnergy managers
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Japan & Taiwan. Markets: Japan and Taiwan.
- Japan
- Taiwan
Research methodology
A structured quantitative design, so results could be compared across groups, locations and time.
- 1Brief
- 2SME survey
- 3Case-based content
- 4Insight
We surveyed owners about energy costs, awareness and barriers, then created case-based content showing savings achieved by similar firms. The survey was conducted in Japanese and Mandarin, and we interviewed owners who had completed audits to collect real examples of savings.
Business panelQuantitative researchContent marketing
Sampling strategy
- small manufacturers
- 800
- Business respondents were screened on role, company size and involvement in the decision before being invited.
- Online respondents were drawn from verified panel members who matched the screening criteria, with quotas on key profile attributes.
Data collection
- The online survey was mobile-friendly and offered in respondents' languages.
Data quality & validation
- Digital fingerprinting and duplicate checks
- Attention, speed and straight-lining checks
- Review of open-ended answers
- Logic and range checks on the final data
- Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures
Data analysis
- Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
- Significance testing on the differences that mattered
Key findings
- Owners lacked time and trusted peer examples more than official materials.
Peer examples were more persuasive than official messages.
Recommendations
- The programme used peer case stories in outreach and simplified audit applications.
- The programme also introduced short online audit applications that owners could complete in minutes.
What we recommended, and the client put into practice
Business impact
- Applications for energy audits rose after the new outreach began.
Deliverables & next steps
- Insight report and management presentation
- Cleaned data file and data tables
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: did an energy programme deliver results?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.