Do buyers care whether wood is sustainably sourced?

What is shaping wood & timber

Wood, plywood, laminates and furniture are sold through a chain of influencers: carpenters, contractors, architects and dealers often decide the brand before the homeowner does.

• Carpenters and contractors heavily influence brand choice
• Dealers balance margins, credit and brand pull
• Sustainability and certified timber matter more to buyers

A certified wood products company, working in Sydney, Melbourne & Auckland. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.

Organisation

A certified wood products company

Sector

Wood & timber

Team engaged

Market Research

Services

Quantitative research, Qualitative research, Content marketing

The company held sustainability certification but saw little sales benefit. It wanted to know whether customers and architects valued certification and how to communicate it.

• Answer the core question: do buyers care whether wood is sustainably sourced.
• Understand the views, needs and behaviour of homeowners.
• Understand the views, needs and behaviour of architects.
• Measure how widespread each pattern is, and explain the reasons behind it.
• Give the client evidence it can act on within 6 weeks.

The work focused on 1,000 homeowners and 30 architects.

• homeowners1,000
• architects30

Audiences we typically reach in wood & timber

Carpenters and contractorsArchitects and interior designersDealers and distributorsHomeownersFurniture buyers

Coverage: Sydney, Melbourne & Auckland. Markets: Australia and New Zealand.

• Australia
• New Zealand

A mixed-method design: structured research measured how widespread each pattern was, and qualitative conversations explained why.

1. 1Brief
2. 2Online survey
3. 3Architect and designer interviews
4. 4Insight

We surveyed homeowners about purchase priorities and certification awareness, and interviewed architects and interior designers about specification practices and client demands.

Quantitative researchQualitative researchContent marketing

homeowners

1,000

architects

30

• 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.
• Qualitative participants were recruited purposively to cover the full range of experiences that mattered, rather than for statistical representation.

• The online survey was mobile-friendly and offered in respondents' languages.
• Interviews and discussions were led by experienced moderators using a guide agreed with the client.

• Digital fingerprinting and duplicate checks
• Attention, speed and straight-lining checks
• Review of open-ended answers
• Recordings and transcripts for every session
• Re-screening of qualitative recruits
• Logic and range checks on the final data
• Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures

• Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
• Significance testing on the differences that mattered
• Thematic coding of interviews and discussions
• Journey and decision mapping

• Homeowners cared but rarely asked; architects working on premium and commercial projects specified certified wood when clients requested it.

Sustainability messages work best when aimed at the people who write specifications.

• Build on the core insight: sustainability messages work best when aimed at the people who write specifications.
• Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: homeowners cared but rarely asked; architects working on premium and commercial projects specified certified wood when clients requested it.
• Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.

• The company focused its communication on architects with ready-to-use specification material.

What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.

• Insight report and management presentation
• Cleaned data file and data tables
• Interview summaries and key verbatims

• Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
• A natural follow-on question: what makes a dealer push one brand over another?