Competitive Advantage - Marketing Consultancy for the Construction Sector
Aiming to help you grow profitability through customer focus.
Founded in 1999 by Chris Ashworth, Competitive Advantage specialises in providing marketing and sales services for the construction sector. Our clients range from some of the largest organisations in the industry to small start-ups. They comprise trade associations, manufacturers, contractors, distributors and professionals.
Our specialist team have all been recruited from sales or marketing roles within the construction sector. Their commercial experience means that we are informed about current issues, familiar with the industry's language and practices and understand the challenges you and your customers face.
Our ongoing research activities give us an extensive and up-to-date understanding of industry issues. This can help us to quickly assimilate a client’s challenges and propose an effective solution.
We consider our specialist competencies to be Specification Sales, Sustainability,Key Account Management and Construction Marketing.
Recognising the budgetary constraints faced by most organisations, the consultancy maintains a low cost base and a flexible approach to projects, keeping fees to a minimum.
We would be pleased to discuss a project without obligation. Why not complete the enquiry form or read our case studies for some examples of the ways that Competitive Advantage can help your business.
The services we provide are:
Conducted on your behalf, we use a range of research methods, recommending the best option or combination to suit your project’s requirements, including focus groups, in-depth interviews, telephone interviews and online surveys. Competitive Advantage has been conducting construction research since 2000. Our research team have construction industry experience and are familiar with the industry's language and practices. Our commercial experience means that as well as reporting research findings we are able to interpret these effectively and make sound business recommendations. We aim to provide high quality information at an economic cost.
We publish a growing number of standard reports on a regular basis. All are available to buy online. Reports cover subjects such as sustainability and industry communication channels. Content is both quantitative and qualitative providing information to contribute to construction forecasts and market analysis. The latest titles include: Construction Media Index and Adoption of BIM.
Our role in developing and implementing strategy can be as much or as little as you wish. Past projects have ranged from just a few days, to major involvement over a period of months. We are also able to provide a small level of regular support, on an ongoing basis.
Regular training and development is key to keeping your team effective. While there are many training providers, very few have a construction focus. Competitive Advantage provides construction industry training courses, focused on construction marketing or construction sales issues.
Because we are constantly researching the market and conducting focus groups, we have a good understanding of what drives industry decision makers – this is included in our training material, with established theory, supported by practical experience. Competitive Advantage training courses are run as open programmes during the year and are also available as in-house programmes. The training covers a range of sales and marketing subjects. Bespoke programmes can also be developed, either using a pick-and-mix approach with existing courses or written to meet your specific needs.
Recognising the budgetary constraints faced by most organisations, the consultancy maintains a low cost base and a flexible approach to projects, keeping fees to a minimum. Our commercial experience means that we are informed about current issues, familiar with the industry's language and practices and understand the challenges you and your customers face.