Retrofit Case Studies - Do Them This Way
We're missing something out in the retrofit sector. It's a fundamental of marketing and sales. Why does this blindspot even exist?
This month the report from the National Retrofit Hub the State of the Nation Review, identified challenges to the goals of using retrofit to reach net zero. We've been reading it in detail.
Download the Full Report
A recurrent theme resonated through the report.
If it's too dense for you then listen to the excellent seminar viewable on the report homepage.
The report had echoes of the work already being conducted by Yekatherina Brobova and her idea of the Home For the Common Future or HCF;
Matthew Forbes Milloy
Understanding the HCF Concept
The deeply personal nature of home improvement and the invasive feeling of 'having the builders in' is already stressful enough. But you won't get past the shocking figures in the retrofit sector without some fundamental changes.
First some of the numbers from the NRH report.
You read that right. The dramatic increase in retrofit activity required is astonishing. We need a state wide plan it might seem?
The most heavily mined information in the report is focussed on the quantifiable, measurable part of retrofit. Social housing costs are met by the taxpayer, they need to be coordinated, managed and audited.
That means the figures relating to how many social housing tenures are being renovated and retrofitted paint a relatively optimistic picture. Though tell that to tenants like Mel Esquerre and the retrofits forced through by Scottish Law.
Further through the report we see a handy graphic, which represents a linear representation of the sales funnel;
The problem with the start of any process, is that there is always the ephemeral, thinky part of the process where someone decides they could be ready for the retrofit process to start on their home.
And in the private owners market, the least researched, potentially most lucrative, there is an information black hole. Of the 29 million pounds of annual spend being given to repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI) projects - how much could be claimed for retrofit by companies who can connect to these customers?
We know that private households just aren't buying into retrofit. But pinning down why is proving elusive. However, the report does give us in inkling.
It's about representation and information.
Case studies are the way forward.
Unless you can see yourself in a house, which looks like yours and hear a story from people who look and sound like you do, then you are going to struggle to connect to the concept.
It's a concept as old as the hills. To conduct a product launch, you have the people talking the lingua franca, "the lingo Rodney", of your audience.
So make case studies. Dummy.
Lot's of them.
Now.
And here's a thought.
If people researching retrofit in detail.
Are highlighting the gender difference in the purchasing cycle.
Shouldn't you be focussing on the people who're on the arse end of the power balance. Who get to do jobs and run the house too.
Case studies for retrofit should have an approach which centres around the concerns of the most important person in a household. Ask your Mum, your girlfriend, your sister or your daughter.
Because in todays society, Women, whether in marriage, out of marriage, with kids or without kids, still carry the biggest burden. The frikkin house.
Yeah, it's a sticky subject. But until case studies address the concerns of the most important people in society, they'll remain undecided. For now.
Just to remind you, this is what Leah Robson one of the leading lights of retrofit in the UK said, listen carefully to her comments about decisions;