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Recently big data and the use of data analytics have gained increased attention in decision making importance. An often-quoted reference first attributed to IBM is that 90% of all the data in the world has been generated over the past two years however, this statistic was first presented a few years ago. Since then the amount of data generated continues to explode from business and personal purchase transactions, as well as data mined and gathered from social media, healthcare, basic manufacturing, you name it. Make no mistake, we are living and working in a data-centric world. Yet, sources monitoring big data trends suggest that less than 1% of all data is analyzed and used for operational decision making. CPG companies have long benefited from point of sale data captured from the cash register to understand shifts in sales, along with share and market demand for their brands. Regulated industries like alcohol, pharma and tobacco have tight controls over product to monitor the flow of shipments and sales, again providing more transparency and end-to-end coverage of market demand.

Principia is finding that many building products companies are hiring marketing professionals from the CPG industry to reshape how their products are marketed and sold. These acquired skills involve using data to target business growth, including pull-through strategies beyond point-of-sale distribution all the way down to the property owner. But, has the industry caught up in its availability of good data sources? Unlike the CPG industry, building products companies are not able to easily capture revenue data directly from consumer transactions due to the multi-step distribution process and business to business to consumer nature of the transactions.

A New Approach

One approach is to leverage available sources of information with uniquely developed voice of customer research to model supply and demand at detailed levels for a product category. Principia BuilderSeries® data products provide a comprehensive view of current and forecast demand coupled with a supply-side analysis and is available for 15 building product categories. Data is presented in interactive visual dashboards and tabular formats which can be easily merged with an organization’s internal data to drive sales and marketing strategies. The combination of internal and external data provides a unique ability to  aim resources at specific market opportunities.

How It Can Help

A major producer of building products was planning to make a strategic move into the multifamily new construction market. The company used Principia’s customized data products platform to map current and forecast demand for multifamily in each of its unique sales territories. The data analytics provided demand in units, market value and number of projects, along with estimated frequency of use, and projected penetration for the company’s products in each of their territories. A supply-side analysis was also layered into the demand model to determine channel position and identify coverage gaps to target in each sales territory.

The company expanded into the new construction multifamily market with revenues that met or exceeded goals in 90% of its territories, supported by the data insights from Principia BuilderSeries® data products. External data about your market position combined with your own sales data can support and refine business strategy and tactics to drive company growth.  Click here to learn more about Principia BuilderSeries®.