VIEWPOINT BUILDING BRAND LOYALTY
Nicky Jepson, marketing director, Workhouse Creative Agency
BRAND LOYALTY IN the trade world runs deep. Peek inside a tradie’s van and you’ll most likely see the same name plastered across all their tools. Get talking to a plumber about whether they’re a plastic or a copper advocate, and the passion you’ll get back isn’t far removed from a football fan discussing their favourite team.
Surely this degree of loyalty makes it almost impossible for brands to cut through and get a tradesperson to try something new? Fortunately, it’s not. We recently conducted research as part of our Built for the Trade report which takes a deep dive into the role of creativity in driving action in construction marketing and the findings make for interesting reading. Of the 250 people we surveyed, 86% said brand content can influence their purchasing decisions, but crucially only half think existing brand content is very effective. So, what do tradespeople want from their brand content and how does that vary at different stages of the buying journey?
The role of humour A key question in the report was what makes content good or worth a tradesperson’s time. A fair assumption would be that humour plays a central role, particularly given the prevalence of social content that leans into onsite pranks and jokes. But when we consider effective content – that which makes someone consider or try something new – humour ranks bottom of the options given with just 26%. Top of the list was content that’s short and to the point (41%), closely followed by high-quality visuals (40%) and clear, practical information that
can be used on the job (39%). This tells us that if we want to successfully move people down the funnel, then we need to make sure content balances practicality, quality, and value. It needs to stand out to grab attention and then quickly signal its worth through mental short cuts and brand differentiators to make it stick. It also ties back to trust. Tradespeople are fiercely protective of their reputations, so they need to trust that trying something new won’t jeopardise that. There’s no real place for humour in building that level of trust.
Keeping it real We also asked who our trade audience would prefer as the face of brand content and real- life tradespeople came out as the clear winner with 57%, followed by trade influencers with 36%. It shows a clear preference for brand content fronted by people who understand the realities of the job.
We explored some of the findings of the report at a roundtable in late June, and this need for authenticity echoed around the room of leaders in construction marketing. One of the attendees, Callum Spavins who is a brand manager for Crown Paints, talked about their approach of leveraging trade panels and branch staff as brand ambassadors, which has achieved growth for them across both trust and quality metrics.
This idea of engaging both tradespeople and trade counter staff is so important if you want to move people towards action. One of the tradespeople we spoke to as we developed the report talked about visiting the same timber merchant in his 60s as he did with his dad
September 2026
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net
call “the last mile”. Branches remain a critical point of influence where relationships often trump product specifications.
“Of the 250 people we surveyed, 86% said brand content can influence their purchasing decisions, but crucially only half think
existing brand content is very effective.”
as a teenager. The people he deals with in branch hold so much sway over his selection of materials, and that pattern is repeated up and down the country.
It’s not enough as a brand to invest in pure attention. For a sector that relies so heavily on personal relationships, you have to take the time to engage with those key players who can influence decisions in what we
Creative foundations The final pillar of the report provides real grounds for optimism for trade brands as it’s built around action and what content from a brand has influenced people to do. Almost half (46%) said brand content had directly influenced them to try a product for the first time, while 35% said it had led them to recommend a product to another tradesperson and 31% would recommend a product to a customer based on what they’d seen. The content that shifts behaviour doesn’t look or sound like everything else in the category. To achieve this, you’ve got to escape the sea of sameness and make sure that creativity is baked in from day one.
Brand loyalty in construction isn’t disappearing, and brands shouldn’t be trying to crack it overnight. The opportunity is to earn a place on the shortlist when a tradesperson is ready to reconsider what they use. That doesn’t happen through louder campaigns or bigger media budgets. It happens through content that respects their time, demonstrates genuine value and is delivered by people they trust – both their peers and in branch. In a market where
recommendations, branch relationships and reputation carry enormous weight, the role of marketing is to reduce the perceived risk of trying something different. Get that right, and even the strongest brand loyalties can shift, one job, one recommendation, and one purchase at a time. BMJ
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