The background
A European renewable energy company specialising in energy storage and home energy controls were looking to understand the views of their potential customers around possible product developments. The market for the client’s core product has grown significantly and there are a number of routes that future product development could take, ranging from enhancements to the existing product solution to a comprehensive ‘as a service’ type proposition. The client wanted deep customer insights to understand which developments may be of most interest and to which types of customer.
The key question
The project identified potential buyers for a range of low carbon technologies, such as batteries, heat pumps and Home Energy Management (HEM) systems. It explored current ownership of renewable technologies, assessment of interest in new products, and customer appetite for possible features for a HEMS product, including views around third party control and automatic operation of their energy system. It also provided segmentation of customer personas so the client could better understand their target audience. The study also assessed consumer preferences for sales and marketing activities.
What was needed
A solid understanding of customer appetite for a range of energy products and services across 11 markets. The client needed a solid basis of customer insight to directly inform product development and marketing strategies.
What we did
We created a comprehensive online questionnaire to provide the client with their required insight. It was carefully designed to ensure the survey was understandable to a wide audience, especially given the technical or complex nature of some of the concepts, such as automation.
Working closely with a market research agency, we distributed the survey to a wide audience and received 500 responses in each market.
Data from the questionnaire was analysed using cluster analysis to define target personas. This detailed insight highlighted which types of customers would be most interested in different types of energy services and products, and why.
We also produced a comprehensive report providing analysis for each market, including technology ownership, levels of awareness and interest, and barriers to uptake.
The LCP Delta difference
Our understanding of the fast-evolving consumer energy market enabled us to design a comprehensive and effective questionnaire that provided high quality, relevant and robust data. We drew on our analytical capability to produce personas and key insights for each country.
This detailed insight across 11 markets has provided the client with deep insights around potential future customers and how to target them.
