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Consumers Play Most Critical Role in Housing Innovation
An understanding of consumers is what’s most needed now to spur innovation in housing, according to a recent one-day symposium on housing market data by the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH) and McGraw-Hill Construction.
That consensus was reached during the symposium by an invitation-only group of leaders from industry, academia, government and private research organizations. Because of the range of innovative products moving into the marketplace, it was also suggested that critical end-users — including home owners, remodelers and builders — should be able to access a clearinghouse of information like McGraw-Hill Construction’s Sweets Network for products.
“If we’re going to move new products and innovation into practice, we need to understand better the characteristics and incentives that are important to the consumers,” said Harvey Bernstein, vice president of Industry Analytics and Alliances for McGraw-Hill Construction. “What makes them receptive to new products? And from there, how do they get information? If we can make consumers aware of options and get them to demand innovation, we can transform our industry.”
The specific kinds of information that needs to be gathered:
- There are different ways consumers and builders value innovation, and these need to be better understood.
- Clear performance measures or metrics can have a significant impact in increasing adoption rates.
- Other research or data collections methods are necessary to produce better insights into housing innovation barriers, motivation and adoption mechanisms.
- Intermediaries — such as suppliers, retailers, installers, appraisers, Realtors® and media — play various, and perhaps critical, roles in spurring innovation.
The symposium is part of a larger effort between PATH and McGraw-Hill Construction to explore further what users think about technology and who is most influential in bringing innovation to the nation’s housing.
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