The Value of Trade Pros in MR
By Dorothy Nam
Trade professionals, such as contractors, architects, HVAC technicians, and electricians to name a few, are a niche research audience largely because their time is so valuable. Research participation often requires time away from a job site or service call which can directly impact their work. However, when included with intention, they offer deep expertise, help bridge gaps between marketing and real-world use, and make research more efficient.
Trade Professionals as Experts
Trade professionals sit at a unique intersection between brands and consumers, advising clients while also studying, purchasing, installing, and explaining products. Through repetition and lived experience, they are both consumer and expert, with deep understanding of performance, trade-offs, and durability across projects.
In many ways, they are researchers in their own right, shaped by exposure to a wide range of brands and focused on product features and functions that matter.
Grounding Ideas in Reality
By working directly with their clients, trade professionals gain a clear view of what consumers seek, what is misunderstood, and where expectations begin to fall short.
This allows them to identify:
Where consumer-facing language oversimplifies or overcomplicates in decision making (e.g., packaging that makes products within the same brand appear interchangeable)
How claims hold up across multiple scenarios (e.g., performance across weather conditions or different application contexts)
While trade professionals understand homeowner motivations, they are also well-versed in constraints like installation, maintenance, and cost. Their foresight helps ensure that what looks compelling in the aisle or on the screen still makes sense once their work is done.
Invaluable and Efficient
Trade professionals can require more intentional recruitment than general consumers but do not require large samples to be impactful. Their exposure across many customers and use cases allows patterns to emerge quickly.
At W5, this is supported by targeted recruiting approaches that identify qualified trade professionals through thoughtful screening, along with experienced moderators who understand the trade context and can ask effective follow-up questions to surface insights efficiently.
Where They Add the Most Value
Trade professionals are valuable at key moments in the consumer journey when choices made in the aisle or online shift to applied use. In W5’s journey research, trade professionals consistently emerge as key influencers of brand choice and selection, shaping decisions through firsthand experience with how products perform in real conditions.
Trade professionals are especially effective when exploring:
How products are understood, selected, and explained across different shopping environments
Gaps between what consumers notice in the aisle or online and what matters once a product is in use
Points of confusion or friction both before and after purchase
How messaging is interpreted before and after purchase
Their perspectives rarely appear in consumer-only research. When included thoughtfully trade professionals act as translators between brands and consumers, helping teams focus on what works beyond the aisle.
Trade professionals may be harder to reach, but their value is difficult to replace. A small number can sharpen strategy, clarify messaging, and help ensure decisions reflect both the product and consumer.
Want More?
With more than two decades of trade research experience, we bring a deep bench of case studies and perspective on this topic. Book a call and let’s keep the conversation going.
Interested in seeing more on W5’s research with B2B audiences? Check out this Spotlight Blog, Why Small Can Be Mighty in Niche B2B Research, and W5 eBook, Our Guide to Strategic Growth with B2B Research.