The study provides an exact data basis for the marketing of marble, granite & Co
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A large majority of Italians rate marble and natural stones in general as “beautiful, elegant, durable, luxurious, natural, but expensive.“ This is the result of a representative survey commissioned by Marmomac. It should be noted that the survey was conducted among normal consumers, i.e., figuratively speaking: the customers for the huge prêt-à-porter market, not the few who spend their money on haute couture.
The results are not surprising. Nevertheless, the study cannot be rated highly enough: for the first time, it provides a reliable database on why consumers choose natural stone in their homes or why they do not.
This makes it possible to find starting points for better marketing in the stone sector.
A contradiction in the results points to an urgent field of action: 30.6% of the architects said that they would recommend stone to their clients as a matter of priority, but at the same time 33.9% of them had stone at the top of the list of materials from which they advise their clients against.
The reason for this contradiction is suspected by the authors of the study to be a communication deficit, according to a report: architects do not really know about the care and maintenance of stone and would therefore prefer to redirect clients to “less complicated” materials. The same problem area had already been pointed out in a 2018 survey by the German Natural Stone Association.
Overall, the survey revealed many encouraging things for the industry, such as that natural stone ranks 2nd in the popularity scale of materials: Marble is behind ceramics (58.3%) with 56.4% of respondents, followed by wood/parquet (44.0%), earthenware, terracotta, cement and laminate.
It should be noted that marble is mentioned as representative of all natural stones in Italy.
For 80.8%, marble was “the best decision they could make.“
In case of home renovation, 64% would keep it and only 36% would replace it with other materials. 48.5% said they would have installed it before during a modernization, and 54% planned to do so.
Interesting to know: 40% of respondents had never renovated their house or last renovated more than 20 years ago.
This also shows that consumers consider the value of natural stone to be high, which weakens the “expensive“ counter-argument mentioned at the beginning.
Stability of value is the keyword here.
In terms of use, flooring (55% of responses) was in 1st place, followed by kitchen or bathroom countertops (42.4%), stairs (39%) and window sills (36.2%).
Other items in the survey revolved around who advised consumers on their decision, where they purchased the stone and from where they sourced information.
The survey was conducted between December 2021 and February 2022 by Milan-based market research firm EMG Different. It was a nationally representative sample of 2,000 Italians aged 30 and over who participated in the research through online surveys and targeted telephone interviews. The market researchers divided the respondents into 4 middle class groups: essential (simple and clean), comfy (comfortable and functional), luxury (modern and oriented to self-expression), green classic (natural materials).
The results were presented to the public in Italy in April 2022. Two press reports of it can be read in the net in Italian.
Marmomac had indicated in its press releases for the 2022 fair that the survey was available in Italian at a price of 149 €.
Article in Verona Economica (Italian)
Article in ioArch (Italian)
Download of the survey for 149 € (Italian)
(12.12.2022)