---
title: "Research with arborists for an outdoor equipment maker | antedote"
description: "Research with professional arborists in four countries for an outdoor equipment maker: on-site observation, a communication audit, segmentation and roadmaps."
url: "https://antedote.com/explore-our-work/how-to-speak-to-a-community-of-specialists/"
author: "antedote"
---

# Speaking credibly to a community of professional arborists

Professional arborists know the job better than any marketer. An outdoor equipment maker wanted to speak to them credibly and plan its business with them for the long term, so we met them where they compete and where they work.

**Client**
Outdoor equipment maker

**Industry**
Outdoor equipment

**Kind of work**
Business and expert research

**Our role**
Arborist research, segmentation, communication principles and long-term roadmaps

## What happened next

The business chose its development path from one of the roadmaps, and the brand later launched new products.

## The question

Arborists climb and work in trees for a living, and they are a skilled, specialized and closely connected community.

The brand had two questions. How should it show their work, and what would make its product communication credible to them? And where should its business with arborists go, well past the next product cycle?

## Our approach

We met arborists at climbing competitions and on site, where we watched them at work, so the program was grounded in the job as arborists do it.

We set that fresh work beside what the brand already knew: its previous research, and an audit of how it had spoken to arborists until then.

## What the team came away with

Product and marketing leadership had a playbook that brought the work together.

It set out a segmentation of arborists, communication principles with illustrations of how each could be applied, and long-term roadmaps for how the business could develop with this community.

We later built the brand an activation toolkit on the same principles.

Who we heard from

Professional arborists in four countries, met at climbing competitions and at work on site

## Related work

[View business and expert research case studies](https://antedote.com/explore-our-work/?work=Business%20and%20expert%20research#library)

- Industrial equipment

    ### [Understanding how users choose between industrial equipment brands](https://antedote.com/explore-our-work/brand-choice-in-industrial-equipment/)

- Enterprise technology

    ### [Getting to know everyone behind an enterprise technology purchase](https://antedote.com/explore-our-work/researching-enterprise-technology-buyers/)

    The company has commissioned new work from us every year since the program began, and a proposition we explored with it later launched publicly.

**What we do**
[Strategic research](https://antedote.com/what-we-do/strategic-research/)

## Need the view of experts or business buyers?

Tell us whose view your plan depends on, and we’ll suggest how to reach them.

[Talk to us](https://antedote.com/talk-to-us/) · [hello@antedote.com](mailto:hello@antedote.com)

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