Is there a business potential outside Japan for these polymers additives?

Case Study - Insight Solutions
Polymer Applications

The Challenge

Determine if there are business opportunities to capture overseas

A large Japanese producer of acrylic-based polymer modifiers was only selling to regional customers, mostly as impact-modifiers and processing-aids in specific applications. To grow their revenues, they wanted to duplicate their successes in overseas markets, but they had no clue if their products would be valued and how they should be positioned to be successful:

Is there an interest in the existing applications outside Japan?

Are there any new applications that could drive growth?

What are the competitive modifiers and key differentiators?

How to position the products in each application or region?

SpecialChem Insight Solutions

6 months to test the overseas markets and find partners

To collect direct market feedback in a short timeframe, we created and shared unbranded material concepts to our broad community of material converters via our digital channels. We encouraged professionals to share their feedback and interviewed the most interesting profiles to get a deeper technical and marketing understanding. By combining additional insight sources including bibliography, promotion performances and online behavior analysis, we provided all the knowledge required to measure the potential of overseas markets.

The Benefits

Faster time-to-market: 2 years minimum
Very strong chance of commercial success
Faster and higher ROI
Intensive cost and resources savings to acquire that level of knowledge
Reliable partners with strong projects
Direct access to the broadest audience in the material industry: 4 Million users and 500,000 profiled members in 2019
Complete market understanding of the overseas opportunities
100% unbranded exposure and unbiased feedback

The Results

We confirmed the interest of overseas markets and found reliable partners

In 6 months, we clearly saw a strong potential for their polymer modifiers:

Identified the 3 top markets, their key applications and the best marketing messages
Validated the interest of overseas markets in the existing resins
Discovered 3 new resins of interest for these modifiers
Highlighted the main barriers to change and how to overcome them
Detected a big interest to combine the grades in plastic formulations
Dispatched 20 partners willing to test the polymer modifiers

For the existing resins, we recommended a digital marketing program on SpecialChem to raise awareness in Europe and Americas, educate the targeted markets about the benefits of the polymer modifiers and engage new customers through lead generation actions.

For the 3 new resins that we identified, we recommended an additional 6-month Insight Solutions to fully investigate and understand the markets' drivers and barriers to adopt those polymers modifiers and learn how to precisely position the products in those brand-new applications.

Testimonial

“Without SpecialChem, we should have tried to enter overseas marketsblindfolded. Now we know how to do it in just 6 months.” The Japanese supplier was enthusiastic with the insights we provided, especially with both the recommended decisions and next steps. The quality and number of partners were ideal to ensure an optimal follow-up according to the project manager. They even renewed contact with a past client, a large worldwide resin supplier, who left without any explanations several years ago.

Do you want to test the interest of new regions in your chemicals or materials?

We identify the most promising market opportunities and tell you how to position your product. We also connect you with partners to uncover any unmet requirements to maximize your chances of success