Investigating the market interest and needs for new bio-molecules

The Challenge

To explore the potential and the best applications for several bio-based molecules in the industrial chemical segments

This case study features a global specialty materials and ingredients supplier who developed a large range of bio-sourced monomers as potential building blocks for new polymers, co-polymers and additives for the adhesives, coatings, and plastics applications.
Our role at SpecialChem was to help our client select the most promising molecules, then to explore the best application opportunities, as shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Application segmentation model for each molecule

SpecialChem specialized community in details

The main objectives were to:

Validate which product performances would be expected (polymer, additive, solvent...)
Test directly with the market their perception of these performances
Identify the priority applications and the market potential based on perceived value, drivers/barriers and needs
Connect with potential customers and development partners interested in increasing the sustainable profile of their products

SpecialChem Insight Solutions

4 to 6 months to assess the market potential and needs

To gather market feedback in a short timeline, we created unbranded material concepts (properties, benefits, usages, etc.) that we shared with our broad community via digital channels. Targeted professionals had the possibility to answer a first set of questions online then to connect with us for a deeper technical discussion. We collected insights through online feedback, behavior analysis, promotion performances and phone interviews with carefully selected contacts. We built a detailed report based on the learnings with recommended next steps for the client.

The Results

Clear recommendations to bring compelling sustainable products to the market

The Insight Solutions project proved an extremely high interest in the molecules: both from quantitative and qualitative point of view.

25 industry partners were identified in total, including major resin producers and formulators (BASF, Henkel, PPG) as well as medium sized companies
A clear value proposition was validated for each molecule with one identified that increased the biocontent in the formulations, and the others – for their combination of barrier properties and biodegradability
Key applications and respective benchmarks were confirmed, supported by the analysis of an important number of datapoints (1,000+ technical formulators reviewed the concepts and 130+ targeted professionals completed our online survey. Then we conducted 27 extensive one-to-one interviews)
Strategies were recommended on how to approach each region based on the learnings about the best applications & value attributes, potential and price acceptance
We provided clear guidance on which data was still needed to convince future customers and efficiently scale up high-quality products.

Testimonial

“Thank you for all your help with our project. Things have developed well and we have learned a huge amount through our collaboration with SpecialChem. You have helped us understand the market interest, potential, and now commercial viability.”

Our client was very happy with the learnings and the industry partners provided through the mission. Not only have they validated the material performance and approach with future customers, but also two of the companies started purchasing and developing products within 2 years following our Insight Solution mission.