Manufacturing, buying and trading industrial chemicals is a tricky business. Chemical prices are continually in flux and the market is forever shifting. It is therefore vital to keep your finger on the pulse, to find out the latest price trends, to know which new chemical process facilities are starting up and which are being mothballed. There are numerous websites, such as ICIS or RCS, that carry pricing news and production updates, but what is the best way to know what your chemical market wants?

Well, my former boss wouldn’t make any business decision without looking at the numbers first. He never wanted someone to tell him what they thought our customers wanted, he wanted to see the data. He believed in the power of market research, as do many others.

For example, Shawn O’Connor of Forbes magazine heartily recommends market research, stating that, “Be sure to conduct your own primary research to get information specific to your particular, unique business and the sub-set of consumers you hope to attract. A few research tools to consider include interviews, surveys, questionnaires, and focus groups, which can identify critical information about the importance of price and certain features as well as the strengths and weaknesses of competitors.”

Whilst according to Entrepreneurship.org, market research can provide us with, “…essential information to guide you in making strategic business decisions. By gathering research about your business concept, industry, potential customers, and competitors, you can uncover or verify unmet customer needs in the marketplace, and, many times, discover new ideas for products or services. Market research can provide you with value that should exceed the time and cost of the research itself. It can help you minimize your financial risks by determining if your product or service will succeed or fail in the marketplace, and perhaps save you from making costly mistakes.”

So it seems that market research is an invaluable tool for any business. But of course the problem with doing research in the chemicals industry is that you cannot start stopping people in the street asking them when they are next thinking of buying 24mt of potassium carbonate.

Of course, for a wider picture on public opinion, an expert such as Gallup can be useful. Or you can pay for a professional market research company such as Mintel or CircleResearch to do the asking for you, but firms like these usually provide only general consumer needs, not global, industrial markets like chemicals.

If you really want to research your customers’ chemical needs and know about your competitors, then you need a chemicals specialist researcher. IRL offers a market research for the coatings industry, whilst  other firms like Spotchemi and Frost&Sullivan can also use their indepth understanding of business to provide the detail you need, for the exact chemical product and region you need.

Failing that, you can always do it yourself! And if you want to know how, you can click here: WikiHow.