Lubricant Markets
We have a long history in the lubricant market dating back to the 1970s. At the time our main business was automation, motion control and electro-technology. This involved learning about a range of application sectors which were the key customers for our clients, namely automotive, metal forming and removal, paper, cement, food processing, compressors, bearings, pumps & valves & much else.
Serving these clients meant developing databases in each of these applications over 25 years and finally in 2000 we switched all those resources to lubricants mainly because many of our earlier clients had now consolidated (120 major automation & electrical companies were reduced to 30 global groups).
The lubricants business is still highly fragmented (note there are over 150 brands of lubricants sold in China!) and the key problem for most players is a combination of:
1) Significant issues with MARKET COVERAGE
2) Gaps in PRODUCT PORTFOLIO needs application & buyer data
3) Market Access poses challenges in DISTRIBUTION
4) Supply fragmentation needs good COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE both for positioning as well as acquisitions and business development.
5) Intelligence about inter-relationships and cross brand trading can complicate the marketing mix
6) Need for VERTICAL MARKETING highlights the value of sectoral knowledge we had developed over 25 years in a wide range of industries.
The combination of our existing application databases and industrial knowledge put us in a very advantageous position to serve lubricant clients and today we have over 25 lubricant clients.
The geography of our work is all the five continents and we have worked on markets from Japan, China, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Middle East, to Africa, 10 countries of Western Europe to Mexico, Brazil & North America.
Our Methods
We are eclectic in our methods and believe in direct measurement. We find triangulation has proven very risky in this area, namely "average" consumption per car or "average" frequency of visits to non franchised workshops almost always leads to poor results. Automotive lubricant suppliers who have been to almost every provider of lubricant data have not been satisfied with these derived demand analysis ask us to apply direct data collections methods over the past few years to get the base numbers right. Today we own this data & run some of these programmes on syndicated basis as they are rather large & costly. Samples of these are below.
We have the ability and experience for face to face interview, telephone interview, hall test, focus groups and panels but by now we know what works best in this sector depending on the range of questions and client problems we wish to address.
Our resources and geographic coverage
The geography of our work is all the five continents and we have worked on markets from Japan, China, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Middle East, to Africa, 10 countries of Western Europe (from Sweden to Spain or Belgium to Austria) to Mexico, Brazil & North America.
Research teams for B2B are often small & ideally one should have all the executives under the same roof and we are trying to do that at this moment. Having said that we have field staff on our payroll in Mexico, Brazil & Lebanon but are trying to bring it all here.
All work is done in the native language, namely work in Germany is in German & Russia is done by Russian speakers or the same for India or China. All reports are written in English.
Our Products
1. Country Studies
A) We have a large selection of country studies on Industrial Lubricants.
B) Equally we have a series on Automotive Lubricants. Both of the above are providing market dimensions and competitor profiles.
2. Distributor Mapping
2. Distributor Mapping
We produce a full map of all distributors and the products they handle, brands, volumes and markets they address. We have a tool to show these databases on a map and can work with you in developing processes for better penetration of these channels.
Lubricants Market Distribution Channels
3. Major Competitor Profiles
We produce detailed corporate profiles using a variety of methods including using much of our in house country data. These are for strategy work as well as acquisitions.
Major Competitor Profiles
4. Speciality Lubricants
Marine, Bio, Cutting Fluids, Rust Prevention, Food Grade Lubricants etc.
A fusion of the above reports but for a specific oil. An example is our series on Marine Lubricants where we profile all the distribution depots, type, source (brand) and amounts held by each depot in a specific country, e.g. Japan.
The Market for Marine Lubricants
The Market for Metal Working Lubricants
The Market for Food Grade Lubricants
5. Buyer Profiles
Once the product and application is defined, the job of marketing & sales can be completed if you know the location of all buyers. We have maps for this & can locate and profile the customers in vertical markets. Several such buyer sectoral maps already.
6. Base Oils
Various grades of base oils are bought by a confined number of blenders in each territory. We have built databases of all such blenders in selected countries of Europe and are extending this to several other countries. For each blender you will know the amounts and grades of base oil bought AND who from plus contact details.
The Market for Base Oil