Experience in Petroleum Research
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BUSINESS AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH DIVISION OF IMRB

IMRB has been offering over 25 years specialist research services to clients in India and overseas on products and services that cover the entire gamut of business and industry. Operating out of its five full service offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai and Bangalore, ably supported by 13 other regional centres for collection of survey information that literally span the entire country, IMRB is able to provide the highest quality of professional services to the utmost satisfaction of its clients which include the small medium and large scale industries, the government and public sector units, multinational corporations and international companies that are eyeing the highly promising Indian market.

The Business and Industrial Research Division (BIRD) is a specialist unit of IMRB. Operating nationally out of IMRB's five full service offices, this unit brings to bear the specialist skills and infrastructure required to provide a wide variety of support services to the industrial marketing function. Right from assistance in taking the ''go-nogo' decision for a new product or service and generating inputs for developing an entry strategy, onto assessing market size, share, profiling existing or potential buyer with a view to develop effective marketing strategies and making the sales 'legwork' more efficient, and measuring customers expectations and satisfaction from service, the Business and Industrial Research Division has significant contributions to make in adding value to corporate and marketing decision making in business and industrial products and service companies. Quite often, the role taken by the division is akin to operating as the extended arm of the marketing team specially in exercises leading to entering new market segments or working towards enhancing the share in existing segments.

The ability to provide specialist support services to industrial marketing stems from the following:

Human Resources

  • Most of the consultants/project director in Business and Industrial Research Division come from the engineering, science and technology stream with considerable prior understanding of business and industrial products and services.

  • Many of our consultants/project directors have specific experience in the marketing of industrial products and services and therefore have a deep, hands-on understanding of the marketing tools, methods, techniques and approaches available with the industrial marketer, and the relative merits and demerits of each. This understanding, drawn over a variety of industries and market segments, when adapted or applied to a specific industry significantly expands the marketers horizons.

  • Most of our senior project directors and business group managers have been working on business and industrial market research assignments for several years exposing them to a wide variety of industrial marketing problem and situations. This wealth of knowledge and experience in problem solving is available as a resource across the national network of the division, thereby making available to each client a large internal resource base.

  • While the broad process of research is based on IMRB framework, significant adaptations have been made in the role and involvement of different functional personnel with a view to add the requisite value at different stages of the process. For example, while the information collection function is handled by the large, multi-stage field infrastructure that has been suitably built for market research over the years, the function is closely supported by an operations wing exclusively working on business and industrial projects, which ensures a through understanding of stimuli and response at various stages in the information collection process, and in different industrial situations. Such measures have ensured that the quality of information collected matches closely with the specific requirements of industrial marketing.

Information Services
  • The Business and Industrial Research Division operates and manages an information office; the personnel of which have the necessary skills and experience in collecting, collating and classifying secondary data on a wide variety of industrial products, services and markets. The division utilises the services of state-of-the-art information scanning and retrieving hardware and software that ensure periodic updating and timely retrieval. The services of the information office add significant value to the division's clients.

Industry Specific Experience
  • Since the expertise of the Business and Industrial Research Division is in industrial and business marketing support, virtually any product or industry segment can be researched by the division with equal proficiency. However, over the years, certain industries have been the source of a larger share of the assignments resulting in the building up of specific experience in these industries across the national network of the division.

    Some of these are :

    • Oil and Gas
    • Higher-end telecommunication services and products for business use including products and services for integrated networking of voice and data
    • Products and services that enhance productivity and efficiency of offices such as copiers, computers, printers, etc.
    • The steel sector both for measuring quality of service as well as recommending an appropriate product mix in the emerging private enterprise scenario
    • Chemicals and Petrochemicals
    • Core sectors such as power, coal, etc.
    • Electrical Equipment
    • Machinery-heavy and light
The following pages outline the IMRB's experience in the petroleum sector.


RANGE OF PETROLEUM PRODUCTS STUDIED

IMRB has conducted research on a range of petroleum products.
 
  • LPG 
  • Natural Gas (NG) 
  • Naphtha  
  • Superior Kerosene Oil (SKO) 
  • Motor Spirit (MS) 
  • High Speed Diesel (HSD) 
  • Light Diesel Oil (LDO) 
  • Furnace Oil (FO) 
  • Low Sulphur Heavy Stock (LSHS) 
  • Lubricants 
  • Bitumen 
  • SBP’s 
  • Hexane 
  • n-Pentane 
  • Xylene 
  • Purified Terepthalic Acid (PTA) 
  • Propylene 

SOME OF OUR CLIENTS  
 
  • Agip Petroli S.p.A. 
  • ATV Projects Ltd. 
  • Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. 
  • Bharat Shell Ltd. 
  • British Petroleum Ltd. 
  • Caltex (India) Ltd.
  • Caltex Petroleum Corporation 
  • Bell South 
  • Castrol (India) Ltd. 
  • Elf 
  • Esso Ltd. 
  • Gas Authority of India Limited  
  • Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. 
  • Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. 
  • Indo-Burmah Petroleum Ltd. 
  • Marubeni Corporation 
  • Mitsubishi Corporation 
  • Mobil 
  • Oil Co-ordination Committee 
  • Pennzoil Ltd. 
  • Petronet 
  • Shell International 
  • SHV Energy 
  • Tata-BP Ltd. 
  • Tata Electric Companies 
  • Total 
  • Wesfarmers Group 


TYPES OF STUDIES CONDUCTED

  • Potential Estimation Studies
  • Concept Tests
  • Product Acceptance and Substitutability Studies
  • Customer Satisfaction Studies
  • Pricing Studies
  • Packaging Studies
  • Trade Studies
  • Studies on Corporate and Brand Communication
  • Habits and Practices study
  • Media habits study
  • Naming study


POTENTIAL ESTIMATION STUDIES

Estimation of demand is one of the most frequently occurring objectives among studies on Petroleum. Some of the methods used for the estimation of potential are,


Supply Route

A fairly accurate estimate of domestic demand for an industrial product can be obtained by calculating the total industry production and adjusting this figure for imports and exports. This is possible given the oligopolistic nature of supply for most industrial products.

Demand = Total Production + Imports -Exports


Standard Norms of Consumption Approach

Demand can also be estimated by determining the standard norms of consumption of a product in a typical industry for each of the end user segments. Given the total industry production of that particular product, the demand can be estimated as follows :

Demand = iniPi
Where,
ni = Consumption norm is i'th end use segment
Pi = Total production in i'th end use segment
i = No. of end use industry segments

To give a simplified example, the demand for any product used as a fuel in an industry can be estimated as follows:

The norms of consumption of the product under study is determined from a sample of units. Now, given the total production of end products in India coupled with factors such rate of industry growth, imports/exports, alternatives and industry trends the potential can be calculated using the above formula.


CONCEPT TEST STUDIES

Petroleum products can have a wide range of applications and given the changing needs of end-consumers, it is imperative to constantly innovate and bring forth new products. To this end, IMRB has conducted studies to ascertain need gaps that exists in the consumer’s mind and also expectations. Based on these , certain ideas are conceptualised and the same are tested to assess the acceptability of these ideas and refine them further. This is an iterative process in any new product development phase, wherein the idea (i.e. the concept) is tested again to ensure that it matches the expectation of the end-consumer. Once the concept gains acceptance, the concept is put forth in the form of a product and introduced in the market.


PRODUCT ACCEPTABILITY AND SUBSTITUTABILITY STUDIES

Once the concept is put forth in the form of a product, it becomes very pertinent to know their acceptability against established materials/products. IMRB has undertaken several market studies to establish whether the new products would find acceptance and substitute established materials/products and also identify any weaknesses (dislikes) and potential strong points.


CUSTOMER SATISFACTION STUDIES FOR CHEMICALS

IMRB has carried out studies for clients to determine the level of satisfaction as expressed by their customers with regard to their products and services. Customers satisfaction involves ascertaining the perception of customers regarding the products and services offered by the client in terms of factors like product quality, delivery, flexibility of manufacture to sudden changes in requirement and delivery, commercial terms etc.


PRICING STUDIES

Studies on pricing are carried out for existing and new products. We conduct research into aspects such as ideal price, the ready to pay price as well as the sensitivity and elasticity of potential/demand to price. We have also conducted research to ascertain the utility of price vis-à-vis the product features at hand and ascertain the trade-off that a consumer makes on the price vis-à-vis the features on offer, using the conjoint technique. This type of study not only helps in ascertaining the value attached to product features but is also useful in designing the right type of product, which matches consumer expectations and the desired price.


PACKAGING STUDIES

Packaging studies, too, are carried out for existing and new products. We have conducted research to look in to perceived role of packaging in the brand purchase process, acceptability of packaging options, the desired features, advantages and disadvantages.


TRADE STUDIES

Trade studies are generally conducted to get an understanding of the trade practices prevalent in any particular product market in terms of nature of traders, volume handled, customers, payment terms etc.


STUDIES ON CORPORATE AND BRAND COMMUNICATION

In today’s competitive world, it is very essential for any company to be in touch with the end-consumer not only detailing the company’s products and its benefits (and hence building brand value) but also adopt a long-term approach to delineate to the consumer what the company is all about, services provides, its activities - all of which goes into not only creating a high salience but also convert him to a long-standing loyal consumer of one’s products. We conduct research to identify and assess the effectiveness of corporate and brand communication. This type of research typically starts with assessing positioning platforms (for new as well as existing products) and then conceptualising these into an communication strategy, which in turn gives rise to the message to be communicated. These are then tested out to assess effectiveness, before being put in the various media/forums. Once the communication into the various media, we conduct research studies to assess its effectiveness (on salience and perceptions) vis-à-vis competition.


HABITS AND PRACTICES STUDIES

Given the fact that any market-driven company has to be in touch with the end-consumers, it is pertinent to understand these end-consumers from time-to-time. We conduct studies to assess usage behaviour of end-consumers vis-à-vis the category and brand offerings. This information is useful in not only understanding the manner in which a product offerings are used but also ascertain the influences/role of a host of variables in the usage of a product, which further, gives rise to any unmet needs and expectations. These are studies are typically done in conjunction with an attitude section to understand the lifestyle and profile the consumer better, for any future communication.


MEDIA HABITS STUDY

Given the need to keep in close touch with then end-consumer, it is pertinent to ascertain the media consumption habits of end-consumers (in the changing times) so as to communicate them in an effective manner. Towards this end, IMRB conducts research studies which ascertains the media consumption habits from time-to-time.


NAMING STUDY

Naming studies are typically done when the product is formally ready to be introduced into the market and/or when an existing product is re-launched. We conduct research into such aspects as acceptability of names vis-à-vis local connotations, sync with local culture and the brand benefits, ease of pronunciation, etc.

Click here for some related studies