Longtime adhesives and sealant industry consultant David P. Nick-along with an associate firm-has formed an alliance to provide market intelligence reports to Special Chem S.A., a European-based Web supplier of information services.
Nick-through his company DPNA International Inc. and its associate ChemResearch GmbH-said the alliance puts ``timely quality market research and analysis within the reach of thousands of industry participants worldwide.''
Special Chem was started early this year by three former officials from Bostik Inc. and provides information for the adhesives, sealants, coatings, plastics and inks industries, Nick said at the ASC spring meeting.
The DPNA owner said Special Chem-located on the Web at www.specialchem.com-has several tiers of information available. The first level is free, while the next tier calls for a no-cost registration where the visitor is required to give detailed information.
With this data, Special Chem is able to perform targeted marketing for such clients as major raw material suppliers. Depending on the client, Special Chem would send information about new products to subscribers who fit the target profile, Nick said.
The firm would then record all responses, which typically have a rate of 25-30 percent, and handle follow-up mailings before providing the client with a qualified list of interested prospects. Thus far, Special Chem has between 15,000 and 20,000 subscribers in its adhesives database and an even larger number for coatings, Nick said.
The firm also has a technical section and offers interactive Web seminars on subjects relating to adhesives and sealants.
DPNA and ChemResearch are responsible for providing adhesives and sealant-related reports for the market intelligence section, some for free and others for sale. The reports can cover either geographic areas-such as greater China, India, Europe or the U.S.-or focus on specific market segments.
Nick said the difference between this and other Web sites in the industry is that other firms offer just snippets of a report, while data available at Special Chem goes further. ``We're making a totally packaged report available,'' he said. ``It takes a little more time, but we felt that people who would be interested would find that more useful than having a little piece here and a little piece there.''
Even the free reports offer much useful information, he said. ``We don't covet the information. We have no problem making some of this information available as a tantalizing teaser. But it also answers some very basic questions that people have.''
Response to date, he said, has been a ``little slow, but at expectation. Word is getting out and it's starting to show growth.''
DPNA and ChemResearch also recently completed the third edition of their ``Global Adhesive and Sealant Industry'' report, a nearly 700-page study covering all aspects of the industry from 2003-06. The report covers all major areas of the world, all market segments by technologies and region, and industry direction and driving forces, he said.
About 90 percent of the data came from direct interviews with adhesives companies, raw material suppliers, equipment companies and related firms such as end users. Nick said this direct contact sets this report apart from other studies of the adhesives and sealant industry, which he claimed rely on dated material and information pulled from Internet research.
``We don't do this from the desk,'' he said. ``I go around the world about four times a year.'' Work from DPNA and ChemResearch is supplemented from information gathered by people active in associations or the industry in each region of the world.
The full price for new subscribers is $9,600, while those who subscribed to the second edition are charged $5,700. The cost of the report also entitles subscribers to a ``free day of consulting'' from either DPNA or ChemResearch, with a presentation based on the report tailored to an individual company's needs.