April 7, 2015

Communicate and grow!

Introduction The Transformers Magazine team often discusses with our customers and partners the changes that we are experiencing on the transformer market and those that...

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Introduction

The Transformers Magazine team often discusses with our customers and partners the changes that we are experiencing on the transformer market and those that we are yet to experience.
We, people from the transformer industry, used to consider our industry and market as very conservative. But witnessing all of the changes, a logical question that arises is whether our industry and market are still conservative or not. And if they are not, what changes are required for business growth under the new circumstances?
On the one hand, our market is still conservative. Things that have not changed include a long lifetime required for the equipment, which demands a high reliability and availability of repairing service and spare parts for the entire lifetime.
On the other hand, there are strong drivers that have influenced and changed the transformer market in recent times, making it much more dynamic. These drivers include:

• electricity market deregulation;
• eco-regulation being introduced in Europe and expected soon to be seen in other large transformer markets;
• smart grid technology, etc.

Market drivers

Electricity market deregulation

Electricity market deregulation, which has been introduced in many countries, is another important driver for the transformer market because it significantly changes the rules of the game. Utilities have been transformed from national monopolistic companies into players on an open market, with no position to favour national suppliers anymore. Now the business reasons force them to procure from suppliers which best fulfil their requirements. This affects all transformer OEMs and their sub-suppliers in respective markets, making them achieve higher competitiveness and establish better communication with the market.

Eco-regulation

The so-called eco-regulation calls for products of higher efficiency, pushing companies to utilise better materials and better design. This in turn requires better tools and better processes, and under the competitive pressure, forces creation of new tools and development of processes faster than ever. But shortening R&D cycles is not the only guarantee of success! Successful communication with the market is at least as important as successful R&D, because products and solutions have to be presented and communicated on the market more quickly and efficiently than ever before.

Smart grid

Emerging smart grid technology is entering the transformers industry from many other industries, and its major effects on our industry and market are yet to be seen, but it certainly goes hand in hand with other drivers, making the market much more dynamic and dependent on an efficient communication.

How communication supports growth?

Shortening the product launch

As transformer market drivers make the market more dynamic than ever before, companies are forced to innovate and develop differentiating products. While this is a necessary development, it can also become a trap if the new product is too advanced for the market and its launch gets significantly delayed. Hence, a carefully planned and balanced communication campaign in digital and print media that focus on the transformers arena will educate the market and create opportunities for application of products and services much faster than in the absence of such campaign.

Leveraging business volume

In a more dynamic and competitive market, there are more companies present and more products available. Companies which have better presence and higher quality of communication in the established print and digital media have better recognition on the market and better chances to find their way to user specifications and finally to users.

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