Abstract:

Producing chemicals in Europe means traditionally an international approach to marketing and, accordingly, to market research. The reason why the activities of European chemical companies extend beyond national borders is because, on the one hand, chemical industries developed first in only a few countries of Europe. A new element has been added since 1945, when chemical market research as a whole became much more consumer-orientated. From that time onwards newly developed polymers in the form of plastic materials, textile fibres, elastomers and poromeric leather have been put on the market each year. In most cases the new synthetic chemicals appeared as branded materials, which distinguished them by property and performance from old established natural raw materials. Advertising campaigns and promotion programmes made the consumer aware of these new products in the introductory phase. At this stage, with new plastics and new synthetic fibres being offered on the market, the chemical companies got deeply involved in multi-country research of two types, industrial and consumer orientated research.