At Fakuma 2014, it was hard to miss Styron's eye-catching arithmetical marketing campaign, 'Numbers that Count'. Across the black screens walling off the company's extensive stand, passers-by could absorb fast facts: a gigantic '-60' representing the lowest temperatures Styron materials can maintain their performance in electrical applications, '0.2 dl' indicating scratch resistance for automotive applications and many more.
The message is clear, that Styron understands individual markets.
"These markets really have to trust you," said Vice-President of Automotive at Styron Dagmar van Heur. "If a customer goes with you, the car runs for eight years or so. Plus two years of development. So they have to trust you for 10 years and you have to work with the same people as well for a long time.
"We realised we weren't doing this on the electronics, medical or lighting side, which are also part of the new performance plastics business unit in addition to automotive. We recognised we were good at this in automotive and we think we can do this elsewhere, so we now have dedicated teams for these target markets."
Are you successful?
Styron is playing the long game but its automotive arm serves as something of a flagship for the business's on-going strategy for market penetration.
"If you were to say, 'are you already successful', I would say probably not because we are still developing," van Heur said. "We're picking up the needs of the customers, starting product development and we're seeing our first successes, but I think we have to be realistic. In medical, getting a larger position in the market and launching something completely new takes a long time. In consumer electronics it takes less time."
One of the items on show at the Styron stand at Fakuma was the airbump for the new Citroën Cactus.
Citroen Cactus
"When replacing metal you have to be very careful with the materials you choose, but we already have a good reputation in automotive, celebrating 25 years in the industry last year. But we know our limitations. This is what is needed for new markets - to have people trust you," said van Heur.
Automotive renaissance
In automotive, Styron is on a constant mission to keep up with the trend for lightweighting, with ambient lighting and design trends playing a crucial role in how the company's materials could be used.
"If you look at the outside of the car, it doesn't have to be metal. It's hang-on, it's aesthetics. Sustainability and cost are also trends but cost is always a trend," said van Heur.
Automotive is undergoing a renaissance with the rise and rise of electric and hybrid vehicles and the genesis of the self-driving car. This, according to van Heur signals a great opportunity for Styron but he explained that on the whole, automotive is a "very conservative" market that will need to come around to this new vehicle concept that may not even need a dashboard or steering wheel.
Van Heur revelled in how different the car of the future could look and how it will blur the boundaries between automotive, consumer electronics lighting and other sectors.
"It will have great seats because you'll need to be able to sleep in it. It will have a coffee machine. Entertainment will be a big part of it. The roof may be transparent so people can take in the view because they won't be driving. And then we can start talking about different materials and it's very exciting.
"We’re trying to be at the edge. It’s going to be good fun and we're trying to bring quantitative value to the customer. We don't want to say 'our material is high flow'. Everybody's material can be 'high flow', so what? What does that do for me? The numbers [in our campaign] are meaningful to the customer. This is how we want to communicate so they remember us."
"This is important to us," he said. "Numbers count."
