DIGITALIZATION IN PETROCHEMICALS – PART 1: SETTING THE STAGE

When we first came up with the idea for Kemgo, over two years ago, there was very limited information that we could find around digitalization in the petrochemical industry (unless it was around innovation on the product development side or the startups we saw at the beginning of the century).

Essentially, what we were finding out was that business was being conducted the same way it has been for the last half century. However, after conducting a lot of research, even administering our own, speaking with a variety of leading experts in the petrochemical industry as well as in e-com merce, there is a high likelihood that we’ve developed the utmost knowledge of digitalization in the marketing and sales functions within the petrochemical industry. Kemgo managed to attract several executives from the industry as advisors with a com bined total experience of nearly 100 years.

Yes, in fact, this knowledge allowed us to fill a gap in this industry and grow our business to include over 75 users from all over the globe, posting more than 5,000 products worth more than $30M all in about 6 months from launch!

Now, let’s start with this word, ‘digitalization’, and what we are actually referring to when we talk about it in the petrochemical industry. Most of you have probably heard the term “digitalization” in some form or another and may have even been involved in a related project within your com pany.

All around the globe, we’re com ing across the term “Industry 4.0”. Just so that we’re all on the same playing field, we’d like to briefly give you the outline of our newly gained understanding about digitalization. One little side note: as much as we like internal processes, we are speaking about digitalization in the context of marketing and sales activities (or externally facing digitalization); in other words, the order-to-cash and the prospect-to-purchase processes including foregoing marketing activities (bearing in mind that these also impact internal processes).

A Digital Framework

A full external digitalization strategy in the context as just described may include:

1. Having your own website

2. Running an e-com merce website for your products and services

3. Selling and purchasing your products and services using online marketplaces

4. Utilizing social media for marketing (e.g. content marketing)

5. Performing search engine optimization also known as SEO

6. Having strong online content to help educate your customers learn more about you, the products you sell, their applications, specifications, etc.