Editorial

A virtuous circle, with customer satisfaction in mind

Successful business is predicated upon keeping up with customers’ changing needs and this means research: research of the market place, and then research coupled with development to enable delivery
of appropriate materials and services. Achievement of a virtuous circle, if you like; with customer satisfaction firmly in mind. Research is of prime importance to Nynas and this issue of Performance reflects the thought and effort that goes into ensuring we have the right level of innovation and support for the industry in place at a given time.

Some research is oblique in nature, but none the less important for that. Nynas (along with others) is currently commissioning research into ‘Social Influence Marketing’, in other words the generation of public awareness via online social media. We are exploring the possibilities of raising the level of public interest in roads maintenance and improvement, through discussions on social networking sites, blogs, forums and other web media. The intention would be to reinforce popular opinion about the importance of roads to people’s general social and economic wellbeing.

This issue of Performance includes details of the SIM research. More prosaic, but no less significant, is a market survey which examines the bitumen industry’s ‘value proposition’ – that is, the benefits, costs and value on offer – and which elements of this mean the most to customers. The results make interesting reading on page 10. Finally, and on a distinctly practical note, the Nynas Guide looks into the vexed question of how best to deal with reflective cracking in asphalt overlying concrete. Research involving Nynas is currently under way in Sweden, using our binders (including an experimental ultra high polymerised one) in trials of asphalt systems to overcome such cracking.