Md. Tarique Aziz

DEVELOPING LPG MARKET TRENDS IN BANGLADESH Abstract: Bangladesh LPG industry can be said to be a competitive industry, but it does not in any way stop entrepreneurs who are creative and financially capable to still make headway in the industry. It is indeed a profitable industry especially when the business is well managed and innovatively market oriented. No doubt residential estates and busy cities with growing population is highly suitable for LPG business. Promita Oil & Gas Limited is fully integrated in LPG import, bottling and distribution in the market of Bangladesh with cutting edge bottling technology and mound storage facility and own jetty at the mother terminal in Mongla port industrial area. Developing nationwide dealer network is the most authentic and widely practiced business strategy in Bangladesh LPG industry. At this point, this report focuses on being innovatively market oriented and developing utmost strategies like online sales & marketing, door to door sales, telesales etc. to add such values which would derive the LPG business to an enviable heights and also help to attract the numbers of clients that will make the business highly profitable. Promita LPG is a fully registered and licensed standard LPG operator, plans to initiate sales through most innovative & modern strategies in order to stand aside as a unique brand with maximized market share. Overview Essentially those who will benefit from our added value of product & service offering are those who own gas cookers and small businesses that retail cooking gas and they are of course busy corporate executives, business owners, households, students and caterers et al. They are the category of people that we intend marketing our LPG sales & services to. Commercial and Industrial Uses as the LPG market develops, additional uses of LPG emerge. These may include hotels’ and leisure complexes’ use of LPG to heat pools, spas and saunas; weed destruction, grain drying and space-heating in rural settings; and industrial use in sectors such as ceramics, glassmaking and food processing. Further application examples that emerge in transitioning markets include LPG-fuelled forklift trucks for indoor and outdoor warehouses; substitution of LPG for diesel fuel in power generators; and, depending on the local culture, use in crematoria. The ability for LPG to have such diverse uses is a function of its high energy density, cleanness and portability. These properties of LPG have led to thousands of practical industrial and commercial uses worldwide. Cylinder Installations As the cylinder market develops and demands for larger cylinders arise from commercial and other bulk users, 45- 50kg vapour cylinder installation using manifolded cylinders is often the initial solution. The large surface area from a number of large cylinders gives a high evaporation rate for processes that require a large flow rate of gas. Two logical solutions are use of liquid withdrawal cylinders and a small vaporiser, or use of a small bulk LPG tank. Note that effective safety regulations (as described in the Early-Stage Edition) will prohibit siting a bulk tank at most factories. For customer installations at this scale, whether commercial or residential, it is common to have two cylinders manifolded together with an automatic change-over device between them. The change-over device indicates which cylinder is in service and whether a cylinder is empty. This provides continuity of supply; one cylinder can be removed and replaced while LPG is provided from the other cylinder. This type of installation consists of two flexible highpressure tubes, each with a non-return valve, which connect from the cylinders to the change-over device and thence to a pressure regulator matching the gas pressure to what is required by the gas appliances. The low-pressure gas is piped into the home for cooking and/or space-heating. It is essential that the installation is performed by a qualified, competent person—either an employee or contractor to the LPG distributor—using approved equipment. There are changeover devices with built-in telemetry to alert the gas supplier that a cylinder is empty and should be replaced. Bulk Installations Customer for bulk installations can range from storage for a few hundred kilogrammes to a few hundred tonnes of LPG. These normally utilise horizontal cylindrical vessels, which are commonly known as “bullets”. In the residential market, the growing middle classes in any developing country who wish to live away from the city require an energy supply which is clean and convenient, with the minimum of inconvenience in receiving a continuous supply of energy. Small bulk tanks are the simplest and most effective way of supplying this continuous supply of LPG. The vapour space of the tank is connected to gas regulators and safety devices which reduce the tank pressure to a few millibars of pressure for supply into the home. The tank is filled by a bulk road tanker every few months as required by the customer. Increasingly, tanks are being installed with telemetry systems that transmit the level of the tank contents to the LPG supplier. The supplier arranges to refill the tank before it runs out, based on the telemetry data. This has the advantage that the customer gets a continuous supply of energy without his or her intervention. Additionally, the distributor can plan a delivery when his/her road tanker is in the vicinity, thereby increasing distribution efficiency and reducing distribution cost. Industrial bulk demand may require large storage; many tonnes of LPG may be used by a single industrial consumer each week. The appropriate size of storage is based on various parameters, including distance from the supply point, supply reliability, maximum gas flowrate required, and regulatory controls which may limit size of storage. Where an intermittent high gas flowrate is required, or where regulations restrict the size of storage, vaporisers are installed to evaporate the liquid into gas. The vaporisers can be heated by LPG (direct fired), electricity or steam. Considerable Guidelines for the Development of Sustainable LPG Markets – TransitioningStage Markets Edition Page 18 expertise is required in designing vaporiser and pressure regulation systems so that gas does not condense in the piping system, and so that no residue enters the system. Increasingly, luxury residential bulk installations involve the storage tank being buried under the ground. The only visible part is a manhole cover for access to the tank connections, the level gauge and the filling point. The tank is therefore invisible. Piped Installations Apartment buildings, gated communities, and rural villages may be supplied with piped LPG from a central bulk tank installation. In this case, a gas meter is fitted at each home so that each homeowner may be billed for the gas used. Whole cities can be supplied with mixtures of LPG with air on a reticulated grid basis. This gas supply is designed to replicate closely a natural gas supply, with a precisely matched calorific value, so that unmodified natural gas appliances can be used with the LPG-air mixture. In this case, a gas-air mixing plant controls the mixture of gas and air to deliver a constant calorific value per unit volume, identical to that of natural gas. This mixture is piped, usually under the city streets, and metered into each home. This approach allows easy transition by consumers and the gas utility to natural gas from the LPG-air mix, once natural gas becomes available. After natural gas becomes available, the LPG-air mix can continue to be used to serve peakload gas demand that is uneconomical to serve via natural gas alone. It is normally not economically feasible to build the natural gas supply capacity required to serve 100% of all possible peak loads. Peak-shaving with LPG-air is thus an economical means of meeting peak gas demand. Proposed innovative sales & marketing strategy The sales marketing strategy adopted by Promita LPG is going to be driven basically by making available standard and safe cooking gas at the door step of every potential customers through easy purchase policies which may include online sales, telesales or door to door sales either by appointing highly trained customer sales & service team or by appointing third parties who will carry out the sales activities through websites, phone calls and company apps which will make the product available in just a click way. In view of that, following strategies are to be adopted to ensure top notch customer service and provide our customer a wide range of options which would make the purchase process easier than ever. Effective Marketing Strategies Effective sales strategies begin with marketing, and the marketing strategies for LPG home delivery businesses are as diverse as they come. Yet in this industry, marketing effectiveness is rooted in the ability to target key decision makers. From traditional marketing to cutting-edge Internet strategies, any initiative that fails to reach decision makers is a waste of time and resources. Since your sales revenues hang in the balance, you can't afford to rely on stale or inaccurate sales leads. Thirdparty lead lists may be the best resource for making sure your team is equipped with the most up-to-date information possible. If you don't currently use lead lists, you may want to consider Experian -- a third-party lead list vendor with a reputation for providing regularly updated and sorted LPG home delivery business leads. Strategies for Selling to LPG Home Delivery Businesses Although there are exceptions, LPG home delivery businesses are always interested in products that help them provide a higher level of service for their clients and customers. Cost is a constant concern, but if LPG home delivery businesses believe a new product or line of products can substantially improve their customers' experience, price takes a backseat to quality. Businesses that sell to LPG home delivery businesses need to also recognize the fact that LPG home delivery businesses aren't necessarily the beneficiaries of their products, so strategies that focus on enhancing customer experiences are frequently well-received by buyers.  Online Sales & Marketing: Today a large part of market of almost any kind of product in online customer base. These customers are mostly consists of busy working people in both household and commercial sector. These part of market mostly prefer to make easy purchase through online or apps to save time and avoid hustles in daily life. POGL can introduce apps/ online purchase facilities by developing fine apps and positioning product to popular e commerce websites like, chaldal.com, daraz.com, pikaboo.com, bikroy.com etc.  Door 2 Door Sales/Marketing: Hotel, restaurant & food business are the most growing business in any cities of the world. POGL can train up an expert team to visit customers at their door steps, collect data regarding their volume of LPG consumption and provide them with most competitive offer and excellent customer service based of their consumption in consideration with the targeted profit margin. This can also be achieved by signing long time agreement of supplying LPG cylinders with mutually favorable terms & conditions. This portion of market contains five star franchise hotels, resort to fast food chains as well as streets food shops i.e. Pan pacific, Sheraton, Le Meridian, KFC, Star Kebab, As a matter of fact, our publicity and advertising strategy is not solely for selling our products and services but to also effectively communicate our brand. Promotional platforms: Here are the platforms we intend leveraging on to promote and advertise PROMITA LPG;  Place adverts on both print (community based newspapers and magazines) and electronic media platforms  Sponsor relevant community programs  Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook , twitter, et al to promote our brand  Install our Bill Boards on strategic locations in all around major cities in Bangladesh  Engage in road show from time to time in targeted communities in metropolitan cities.  Distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas in targeted market areas.  Position our Flexi Banners at strategic positions in the location where we intend getting customers to start patronizing our products and services.  Ensure that all our staff members wear our customized clothes, and all our official cars, fuel tankers and trucks are customized and well branded. The ultimate target is not just maximizing profit margin but to maximizing customer base ensuring long term profitable relationship by increasing volume of distribution.