2 0 1 2 S O U RC EB O OK A total of 32% of respondents leveraged public relations to
help with their marketing that included: newsletters, charitable events, social media and a breast cancer awareness "pink truck." Some 84% of respondents were members of industry trade
associations and 41% of those indicated at least some involve- ment with the associations' legislative support activities.
THE NATURAL GAS THREAT Some 82% of respondents reported losing customers to natural gas conversions. The average number of customers lost was reported as 70, over double last year's response. As with some of the other data points, this figure includes several companies that had far larger losses (at least twice as high) compared to the aver- age. This was, as previously noted, likely due to their scale. When these exceptions are removed from the total, the average becomes a still disturbing 29. It is similarly not surprising that 69% of respondents consider natural gas to be a serious threat and that 46% are aggressively working to counteract the threat. Respondents provided information on how they work to
counter this threat. With current high oil prices, many responses were fairly pessimistic. On a more proactive front, the responses included:
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Pro-active campaign with my contracted service technicians to promote burner efficiencies. Promote fuel qualities Educating customers on the true cost and payback of a conversion and we will not provide service to them if they convert We are new in the LPG market, so that helps Pamphlets, direct customer contact Offering high-efficiency equipment I offer power gas burners as an option l FON
www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | DECEMBER 2011 25
