The home heating oil industry has a long and proud history, and Fuel Oil News has been there supporting it since 1935. It is an industry that has faced many challenges during that time. In its 77th year, Fuel Oil News is doing more than just holding
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30 DECEMBER 2015 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com BUSINESS OPERATIONS about oil heat to customers who are buying homes"—are ongo- ing in various degrees in Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Warm Thoughts conducts most of the programs, Goldberg said. "Realtors can be really good allies," he noted. "We give them materials to hand out to buyers." Goldberg said, "Maybe the biggest surprise of this survey was the potential impact of Bioheat on the mindsets of consumers." While customers "overwhelmingly" are making the decision to convert for economic reasons—saving money through lower fuel bills or because they expect other fuels to be lower-priced— their secondary reasons are environmental, "and it's really substantial among the younger buyers," Goldberg said. "And it's because oil heat has a bad brand right now, "even among the people who say they want to stay with oil." Most such customers, asked to rank the reasons they wanted to continue using fuel oil, said that converting would be "a hassle" or that it "cost too much." The price differential in fuels wasn't significant enough to justify converting, others said. "I'm happy with the product," as a response, ranked below those other answers, offered by less than one-fifth of respondents, Goldberg said. In that context, "Bioheat is giving people permission to feel good about the product," Goldberg said. But that is tempered by a finding that most people don't know anything about it: Only 12% percent of survey respondents said they "really knew what bio was," Goldberg said. Approximately 25% of respon- dents had heard of Bioheat but didn't know what it meant; and roughly half of the respondents "had never even heard of it," Goldberg said. After respondents reviewed a brief description of Bioheat and its benefits, they were asked whether they would want to know more about it. They were also asked whether it would cause them to reconsider if they had been leaning toward converting. More than one-third of respondents answered "yes, definitely" or "yes, maybe" to those two questions, Goldberg said. He cautioned against marketing the benefit of low-sulfur in conjunction with Bioheat. "It's really hard to market low sulfur," Goldberg said. "It's just too much— too complicated for the consumer, is my belief. But this idea that there is a new fuel, better for the environment, cleaner burning, that allows for more efficient equipment—that's what the focus needs to be" in communicating and marketing to customers." Thrown into the mix of challenges is that surveyed customers contemplating conversion expect oil prices to rise in the future "even though the survey was done after oil prices dropped last winter," Goldberg said. "People see a couple of years of low prices [but] they don't necessarily believe it's lasting," he said. The marketing "formula" going forward, Goldberg said, "goes like this: Oil has changed and we can expect better prices for a good while to come. The gap between oil and other fuels isn't just closing for now, but it's closing for a while for a lot of reasons. Oil is "a really efficient fuel and modern oil systems are really efficient;" together they can help customers save, he said. Finally, "our fuel is new, and is cleaner-burning and much better for the environment." Bioheat, he added, "is also made in America." Communicating those points to a younger audience— "people who are new to their homes, and also people buying equipment" are the core components of what the survey shows should be done, Goldberg said. "The survey has helped identify the bull's eyes," he said, "but good advertising is now needed to hit those targets." To download "The 2015 Consumer Research Study" visit: www.warmthoughts.com/NORA. l F O N The marketing "formula" going forward, Goldberg said, "goes like this: Oil has changed and we can expect better prices for a good while to come. The gap between oil and other fuels isn't just closing for now, but it's closing for a while for a lot of reasons.