Industries
Chemicals and materials are where Market Edge began, inside ICI in 1992, and they remain our largest client sector: specialty and performance chemicals, coatings, polymers, packaging and building materials.
2026
From our conversations with marketing and commercial leaders over the past 18 months.
Paraphrased and anonymized from recent conversations with marketing and commercial leaders.
“We've been sales and rebate led for years. The strategy now needs us to sell on value.”
“Our tools for purchase criteria, value propositions and competitive positioning exist, but nobody applies them the same way.”
“We spun off from a large parent. The KPIs we inherited won't get us to our new growth target.”
"We've been sales and rebate led for years."
Your strategy now depends on selling on value, but the sales force, pricing and segmentation were built for volume.
How we help →"We're a new company with a parent company's marketing habits."
A new owner or independent company means new growth targets with marketing infrastructure that was left behind.
How we help →"I've just taken over marketing, and we don't have standard tools."
A new marketing leader in a lean organization needs a team, a process and early results, fast.
How we help →"Our market development managers are all engineers."
Brilliant technical people now own markets and customers, without a shared commercial toolkit.
How we help →Market maps, needs-based segmentation and value propositions that turn growth targets into a plan.
Explore →Quantify the value you create and price to capture it, even in uncertain markets.
Explore →Assess your marketing team against benchmarks, then build the capability to close the gaps, including your own branded marketing academy.
Explore →Move sales teams from volume and rebates to value selling, and build strategic relationships with the accounts that matter most.
Explore →Point of view
Procurement and pricing · August 2026
As buyers automate supplier comparison and technical evaluation, they remove many of the human touchpoints where B2B differentiation is created and explained.
Read →Market analysis · July 2026
A price drop from genuine cost efficiency and a price drop from overcapacity look identical on a chart, but only one is structural.
Read →Volatile markets · April 2026
In volatile, uncertain markets, supply assurance and lead time can quickly become the criteria that decide a purchase, and share and price move with them.
Read →Value and differentiation · April 2026
Most technical performance criteria in B2B applications are table stakes: every credible supplier meets them.
Read →Capability · October 2026
Budgets for next year usually expect both top- and bottom-line growth, but few companies check whether marketing has the capability to deliver them.
Read →Building & Construction Chemicals
[Result]
A building and construction chemicals business lacked the scale to compete profitably in its main North American market. Strategic marketing analysis reframed the choice.
Read the case →Specialty Chemicals & Materials
[Result]
A specialty chemicals and materials leader changed its strategy from product and technology to markets and customers, which required new skills, processes and culture.
Read the case →Packaging · 6B USD, 30 countries
[Result]
A packaging leader with 6B USD sales and 23,000 employees moved from selling products to selling solutions, and needed to transform commercial capability worldwide.
Read the case →Specialty Chemicals · 7B USD
[Result]
A 7B USD specialty chemicals company with seven divisions, from automotive to personal care, wanted one common way to plan.
Read the case →Chemicals & Materials · Coatings
Recent work · 2026
After a general product management course felt too basic for its industrial teams, a coatings business asked for a program built around its own markets.
Read the case →Chemicals & Materials · Polymers
Recent work · 2019–2026
A specialty polymers company has used Market Edge tools across its strategic marketing team since 2019.
Read the case →“With Market Edge's analysis and pragmatic approach, we were able to create, articulate and capture more value. Market Edge helped deliver faster growth and improved profitability for our business unit.”
Market Edge began inside ICI in 1992 as its internal marketing consultancy, and chemicals and materials remain its largest client sector, from specialty and performance chemicals to coatings, polymers, packaging and building materials.
Technical performance gaps close as markets mature, so differentiation shifts to segments, value propositions, supply assurance and service. Many businesses also sell through multi-step value chains, so value has to be shown to customers' customers.
Most clients are $1B+ companies or sizeable divisions with marketing teams of 20 or more, but we also run focused projects and tool licenses for smaller businesses.
Yes. We help new companies frame their growth logic, size the marketing function and rebuild the commercial engine while the organization settles.
Book a 20–30 minute sounding board conversation with a senior consultant who has sat in your seat. No cost, no commitment.