What is Paper Industry Research?
It is the process of finding relevant information about companies, products, and services.
Research is a very important factor to gain knowledge about any field. Research is the act of gathering detailed information and storing it in an organized form.
But how exactly is this research done for the paper industry?
In this guide, you'll learn:
- Why paper industry research is important?
- How to break down the research process?
- Where can you find relevant information for the research?
- How to develop strategies based on your research to grow your business in the industry?
Why paper industry research is important?
To begin with the research, you must first know why are you exactly doing it?
There are a lot of terms stacked together in the research process.
Research is very helpful to get familiar with the paper mills, paper machines, paper suppliers, paper machine suppliers/manufacturers, and many more units involved in the industry.
It gives you an overview of how things work.
The following reasons state why research is very important:
- To get an overview of the paper mills, manufacturers, suppliers, products, customers, etc.
- To understand what is the market capital, total revenue, production rate, statistics, profits, employment, wages, tax, etc.
- To understand the companies and their competitors, and how they drive the industry
- To identify and get along with the ever-changing trends in the industry
- To discover information like structural growth, sensitivity risk, upstream and downstream supply chains, major products and markets, etc.
- Finally, To make the right decision for your business
How to break down your paper industry research process?
Now that you are clear with the purpose of your research, let us discuss some points that will help perform the research.
The research process is a complex task.
For simplifying it, we break down the process bite by bite.
Let us see some examples.
Example 1:
As shown in the above figure 1, the parent sector is the paper industry. The paper industry is divided into paper manufacturing. Paper manufacturing is further classified into kraft paper manufacturing. Kraft paper can be manufactured with natural virgin fibers or recycled fibers.
Example 2:
As shown in figure 2, the parent industry is the paper industry which is classified into paper machines. Paper machine is further classified into tissue paper machine. The tissue paper machine can be automatic or semi-automatic.
Though these are just examples of how you can simplify your research process, you may classify it by any sub-topic you want according to your requirements.
Once the breaking down is done, you can focus on studying one part at a time. This will help you to understand the hierarchy of how the paper industry processes as a whole unit.
Where can you find relevant information for research?
The very important question every researcher faces before starting is, where can I find relevant information for my research?
With the growth in technology, a lot of information about the paper industry can be found online over the internet.
Several paper industry associations, paper trading groups, paper industry consultants, paper mill websites, paper machine companies, etc. are listed online.
Several organizations provide information about these companies for research and other purposes.
However, with the help of online resources, it can be difficult to tell what is accurate, unbiased, or up-to-date information.
In such cases, you may approach communities that are city-based or state-based. Paper manufacturers committees are present state-wise and country-wise as well which are handled by paper industrialists.
Whatever sources you use for paper industry research, you should find answers to the following points –
- Which are the major manufacturers in the paper industry?
- What are the paper industry's financial benchmarks and financial ratios?
- How are the paper industry's growth and performance?
- Who are the best competitors for your company and what is their market share?
- What could be the possible barriers to enter the paper industry?
- What are the major products that the industry is offering to the market?
- Are there any external forces that impact the paper industry (like the government or any organizations)? And how?
How to use paper industry research to develop strategies for your business?
Knowing how to use your research well is important to develop strategies for your paper business.
There are frameworks like PESTLE, SWOT, Porter's Five Forces, etc. that guide you to develop an efficient strategy for the business based on your research.
These strategies help to understand and analyze your competition and highlight opportunities & threats for your business.
Here are 3 of the most common frameworks:
1. PESTLE Analysis
PESTLE Analysis is a process of calculation the Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental factors that affect the paper industry.
This method helps your paper-related business to strengthen current processes by understanding the external environment.
Analysis of the above six factors proves beneficial for your business in several ways.
2. SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis covers the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of any business in the paper industry.
It is an integral part of business planning. It helps in figuring out the strengths and weaknesses of the industry, the investment opportunities that can be received from the paper industry, and the threats that the industry imposes which might harm their growth potential.
This analysis is important to capture a foothold in the market.
3. Porters Five Forces
Most paper business strategies are based on the Five Forces Model. This framework helps you to analyze the competitive intensity for your paper mill and increase the business profit.
The Porters Five Forces model includes the following five major areas –
- The threat of new emerging paper mills/companies
- Buying power of the paper mill customers
- Supplying power of the paper mills
- The threat of substitutes for your paper mill
- Competitors for your mill
Try to acquire as much information as possible in the above points.
Research related to any field can be performed by following the above process. Knowledge can be gained by any means that do not stand by one source.
The above information is purely intended for knowledge purposes.
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