A Recharged Industry

The Energy industry has witnessed a number of disruptive trends over the past two decades, including the transformation of regulated utilities into distribution companies and competitive energy suppliers, the emergence of the unregulated retail energy markets, the discovery of new natural gas and petroleum extraction opportunities, the establishment of LEEDS standards, and the “greening” of American business energy practices. NAXION has a rich heritage of support for the Energy industry and adjacent industries during this turbulent era and continues to provide our clients with the strategic insights required to succeed in the emerging industry environment.

Electrifying Market Transformation

In power generation and delivery, where deregulation has required companies to reconceive of customers as active decision-makers rather than passive "rate-payers," NAXION has been at the forefront of providing our clients with strategic direction. Our landmark work for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) led to development of the very first commercial, industrial and residential energy usage segmentation models to support development of regulatory-mandated demand-side management (DSM) programs among public utilities. Our work with individual utilities has expanded over the years to include customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement, utility-specific segmentations, key account servicing programs, Business to Business and consumer “beneficial electrification” initiatives, and promotion of electro-technologies for commercial and industrial applications. With the emergence of the competitive retail energy industry, we have further expanded our services to guide geographic and segment-specific market-entry initiatives, ad testing and branding. Beyond traditional retail commodities — electric power and natural gas — we are helping our clients understand customer requirements related to solar energy, demand response, energy efficiency and other offerings.

Energy from the Ground Up

On the petroleum side, we have provided primary market research support to some of North America’s foremost energy companies, addressing commercial problems related to retail gasoline marketing, retail store design and gasoline and heating oil distributor programs. We are also assisting truck and heavy equipment engine manufacturers in initiatives to forecast market demand for CNG/LNG and hybrid vehicles, and help component manufacturers develop equipment offerings specific to petroleum and natural gas extraction.

Emerging and Converging Technologies

Additionally, our cross-industry experience enables us to support our clients in adjacent industries whose future pathways are directly influenced by energy industry trends and innovation. For example, our expertise in Residential and Commercial Security and Automation, coupled with our deep understanding of utility customers, positions us well to assist our clients in the development of demand response and energy management programs. Our IT Practice and Built Evironments & Systems Practice bring added value to our support of clients’ primary research needs related to data center power management, building systems integration, water recycling systems, sustainability and other enterprise-level infrastructure offerings.

Diverse Approaches to Complex Business Issues

The research methods we employ include one-on-one, in-depth interviews with senior executives, online interactive group sessions, traditional focus groups, online surveys and advanced survey-based forecasting models. Engagements encompass market strategy evaluation and development, needs-assessments, market segmentation, product/service adoption and pricing and forecasting. Importantly, our assignments neither begin nor end with “the data,” as we actively engage with our clients’ business problems from the outset to develop sound recommendations, action plans and in some instances, forecasting, segment-assignment and other tools that direct sound implementation.