By: Rick Carlson, Director of Sales and Marketing

The concept of segmenting the market or defining a market segment may appear academic, but it is probably the most important tool in identifying evolving opportunities that can grow the revenues of a company.  The reason for this is that the more focus that you can create in your promotional messages and sales campaigns, the more likely you are to influence the customer and deliver messages that resonate with decision makers.  In our world, we are all beginning to see market segments developing from the efforts of CWS dealers that can benefit all dealers selling ProMoss™.   Some recent examples include auto manufacturing, bottling plants, data centers, high tech and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Within these markets, dealers have been further segmenting the markets by focusing on applications like cooling towers, air washers and waste water systems.  In the next two years, CWS will be working with dealer organizations to define the most productive market segments for ProMoss^TM and attempt to identify the major players and the primary reasons for choosing ProMoss^TM over traditional chemicals.  We encourage each of you to map the market segments that you are focusing on.

For the previous three years (2016 – 2018) the growth in sales of sphagnum moss for industrial applications grew at a rate that was exemplary for a new technology. However, this scratches only the surface of the true size and scope of the market for water treatment technology.  Several industry reports estimate that the size of the Water Treatment Chemicals market is expected to grow to $31.7 billion in 2022.   The market is expected to grow by 4.5% per year for the period of 2016 to 2022.

The CWS dealers involved with the product were instrumental in “breaking the ice” in a market where well established norms and protocols have existed for years.  Their extensive experience with the product has shown that ProMoss can often replace some chemical based programs and at a minimum it allows companies to move to a more sustainable and environmental approach to water treatment.  Dealers can also use ProMoss to differentiate their company and water treatment offering and services.

Since October of 2018, we have been aggressively pursuing a novel approach for providing water treatment service and support to potential customers throughout the U.S. and in select parts of Western Europe.  The foundation for our distribution system is anchored in the concept that a hierarchal structure of dealers who are responsible for working in their own individual markets is the optimal way to meet the needs of end user customers.

The first level of distribution consists of six water treatment companies that have exclusive territory assignments throughout the U.S.  They each have the opportunity and the resources required to add Sub-dealers in specific geographic areas.  The advantage of this approach is that dealers can grow their volume of business for moss based products without competitive threats from other dealers.  Dealers can also work with each other in sharing leads and their field experience in different types of applications.  Finally, they provide training and service support to other dealers, enabling all dealers to have the same level of product knowledge and field experience.  In situations where customers have facilities in multiple regions, they can work together to provide consistent and comparable levels of support for ProMoss products.

We are very excited by the water treatment dealers that have joined our network and by the interaction that occurs among them day to day.  The number of applications and the volume of Sphagnum moss used continues to grow as the number of dealers increases.  We now have more than sixteen Sub-dealers and expect that number to grow over the next two years.