unmoved by the environmental issues associated with natural gas or electricity. Only 1% identify it as the reason they plan to stay with oil. We need to leave it alone (though it may have different virtue when lobby- lobbying policy makers in government). After explaining what Bioheat® is and does, we asked consumers to identify their top three benefits of Bioheat® • Safety blows: Only 3% say they are staying with oil principally because of safety concerns with other fuels. There are too many homes safely heated with various fuels for this argument to have much sway. • Buying programs: There seems to be no correlation with pricing programs—cap, fixed or variable— and the inclination to convert. • Service plans: The same is true of service plans. The study found no difference in the attitudes of customers who had a service plan and those who didn’t. At a recent meeting, this finding triggered a debate. On a practical basis, a big repair bill covered under a service plan eliminates a trigger that could otherwise cause someone to buy a new system, potentially converting in the process. However, that could just as easily be cancelled out by someone who decides now is the year to switch to a different fuel because he’s tired of laying out a lot of money for the plan itself. • Gender: Whether a customer is a man or woman doesn’t seem to matter much in terms of your inclination to convert. Summary This ground breaking study would not have been possible were it not for the executives and boards of the organizations which chose to sponsor it: the Connecticut Energy Marketers Association (CEMA), the Fuel Merchants Association of New Jersey (FMANJ), the Massachusetts Energy Marketers Association (MEMA), the Oil Heat Institute of Rhode Island (OHIRI), the Oil Heat Institute of Long Island (OHILI) and the Main Energy Marketers Association (MEMA), and the support of John Huber at NORA. Many of them spent hours reviewing the draft questionnaire to make sure the results we obtained were authoritative and actionable. It takes vision and wisdom to seek answers that might contradict previous thinking. The findings we shared above are important highlights, but not the entire story. We will be reporting more information in the coming months. Hopefully, this study starts a dialogue that gets more people doing more of the right things. That will only happen if people know about it, and do something smart with it. That’s where you come in. If you’d like to obtain a PowerPoint presentation with more of the findings, visit www.warmthoughts.com/ norastudy. If you have any questions, you can email me at rgoldberg@ warmthoughts.com. You can also post thoughts or questions in the Heating Oil Dealer group on LinkedIn. The Oilheat industry may be outgunned, but we do not have to be outsmarted. ICM Statement: “The availability of Bioheat® makes me less likely to convert to another fuel.” > 61% > 52% ICM/Sept/Oct 2015 27
ICM September-October 2015
To see the actual publication please follow the link above