Making energy an interesting product
By Francesco CALABRETTA
Cluster Leader Italy and Hungary Audax Renewables
We close this 2021 with a reflection on the world of energy companies and their customers, starting from two facts that we have to deal with every day and from an interesting consequence that arose from them.
Done number one. The opening of a free market in the energy sector has led to the creation of a significant number of companies that distribute gas and electricity to the final consumer.
Done number two. Competition has become, to use an overused expression, "ruthless" both for historical market reasons (well-rooted dominant positions) and product reasons. And what is offered - energy - is practically a commodity that we all cannot do without but which ultimately no one likes to pay for. As is known, theappeal of the supply of gas and electricity is scarce on the final consumer who judges spending on energy as an inevitable tax and not as a rewarding purchasing choice. There gratification, at most, lies in the price which - it goes without saying - must be the lowest one with the best withdrawal conditions.
How to act to reverse the trend? One solution was to bring together two different needs so that, from their union, satisfactory answers could come for both parties involved: customers and sales companies.
Let's start with the first ones. The 2021 BVA-DOXA report on housing desires showed how Italians favor a house that has sustainability, efficiency, technology and is "effortless" among its characteristic features. In fact, half of those interviewed say they are ready to embrace this approach to simplification when it comes to issues of home management. Therefore: guaranteed assistance and maintenance and solutions for energy saving, sustainable mobility or safety are welcome factors.
The companies that sell energy, on the other hand, aim to increase the rate of loyalty of users who very frequently abandon them to move on to others with lower prices. One problem is that of the rate switching which the ARERA Authority quantifies in an annual 13%.
What convergence, then? In recent years, numerous initiatives are moving in the direction of bringing together the needs of both parties through co-marketing operations. Not only energy, but also additional services that create that on the one hand loyalty which sales companies need to build increasingly high-performance services and on the other hand make daily life in our homes better.
And the interesting aspect lies right here: a portion of that vast concept has found concreteness from a useful marketing strategy smart home which has been the subject of theories for a long time. In it, solutions for alternative mobility, energy efficiency, increased connectivity or the internet of things have been integrated into a single place, according to sustainable logic and in such a way as to guarantee well-being for those who live there. This is perhaps an unorthodox adoption path - at least as the theorists intended it - but ultimately very effective.
In this context, we too Audax Renewables we have adopted this approach, offering value-added services and products. Today we went further, using a contest to generate loyalty among customers. The rewards? Like products and services related to energy supply, they are linked to the world of technology, alternative mobility, well-being, living comfort, efficiency and sustainability.
