When I tell people I write for Chemical Processing magazine they stare at me in doe-eyed silence. The awkward silence ends when I start mentioning some of the companies that we cover. Then it becomes a free-association frenzy filled with marketing slogans galore.
The one that has dominated recent conversation in my neck of the woods – Lorain County, Ohio – is BASF's "We don't make a lot of the products you buy. We make a lot of the products you buy better."
The reason folks in Ohio talk about BASF in slogan-speak is because the company announced in early June that it is toying with the idea of opening a new facility that would produce a patented “cathode material” to be used in advanced Lithium-ion batteries that would power a new generation of hybrid cars.
All of a sudden people truly understand what the slogan means – they don't make hybrid cars. . . they make them greener.
BASF certainly isn't a newcomer to the area. In fact, it's Elyria, Ohio, plant located on the Black River started production in 1898 and makes catalysts and specialty pigments.
Apparently, with age comes advertising wisdom. After all, soccer moms, school children and retired Rotarians can recite the slogan verbatim.
What other chemical company can claim the same? Really, I want to know!
Traci Purdum,
Senior Digital Editor, ChemicalProcessing.com
