Using Market Intelligence to Grow New Opportunities

Marlin Steel Wire, through their customer relationship and product development efforts, identified a unique opportunity in the aircraft maintenance and repair industry to develop and produce a higher-quality, more-functional basket float to transport, store and protect commercial aircraft engines. Currently, when aircraft maintenance and repair organizations service aircraft engines, these engines are removed and stored and transported on pallets, racks and or floats that 1) do not provide protection to the engine, 2) are not easily transportable and 3) are not standardized across the operation or industry. This problem has led to significant damage, repair and quality issues within the industry. To address this, Marlin has developed, patented and produced a custom aircraft engine float that is capable of solving these problems in a cost effective and efficient manner. With the product developed, Marlin required assistance from the MD MEP in identifying and accessing new markets and new opportunities to generate sales for the product.

In support of Marlin's efforts to identify and access new markets for the custom aircraft engine float, the MD MEP, part of the MEP National Network™, worked with Marlin to develop and deliver a comprehensive market development and lead generation strategy to enter the aircraft maintenance and repair market. Working in conjunction with the Marlin leadership team, the MD MEP crafted a market strategy that would target the major aircraft engines OEMs as well as identifying the large multi-national maintenance and repair organizations servicing the industry. Through this work, the MD MEP team was able to provide assistance to Marlin in identifying new opportunities, creating new leads, and facilitating the business development activities to capitalize on these opportunities.