Estratégias competitivas utilizadas no comércio varejista de GLP: análise do mercado de Fortaleza

Abstract

The Brazilian market, with a demand of nearly 6.9 million tons a year, is the sixth largest domestic cooking gas market in the world after China, USA, India, Japan and Mexico. Due to its large use in food cooking, it is not uncommon to address LP gas as ―cooking gas‖. Residential consumption accounts for 80% of the total gas consumed in Brazil. Today, this is the public utility service with the highest span, reaching 100% of Brazilian municipalities and catering to 95% of the population, which is equivalent to 53 million households. In the distribution chain, the reseller’s job consists of receiving the product already bottled from distributors to sell it to the consumers. This study aims at analyzing competitive strategies adopted by LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) retail business companies in Fortaleza. It is a sector with high fragmentation among competitors and its main feature is product homogeneity. This provokes major restrictions with regards to differentiation. The theoretic framework approached issues such as LPG and the regulation that affects the sector, differentiation sources and competitive strategies. As for the research nature, this study used a quantitative approach. Primary sources data was obtained through a Survey conducted with 87 resellers using the SPSS method – Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, version 17.00. The study concluded that there is little reseller independence with regards to their distributors and that the brand is considered the main differentiation attribute among competitors. It was also identified that operating with lower prices than the competition is the option for those businessmen who seek market penetration, sales volumes growth or the resale of newly accepted brands in the Fortaleza market.