From strategic decisions to actionable target lists: the case of Big Chemistry & Hammer Market Intelligence

The challenge: turning strategic focus into concrete commercial opportunities

Many organizations know where they want to play, but struggle with a more practical question: how do you identify the right companies to approach? This challenge becomes even more complex in formulation-centered industries, such as the pharmaceutical industry for example.

Such industries are characterized by large numbers of companies, an ever-growing need of innovation, lots of product development, and limited clarity on who is truly leading in terms of product functionalities. As a result, translating a strategic focus into a concrete, high-quality target account list for commercial use is often the missing link between strategy and execution.

The case: Big Chemistry

Big Chemistry started late 2023 to accelerate formulation development and transform the art of formulation into a data-driven science. From a scientific perspective, it is substantiated by five leading knowledge institutes in the Netherlands, while being subsidized by the Dutch National Growth Fund.

At the core of Big Chemistry lies the deployment of self-driving labs (SDLs): autonomous robotic labs that operate in a high-throughput manner to accelerate formulation development and innovation. Rather than following traditional trial-and-error processes, SDLs can invert the discovery process:

·       Desired product properties are defined upfront

·       AI generates potential formulations

·       The system produces and tests these formulations

·       Results are fed back into the model in a closed-loop cycle

This iterative process continues until the desired outcome is achieved. Given the vast parameter spaces in formulation science, SDLs enable a much more efficient and intelligent exploration of possibilities.

Big Chemistry currently operates across multiple industries, with these being the most prominent ones:

·       Paints, coatings, adhesives & inks

·       Personal & home care

·       Small molecular entities (pharma)

·       Food

With 6 SDLs already in use and 19 more under development, the ambition is clear: accelerate innovation across these domains.

To support this ambition, Big Chemistry defined a clear strategy. They aim to collaborate with frontrunners: companies leading in formulation innovation and product differentiation. As these organizations are most likely to have the complexity, ambition and strategic fit needed to benefit from Big Chemistry’s proposition. The question then became: which companies actually fit this profile?

The approach: how Hammer Market Intelligence translates strategy into action

Hammer Market Intelligence specializes in turning complex information challenges into structured, actionable insights. With a proven methodology rooted in over 10 years of experience in market intelligence, Hammer understands how information flows, where to find it, and how to structure it into actionable insights.

To address Big Chemistry’s challenge, Hammer designed a four-step process:

1. Translating strategy focus into measurable criteria
Together with Big Chemistry, Hammer translated the concept of a ‘frontrunner’ into a clear and measurable qualification model. This included variables such as R&D headcount, product claims, innovation awards, etc. By defining what matters and how to interpret it, the frontrunner concept was converted into a scalable evaluation framework.

2. Identifying relevant companies at scale
Hammer then applied a structured search methodology to identify companies across the markets that were deemed most relevant by Big Chemistry: paints, coatings, adhesives & inks, personal & home care and pharma (small molecular entities).

This step involved the identification where frontrunners are most visible, such as

·       Industry associations

·       Sector-specific networks

·       Innovation ecosystems

AI-driven tools were used to efficiently collect and structure company data, creating a broad and consistent initial dataset.

Followingly, the key added value of AI lied in rapidly narrowing this initial company list down. By applying the frontrunner qualification model at scale, Hammer:

·       screened thousands of companies,

·       scored them consistently on innovation and R&D indicators,

·       and reduced the dataset to a focused longlist.

This created a manageable, high-potentialselection as the starting point for deeper analysis.

3. Combining AI with human expertise
While AI provided scale and structure, human expertise ensured relevance and quality. Hammer’s analysts performed a deep-dive on the AI-selected companies, focusing on:

·       Strategic fit with Big Chemistry’s proposition

·       Real innovation capabilities beyond surface-level indicators

·       Relevance of applications and formulation complexity

·       Likelihood of partnership potential

This qualitative layer was further strengthened through expert interviews with sector specialists. Their input added a critical extra dimension to the analysis: beyond validating the attractiveness of the shortlisted companies, it also helped ensure that no relevant frontrunners were overlooked. In this way, the interviews strengthened both the quality and the completeness of the final target list.

4. Deliverable: ready-to-use target account lists

The end result was a ready-to-use deliverable, including:

·       Qualified target account lists

·       Key company information (e.g. revenue, ownership structure)

·       Identified decision-makers (e.g. R&D managers)

·       Contact details for direct outreach

This enabled Big Chemistry to immediately activate its commercial strategy.

“Hammer helped turn our strategic direction into a structured and actionable target list. Their methodical approach resulted in an outcome that was both highly relevant and directly usable.” – Francesco Staps | Director of Business Development, Big Chemistry

The method: repeatable and flexible

What makes this approach extra powerful is its repeatability and flexibility. For Hammer Market Intelligence, creating target lists is not limited to specific sectors.

The methodology is tailor-made and can be applied across virtually any market. This means it can support:

·       Companies entering new markets

·       Organizations refining their commercial focus

·       Private equity firms identifying acquisition targets

·       Distribution partners example

·       Innovation programs like Big Chemistry seeking the right partners

In other words: from strategy to commercial execution, across infinite market contexts.

For Hammer Market Intelligence, this case demonstrates how strategic focus can be translated into ready-to-use target lists. Looking to activate your commercial or buying strategies by identifying ideal customers, partners, distributors, or acquisition targets? Let’s talk. Reach us at +31 85 3332472 or jerom@hammer-intel.com.

For Big Chemistry, the next step is kicking off partnerships with frontrunners across paints, coatings, adhesives & inks, personal & home care, pharma and food. Interested in collaborating? Reach out via fstaps@bigchemistry.nl.