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CASE VI
Makrolon: The High-Tech Material
People all over the world come into contact with polycarbonates every day. Ever since 1953, this plastic has built an impressive array of success in many different product Today, countless producers all over the world rely on the properties of polycarbonates. And more products and applications are constantly being added. It is impossible to imagine the future without polycarbonates. One of these polycarbonates is
Bayer’s Makrolon.® The 45 billion or so CDs that have been produced from Makrolon since the birth of the compact disc in 1982 up to the beginning of 2008 would create a belt about
10,800,000 kilometers long. This …show more content…

But being a processor of Makrolon does not necessarily mean that the end product meets the same quality standards or reflects Bayer’s level of prestige. The polycarbonate could be simply an ingredient, which cannot compensate for a manufacturer’s poor reputation or the inferior quality of other ingredients used in the manufacturing process. To protect the reputation of
Bayer and Makrolon and make sure it is not damaged by quality issues of this kind, Bayer tests all products that are destined to carry the
Makrolon label.
Bayer also uses brand usage agreements to ensure the required level of quality and assumes the right to take samples during production to offer end consumers assurance of consistently high quality. But Bayer does not only consider a company’s products when choosing its ingredient branding partners; it also scrutinises the company and its image as a whole. When it comes to ingredient branding the Leverkusen firm wants to know exactly with whom they are associating in the public eye and who is allowed to use the
Bayer cross for their own marketing purposes. This process aims to avoid associating the company with partners engaged in
“price wars”; a close association with the end product could potentially damage the image of Makrolon.
Becoming an ingredient branding partner is a coveted