CounterTalk: Colours With Impact Hitting the Market

A staggering array of new automotive paint colours and finishes is sweeping through the aftermarket, and jobbers, because of their unique marketing and sales capabilities, are ideally positioned to profit from this trend.

At one time, daring automotive colour schemes and colours were largely limited to hot rod and custom car aficionados, who favoured such colours as deep mauve/purple and taffy apple red with bright orange flame painting. These are images that veteran jobbers will be familiar with.

Today specialty colours and finishes are available in virtually any colour you can imagine (and some that you can’t), and the consumer base that wants these colour treatments for their vehicles is widening considerably. The old standard flame-painting has also gone more uptown with a wide variety of designer-quality paint/graphic treatments available.

Led by the overall modification trend and in particular the influence of the sport compact tuner market, the vehicle individualization phenomenon is now becoming more mainstream, driving sales in the overall aftermarket appearance market as more and more vehicle owners seek to have their vehicles make a personal statement. The market includes motorcycles, cars, light trucks and even heavy duty. Overall, the modification market is expanding considerably, and paint and specialty finishes are at the leading edge of this expansion.

The trend is good news for jobbers, because this market niche plays to the jobber’s expertise in working with both professional paint and finishing operations, and the do-it-for-me sector, as well as the DIY segment of the market. The do-it-for-me aspect is a significant part of the modification market, particularly when painting an entire vehicle is involved, and jobbers can profit by directing consumers to the paint and refinishing shops they do business with.

Suppliers offer jobbers and their trade customers considerable assistance in this market, including application guidance, merchandising and marketing aids and programs, and education programs. Suppliers are now increasingly playing the role of product and systems education “tutor,” as paint and refinish technology and shop management becomes increasingly complex.

The U.S.-based Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) says that in the compact modification market segment, exterior modifications are the largest product category, with 48% of retail sales. In addition, within this segment, 18.1% of consumers interviewed in a SEMA survey indicated they have made modifications involving paint, graphics and ground effects, and that another 33.2% plan to make such modifications. Moreover, SEMA statistics show that full-line auto parts stores/jobbers have a 26.5% market share of the paint and body finishing products category.

Gus Amodeo, general manager, Plasti-Kote Inc., which has a strong focus on aerosol, points out how specialized some of the applications are becoming. “We now have a brake caliper paint and there are five colours in that line alone. Some vehicle owners are now even painting the inside parts of their vehicles–including dashboards. We have a plastic primer they can use for this application; they use the primer and then apply the colour of their choice on top of it.” Amodeo noted, however, that from a technical standpoint, it’s not just point-and-spray–there are application issues. “The customer really needs to read the instructions carefully and be sure to use a primer coat,” he says.

Discussing merchandising assistance, Amodeo says, “We have a number of good support programs, such as counter displays and freestanding racks, and this includes programs tailored for regions and specific markets. An example of this is merchandisers and headers for tractor and implement paint products, for those jobbers located in country areas where customers will want an exact John Deere green match, for example, for their tractor. We also have a heavy duty fleet care program.

“Our merchandising program also includes painted parts and modules, so the customer can see what the part looks like when painted. In addition we are constantly doing updates and keeping inventory up-to-date for jobbers. If the jobber has walk-in trade and has effective displays and merchandising, he will get business in this product category,” Amodeo says.

Riccardo Fragnito, national accounts manager, Dupli-Color Products, Sherwin-Williams Company, says that colour inventory updating of the company’s DIY-oriented aerosol line is constant.

“We update every year for this line and we also have a number of specialty paints, including brake caliper paint, which is a brush-on product, for the tuner or modification market,” he says. “Another emerging product for us is vinyl and fabric paint as well as colour-shifting paints and an anodized line of paint which gives the ‘chrome look’ in a variety of colours. Our exact match line for OE colours is available for retail sale in addition to being offered through automotive dealerships.”

Logan Macpherson, marketing communications specialist with DuPont Performance Coatings, says, “Custom paint in general is growing as a market category. The personalizing of vehicles is a hot and growing trend. There are product line extensions from many of the paint manufacturers and new brands as well. TV shows about modifying vehicles are an example of this market growth. These specialty finishes allow the jobber to compete in more areas.

“DuPont has a new line called Hot Hues, which is described on our website, HotHues.com. This is a complete colour/paint/finishing system. We have had a very positive reaction for this line, which has been in the U.S. for one year and in Canada for about two months. In the U.S. it was rolled out gradually, whereas in Canada we are introducing the entire system all at once.”

Macpherson notes that DuPont paint products are for professionals, such as bodyshops and refinishers, and says, “One of DuPont’s key marketing goals in paints is to help the consumer find the outlets selling the colours and the shops providing finishing services. The jobber can then recommend to the consumer where to go for a professional painting job.”

DuPont has a wide variety of point of sale displays, signage, and merchandising aids to help the jobber’s marketing and merchandising efforts, he says. “There are currently 169 custom colours, and we have 4″ x 6″ colour boards to show how the colour looks and 2″ x 2″ sample colour chips for the prospective customer to take with them.”

Macpherson notes that the new colours and formulations are different in more than just appearance. “You don’t necessarily use traditional methods with these new colour formulations. New application skills are involved, so there is a learning curve. To help with this we provide application guides and other professional application assistance.”

Debbie Nucciarone, product manager of PPG Refinish Canada, which participates only in the professional refinish area of the market, says, “Trends for specialty paints and finishes are moving towards low bake, faster-drying clearcoats with good in-can clarity. Primers are moving to achromatic greys (shades of greys) to achieve optimum hiding. Many of the traditional mica pearls used in automotive metallic basecoat colours are transitioning to xirallic-type pearls.

“This shift is occurring at the OE level as additional motor vehicle manufacturers adopt the use of these specialized pigments in increasing numbers of colours. This has required the refinish aftermarket to change the raw materials that are used in the repair of the original automotive paint. Pigmentation that was originally used in the custom market is now finding use in OE finishes. The special effect finishes that PPG has recently launched under the Vibrance Collection can be used in both custom finishes and in intermix formulation to match motor vehicle manufacturer colours,” Nucciarone concludes.

Overall, this new wave of paint and finish colours and technologies is bringing fresh excitement to the aftermarket appearance segment. In addition, there is a strong element of cross-fertilization between OE and the aftermarket, as aftermarket custom colours drive adoption at the OE level and as OE technology in turn propels new ideas down the aftermarket supply chain.

With their excellent market-adaptive skills, jobbers can profit in this market and can have some challenging fun as well with these constantly unfolding new colour and formulation concepts.

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Silver is the most popular colour for new cars worldwide, according to the 2004 DuPont Automotive Colour Popularity report. White took second place in all regions except for Europe, where black was in second position.

The DuPont report indicates that chromatic shades are on the rise in North America. For example, light metallic brown and blue each have captured double-digit percentages of the overall vehicle market while yellow looks hot on the right vehicles and red is on the rise again.

Karen Surcina, colour programs manager for DuPont Automotive Systems, notes, “Some buyers may rein in their expressive side and choose mainstream colours based on their perceived impact upon vehicle resale…In others, we see more of a ‘notice-me’ effect in the choice of brighter colours–people are becoming more optimistic; they’re proud of their new cars and want to be seen. Yellow in particular is a high visibility colour that really works for the smaller SUV classes as well as for compact cars and certain sports cars.”

Here are the most popular automotive colours in North America according to DuPont:

Silver – 18%

White/White Pearl – 16%

Red – 14%

Blue – 11%

Light Brown – 11%

Black – 11%

Medium/Dark Grey – 10%

Green – 5%

Yellow/Gold – 2%