Marketing

Case Study Jones~Blair Company

Discussion Questions:

1. Identify at least five characteristics of the U.S. architectural paint industry that are most likely to shape the marketing strategies of the interested firms.

U.S. Paint Industry

The U.S. paint industry is divided into three broad segments: (1) Architectural coatings, (2) Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) coatings, and (3) Special-purpose costing. The U.S. paint industry is generally considered to maturing with sales in 1997 slightly over $13 billion and the growth was forecasted to approximate the general rate of inflation through 2000.

U.S. Architectural Industry

In 1997, the estimated U.S. sales of architectural paint coatings and sundries to be in the excess of $10 billion. The architectural coating is a mature market with long-term sales growth projected in the range of 1 to 2 percent per year. A slow growth is one of the main characteristic of a mature market.

The slow growth rate can be traced back to a slowing growth rate in volume. This is because of a growing of alternative materials that do not require paint or require little paint such as plastic and vinyl. These are substitute products that can increase consumers' sensibility to changes in price.

The demand for painting accessories such as brushes and rollers is predicted to increase. This is due to a trend towards do-it-yourself painting by household consumers. Recent research indicated that do-it-yourself painters do not care much about the brand and it has become a commodity for this kind of consumers.

The trend is towards fewer companies sharing the market. This is the result of companies closing down and smaller companies being taken over. Many small companies, however, have been able to survive because technology to readily available and because of the necessity to adapts paint mixtures to different regional climates.

The major producers of paint for the architectural coating segment include Sherwin-William, Benjamin Moore, Glidden and others. These producers account for upwards 60% of sales in the architectural costing segment.

The U.S. paint manufactures are under growing pressure to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from paints and to limit the consumption of solvents. Compliance with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations has