Perplexed by Paint Palmer AK

By Mark Clark
4/1/2006

Turns out this topic is much like the famous Bill Clinton quote: “It depends on what the meaning of is, is.”

Paint brand popularity and exact market share are touchy subjects among the refinish paint companies. No one wants to be quoted in print as having less market share than the next guy, and there’s no reporting entity that collects paint company sales data. Each manufacturer knows only what it sells, and conjectures what others sell. Part of the confusion also comes from exactly what kind of paint we’re talking about.

Readers of this magazine are probably most concerned with paint used in collision repair, and various paint companies use different terms to define the segments within this industry. Although some see two tiers, I see three separate strata within this segment. In my terminology, they are:

1. The economy or value collision segment.
2. The standard-issue collision segment.
3. The premium, high-production collision segment.

 Additionally, most of the paint companies we’re all familiar with also offer similar chemistry for fleet paint shops. Fleet can be further divided into general categories like over-the-road t...