COMPETITION FOR appearance product dollars is fierce, top to bottom. Manufacturers fight for shelf space, and push new products that fill the “perfect niche.” And small to large retailers, jobbers and mass merchandisers are doing anything they can to gain market share in the category.

Properly merchandising appearance chemicals means knowing which items are dominant.

According to a 1999 study of the Appearance Chemicals Market conducted by Frost & Sullivan, revenues for exterior washes, waxes and polishes, protectants and tire and wheel cleaners will near $550 million this year, and are projected to top $563 million in 2001. These gains are modest at below 3 percent, so retailers are doing whatever they can to boost sales. Bill Haynes, director of performance and retail products for Jobbers Warehouse of Grand Rapids, Mich., said his company began planogramming appearance products about two years ago in an effort to help jobbers increase sales. The new model divided products by category, rather than brand name.

“We always used to lump them together. That was always the traditional way to do it. You’d place all your DuPont together, all your Turtle Wax together. But now we seem to have gotten away from that” said Hayes.

Once the planogram program was in place, Haynes and his company presented the designs to the roughly 200 independent jobbers they service. This new approach for Jobbers Warehouse seems to be paying off. Sales of waxes and polishes increased 15 percent in 1999, compared to 1998, he said.

“It gives the jobber a good starting point,” said Haynes, whose company is a Parts Plus member. “It’s not everything, but it’s enough to get them going. If they’ve got a store with a hard following for waxes and polishes, we can add to it. But we’re also telling them, ‘Here’s something for less than $700 that you can go to market with. If you don’t have anything, at least do this.’”

The key, he said, is getting jobbers to adopt the planograms. Some are more hesitant to change, because they are used to doing things a certain way.

“We deal with a lot of independents and we can’t force feed them anything. We suggest hey keep the axes separate from the washes, window cleaners and other appearance products,” he said.

From a product-selection standpoint, Haynes said he wants to see great packaging that jumps off the shelf. He also prefers products that come with co-op dollars that he can use to help with advertising campaigns. And of curse, the products need to provide better margins. Premium waxes, for instance, are a hit because of their margin potential and the fact that large, chain retailers in his area focus on other lines.

“We tend to do things that we don’t see the larger retailers doing,” said Haynes. “They may not have all the premium stuff, so we’ll try to move our guys that way a little bit. Why take the larger retailers on head-on?”

Stephen Alexander, president of automotive In-Store Marketing, says properly merchandising appearance chemicals means knowing which items are dominant, both as categories and brands.

Top 10 Brands of Automotive Treatment *(52-week ending Jan 2, 2000) Armor All STP Son of a Gun Formula 2001 Meguiar’s Turtle Wax Zip Wax Black Magic Tire Wet Armor All Tire Foam Turtle Wax Super Hard Shell Turtle Armor All Quicksilver II * According to food, drug and mass merchandisers Source: Information Resources, Inc. 2/8/00

Traditional merchandising of appearance products should be done by function (for instance, keeping all protectants together). Within a functional group, retailers should try to create “vertical ribbon banding” by using power brands to dominate the mid-to-upper sections of the shelves since those areas are at eye level. Lesser brands and categories are moved to bottom or top shelves, which usually gain less viewing attention, he said. Retailers also must consider the traffic pattern of most consumers. They usually view merchandise from right to left, therefore, it’s imperative to place leading categories in order from right to left. “You must have protectant lead the section (from the right) since it represents the most significant dollar share and unit share in appearance products,” said Alexander. According to Frost & Sullivan’s study, protectants are projected to reach $172.3 million in revenue this year, while waxes and polishes are second at $162 million. Alexander added that the principles of proper merchandising are not restricted solely to retail operations. Jobbers who service commercial accounts also can benefit from this type of merchandising since thinking habits and shopping processes are the same.

“It’s the same human being, just in a different environment,” he said. The basic product set is the same, but jobbers may opt for signage and other tactics to let commercial customers know that larger quantities exist behind the counter or in the back of the store.

As for other merchandising options, Alexander recommends endcaps and free standing displays that can be moved based on their purpose.

Alexander says proper use of the freestanding concept can stimulate sales 60 to 150 percent. He suggests bringing together groups of products that are used during the same DIY activity. Retailers, for instance, should consider creating a car-care project display that contains all the products someone would need for cleaning their vehicle. Offer discounts for buying one of each of the groups in the display.

“Talk about a great way to cross merchandise and spark group purchases,” said Alexander.

Endcaps work well for sales and seasonal items. Always keep them neat and place signage on the endcap that tells consumers why the products are there, he said.

Parts Specialist Rusty Dintelman for O’Reilly Auto Parts in Fort Scott, Kan., expects to see his company carry new endcap designs into the appearance category. Currently being used for other categories, the endcaps don’t display as many SKUs and are used as a merchandising tool.

“We keep a pretty precise inventory and we try not to overload our inventory,” he said. “Rather than loading up a store with a bunch of excess products to make it look nice, we’ve made displays that cover one-third of the endcap with pictures of products and product information. The other portion contains the products. With fewer products you can still bulk it out.”

Other chemicals have been successfully displayed in this fashion, and when the weather warms up Dintelman expects to carry the displays over to waxes and polishes and car-cleaning product lines. Even with more P-O-P information, consumers still get lost in the appearance category because of the huge number of choices that are available. Frequently consumers come in with no idea what products they need.

Endcaps should be stocked with either sales or seasonal items.

“A lot of times they have a scratch or swirls on their car. They’ve just been to the car wash and the brush swirled their paint and they’re looking for stuff to fix the visible damage,” he said. When those instances occur, it’s important that the sales force knows the lines and is able to guide consumers in the buying process.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE:"Reprinted with permission from Aftermarket Business, March, 2000, page 42. Copyright by Advanstar Communications, Inc. Advanstar Communications, Inc. retains all rights to this material." To subscribe to Aftermarket Business, call 1-218-723-9477 or email fulfill@superfill.com.