Consumers want more hardware brands - Power Brands

Discount Store News, Oct 16, 1995

In hardware, the main conclusion from the 1995 Power Brands survey comes as no surprise: Wal-Mart's overwhelming switch to its private label brand, Popular Mechanics, along with a growth in support for General Electric, has solidified the position of Black & Decker as the leading brand among all retailers.

But in a surprise finding, many more consumers this year expressed a preference for a hardware brand than last year, with 70% vs. 58% in 94. Yet the same high proportion as last year-seven out of 10-said they were willing to buy a private label or store brand hardware item.

Indicating a low degree of brand loyalty, about half of the consumers surveyed said that they would be willing to switch brands if stores were out of their favorite brands.

Consumers expressed virtually the same degree of low confidence in '95 about finding their favorite brands in discount stores, an index of 6.51. where one means not likely and nine means sure of finding. The only categories scoring lower were computer hardware and software, two very fragmented markets.

Among consumers, the top brands appear etched in stone. B&D, Stanley and General Electric have been holding onto the same rankings for the past five years. The only major change is that GE's strength has gradually crept up from 8% in 1991 to 13% in 1995, while the relative strengths of B&D and Stanley have remained fairly constant over the years, with 18% for B&D this year and 17% for Stanley.

However, only those top three get double-digit support. Preference for the rest of the top 10 list ranges from 6% for Glidden down to 1% for Rubbermaid, Benjamin Moore and DuPont.

Another significant finding from the consumer list was that paint brands (Glidden, Dutch Boy, Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore and DuPont) accounted for half of the top 10 hardware category labels. DuPont has been making efforts to come back into the discount store class of trade. Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams are specialty store brands.

GE's strength grew among discount retailers as well as consumers, with nearly two in 10 (18%) citing it as one of their top brands, up from one in 10 (12%) in '94.

The increase in consumer preference for national brands is reflected in slippage of retailer preference for the private label programs of the two top discounters.

Popular Mechanics, Wal-Mart's private label, slipped to 12% from 16%, dropping to fourth place on the top 10 chart from third place last year.

This performance was echoed by Benchtop, Kmart's PL brand in tools and fasteners. Benchtop slipped to 5% from 8% in '94 and 10% in '93. Bull Dog, which has been hurt by the rise of Popular Mechanics at Wal-Mart, nonetheless inched back onto the top 10 this year, with 3% of retailer mentions.

The growth of GE and Popular Mechanics has come at the expense of second-place Stanley, while top-ranker B&D has widened its lead. Asked to name their favorite hardware brands, 47% of the retailers named Stanley, down from 50% in '94.

The percentage of retailers who named B&D rose to 63% in '95 from 57% last year.

Both brands again achieved Power Brand status in '95, with B&D ranked No. 7 out of 41 Power Brands, and Stanley in slot No. 14.

Rubbermaid, with offerings that overlap housewares, hardware and sporting goods, ranked No. 15 on the Power Brands chart. It earned the rank based on its housewares lines.

B&D achieved Power Brand status for its offerings in both hardware and housewares.

Retailers' best
performing brands
  All Discounters
Brand                   1995      1994
Black & Decker           63%       57%
Stanley                  47        50
General Electric         18        12
Popular Mechanics        12        16
Rubbermaid                5         6
Skil                      5         5
Shop-Vac                  5         9
Glidden                   5        13
BenchTop                  5         8
Bull Dog                  3         3
% of total mentions as a top-performing brand.
Source: DSN/Leo J. Shapiro & Associates, July 1995
Consumers' most
preferred brands
  All Discount Store Shoppers
Brand                   1995      1994
Black & Decker           18%      20%
Stanley                  17       19
General Electric         13       12
Glidden                   6        5
Dutch Boy                 5        1
Sherwin Wiliams           2        2
Ski                       2        4
Rubbermaid                1        -
Benjamin Moore            1        -
DuPont                    1        -
% of total mentions as a preferred brand.
Source: DSN/Leo J. Shapiro & Associates, July 1995
Consumers:
life stage analysis
  Top brands by age group