Ronni Lang, Account Brand Manager for Crown Trade, outlines why premium paints offer excellent opportunities for merchants.
With competition high and a range of retail options available for general builders and specialist tradespeople alike, merchants have long understood that the key to ensuring repeat custom is offering excellent customer service and good value for money.
The paint and coatings market, like other building products, has a dizzying array of options available for customers, from the basic matt emulsions, to high-quality premium ranges — and everything in between!
Striking a balance between the quality of the product and the cost to the customer is therefore vital in gaining a competitive advantage, and so merchants who understand the difference between a premium paint and the advantages it offers compared to a basic emulsion — and can effectively communicate this to customers — will gain an edge.
The right paint for the right job
The importance of starting out with the right product to achieve the desired finish can’t be underestimated, and a key factor in ensuring that rooms retain their ‘just decorated’ appearance for longer is using a paint that is specifically suited to meeting the long-term requirements of the project. In particular it’s important to identify how much the room will be used and more specifically, the type of maintenance and cleaning that is likely to be required.
As standard paint products aren’t designed to withstand rigorous cleaning regimes, it is well worth getting to grips with the more innovative cleanable paint solutions that are now available to understand how and when they can help your customers.
In fact, regular cleaning, either by wiping or scrubbing, is one of the main causes of paint finishes looking tired and scruffy over time and so it’s important that customers are aware of how well the paint will perform long-term to avoid any potential complaints.
Cleanable paints have been specially developed and tested to be able to withstand intensive cleaning by minimising the amount of paint film that is removed each time. For example, based upon the ISO 11998 testing method (the industry standard for determining the wet scrub resistance of dry paint film) Crown Trade’s Clean Extreme Scrubbable Matt achieved a Class 1 rating and has an impressive durability level of 10,000 scrubs, which translates to a 400% increase in resistance to wet scrubbing when compared to conventional matt emulsions.
That means that surfaces painted using Clean Extreme will retain their pristine appearance for much longer, increasing customer satisfaction.
Filling in the knowledge gaps
Keep in mind that while some merchant customers will be decorators by trade, and will likely already know which qualities they are looking for in a product, general tradespeople who are offering painting and decorating as an add-on may be inclined to opt for a cheaper or mid-range option, simply because they don’t know the advantages of a premium option.
Even expert tradespeople may not be able to keep fully abreast of developments in paint manufacturing, so it is up to merchants to gain a full understanding of how premium paints can make decorators’ lives easier, improve their margins, and help them get the job finished more quickly and to a the best possible standard — something that mid-range or basic products often can’t achieve.
By upselling to tradespeople, merchants can help the decorator to save valuable time and the end customer will receive a better finished result. What’s more, the merchant will increase their margins too — a win-win scenario.
Whether using point-of-sale information or taking advantage of resources such as literature and online videos that contain in-depth information about the products, merchants can encourage customers to opt for paints that offer better coverage and opacity alongside durability. And both of which will cut down on the time spent on any particular job, allowing decorators to work efficiently and ultimately generate more income, even where the initial cost of the paint is higher.
For example, Crown Trade’s Clean Extreme Ultimate Opacity formulation has been specifically designed to cover existing paint colours, stains and imperfections and to provide a hardwearing, washable and long-lasting white finish. The paint’s increased opacity means that it will require fewer coats and will still provide a durable finish that will retain its ‘just decorated’ appearance for longer.
Gaining knowledge of the research and development that goes into these products can allow merchants to offer their customers the guidance they need to sell the right products for the right projects, but they can also help to differentiate merchants from other high street or online retailers by offering a level of customer service that can’t be matched.
To download the Crown Trade Clean Extreme range brochure, go to https://www.crowntrade.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/52655-CT-Clean-Extreme-Brochure_no-crops_WEB.pdf
