Coatings World - January 2013

Lifestory Research Releases “2012 Residential New Home Shopper Brand Study”

The brand of paint used in a new home can influence shoppers’ perception of quality and their decision to buy, according to a national poll of nearly 10,000 households by Lifestory Research.

The Lifestory Research “2012 Residential New Home Shopper Brand Study” evaluates consumer attitudes from 9,565 households across several different product classifications, including paint, to determine how brands influence home-shop-ping behavior. Behr brand paint ranks highest in brand awareness, perceptions of quality, importance of product class brand and overall impression of the brand manufacturer, according to survey results.

Furthermore, 58 percent of home shoppers indicate the
brand of paint impacts how they evaluate the purchase of the
home. “Many sellers do not consider the importance that paint
brands play in a home buyer’s decision criteria,” said Lifestory
Research president and CEO Eric Snider. “We find that sharing
the brand name of the paint used in the home could play an
incremental role in the ultimate decision a consumer makes in
regards to a home purchase. While we do not believe any cus-
tomer makes a purchase decision solely on the paint brand, the
results suggest that the inclusion of the paint brand in the sales
process of a home could add value to the overall assessment of
a home’s quality.”
Lifestory Research’s series of national investigations focuses
on how brands influence the purchase behavior of home own-
ers. “We have seen a fundamental shift in consumer psychology
that has occurred in response to the massive social revolution
that has taken place over the last several years,” Snider said.
“Consumers are no longer referencing customer advocacy or-
ganizations for product information; instead, people are turning
to their peers, friends and digital social networks to garner opin-
ions. As a result, we have seen brands rise in importance in the
consumer purchase process.”
New-home shoppers’ perceptions of paint brands averages
113 on a 400 point scale. Shoppers evaluated 18 paint brands
along four dimensions: brand awareness, perceptions of quality,
importance of brand and impression of brand.

Behr ranks highest on the brand index with a score of 232 and performs particularly well in all four dimensions of brand equity, survey results indicate. Following Behr in the rankings are Sherwin Williams (211), Glidden (176), Benjamin Moore (157), Dutch Boy (141), Ralph Lauren (117), Dunn-Edwards (106), Kelly-Moore (92), Pittsburg (87), Frazee (82), Pratt and Lambert (72), Kwal (71), Parker (64), Duron (58), Monarch (57), Color Wheel (52) and DeVoe & Reynolds ( 41).

Lifestory Research found that 50 percent of the quality rating of a paint brand could be explained by the amount of people who could recall the brand unaided, which was directly tied to the consumer’s perception of quality. For more information on this study go to www.lifestoryresearch.com.