Unaided Brand-name Awareness is Low

Unaided Brand-name Awareness is Low

NEW YORK
Most kitchen and bath product brands in all key categories apparently remain a well-kept-secret to the average home improvement consumer, whose brand-name awareness is extensive by comparison for literally every major product, from canned goods and clothing to airlines and automobiles.

Unaided brand-name awareness for some kitchen and bath products including cabinetry, countertops and bathtubs is so low, in fact, that it seems almost a wonder that the products are an integral part of literally every home in America, and that billions of dollars are invested in those products every year by U.S. homeowners.

The degree to which kitchen/bath product brand awareness is so limited is the key finding of a major new consumer survey conducted late last year by the Chicago-based research firm Leo J. Shapiro & Associates on behalf of National Home Center News, a trade magazine serving the home improvement retail market. Results of the national telephone survey which involved more than 900 households were released recently by National Home Center News, which granted Kitchen & Bath Design News permission to publish selected findings.

The survey reveals, for example, that only 11% of the consumers polled could readily name a brand of kitchen cabinet. Similarly, only 11% could name a countertop brand. By comparison, 47% of the consumers surveyed were able to name a brand of faucet, and 28% could name a brand of toilet (see related graph).

The survey also underlines the role being played by home centers as an increasingly competitive environment for kitchen and bath purchases even at the mid-range to high end. It concludes, for example, that home improvement stores are generally thought of as both a "good place to buy" kitchen and bath products, and the last place where those products were actually purchased a finding which suggests "that the home improvement store is increasingly perceived as the best source for almost all kitchen and bath products."

Moreover, home centers have "an even greater upside opportunity to capture more sales from specialty retail outlets because of consumers' very positive perception of them" a message which contains potentially serious ramifications for independent kitchen and bath dealers (see related Editorial, Page 7).
The National Home Center News survey also contained several other important findings. Among them:

• Consumers at home centers are more likely to purchase small, commodity-type products such as showerheads and water filters than they are major remodeling components such as cabinets, vanities, countertops and plumbing fixtures a conclusion that, combined with the finding on brand names, lends credence to the claim that kitchen/bath dealers, designers and related professional specifiers remain a powerful force in the product-selection process.
  
• Consumer purchasing plans for most key kitchen and bath products are fairly bullish and are expected to remain so, given the positive economic and demographic conditions that exist in the marketplace (see related graph).
  
• Consumers use widely differing criteria when buying various kitchen and bath products, although many consumers continue to "buy" key intangibles offered by product specifiers (see related story, Page 42).