Kevin O’Dowd is global director of Marketing, Corp. Branding/Strategy for Trico Products
The thing that affects wiper blade sales most dramatically is weather. It’s not as sensitive as to car build. We know new vehicles sales have declined about 20 percent and are kind of flattening out now and we see a resurgence there. Because new vehicles and we’re more leaning on used vehicles, at least a couple years old it doesn’t affect as much as weather does. As far as mileage, we’re actually seeing that start to move up. It’s relatively flat, but it’s still good. What’s paramount is visibility, because that equals control.
We’ve learned through some of our research that although overall vehicle repairs and maintenance tend to go down and vehicles become underserviced during times of economic strain, lighter, more affordable or attainable products like wipers, oil changes and things like that do continue and are not as affected as much. Visibility, control, and those kinds of things are so important to the driver. Those are things that are not concessions; those aren’t things that are compromised. Our sales have been pretty strong as a result.
The other thing that has affected sales is the sales mix. It’s not the number of units out there, but it’s the slipping from the top premium blades, the high technology blades that are out there, and the economy tends to put pressure on them to move toward the middle or toward the more economic choices. What ends up happening is people understand that these aren’t performing the way they are used to and they tend to bounce back pretty strongly to the premium segment. The only thing that’s keeping the sales mix from slipping even more is the advent of beam blades – frameless, bracketless, everybody has a different name for them. The new technology blade that’s OE on more vehicles all the time, and that does command a premium price. Folks are either replacing their factory beam blades with a factory replacement (which is right in the center of TRICO, we’re OE and we’re aftermarket: we have a whole factory replacement center). Not only are they replacing their original beam blades, they’re also moving up; we call it beam blade envy. Those manufacturers and brands that offer a universal-fitting beam blade can provide that choice to consumers to move up from a conventional blade to a beam blade. They’re cooler-looking and obviously they perform better because of the new technology.
What new technologies/materials are available to help improve your products?
Although it seems like wipers are a low involvement purchase, only needed when you notice that you can’t see, there is a lot of technology that goes into a wiper blade for a variety of reasons. When you think of wipers, you think of our moderate Michigan climate. But there are also the areas of the U.S., like the Phoenix sun beating down and deteriorating the materials that are in place, then when you really need it, it doesn’t work. You need wipers to withstand the extreme conditions, like the Dakotas or the higher elevations. Are you accommodating for that in your technology?
There are a variety of hostile elements in nature that the wiper needs to persevere through. There are new advancements in rear windows. That’s another thing we’re trying to get folks aware of if you have a rear blade that also needs changing. Many times there’s windshield washing mechanisms embedded in the blade or through that (rear wiper) system somehow. There are a number of tools and techniques that are available that a couple of manufacturers have to develop and design prototypes within just a fraction of the time that it used to take. That becomes so important because you’re able to test it under the varying curvatures of new windows: both on the front and the rear. To have that agility to bring products to market that much quicker is an important tool that we have. We have a couple of analytic tools that can be used to reveal deficiencies in a lot of the competitive and cheaper products that are out there.
So when we’re doing a lot of competitive testing, we’re doing analytics to see how well wiper performance is: we’re looking at endurance, we’re looking at rust resistance, we’re looking at how it performs in extreme heat or extreme cold. How even is the pressure disbursed (the rubber element) to the glass? Is it leaving streaks or spaces? Does it perform over time? At what point does it start to degrade in its performance? Those are newer and more advanced tools that any reputable manufacturer of wiper blades should have, things are changing so quickly.
There’s a new emerging style of wiper blade – we call it a crossover blade. It’s an OE-driven product. We’ve developed our own patented one. It’s a combination of a conventional hinged shell covering sometimes a conventional structure underneath and sometimes a beam structure underneath. Its genesis was through the OE. Newer materials themselves are a refinement of the (existing) materials, an alchemy of materials that withstand the elements. When metals are manufactured, the process in which they’re shaped to hold their shape – the types of plastics that are used and some of the products that resist weather changes, resist UV fading. There are new materials we’re constantly exploring, not only to address the change in the (weather) environment, but a change in the driving environment. It’s a more aggressive driving environment out there, so the sense of being in control is more important than ever. It’s a full contact sport.
Has it become more difficult to push wipers as a maintenance item (rather than as needed for replacement)?
That’s true with a number of maintenance items for cars. Maintaining vehicles sometimes is a necessary evil. One of the things helping now is the lease bubble has busted. When leasing vehicles, your care factor to maintain it is way down. When financing it, you do tend to spend more time (with maintenance). The fact that the driving environment’s getting more aggressive, that’s also encouraging people to be more prepared. Speeds are faster and it’s getting more congested. A lot of the roads are in disrepair. Of course, one other thing that helps is the wiper blade business has become very contested. Several years ago, there were four players in the market and now there are 15 strong players and a number of other ones. And as a result of that, the collective marketing dollars that are raising awareness in that category is helping everyone. That does help create a little bit of awareness. It ranges from region to region. (Wipers can be) changed as often as every three months to as seldom as every couple of years.
What are some recommendations for counterpeople when suggesting related products when selling wipers?
The biggest tip that we have for counter folks is that rear blade. It’s growing significantly. It’s amazing how many more vehicles are equipped with a rear blade. So right now, we’re looking at more than 23 million vehicles equipped with a rear integral blade, expected to be 40 million by 2012. With that in mind, we really try to get that message clearly across, that that rear blade is just as important, so you have proper visibility all around you. Of course, we always suggest helping alleviate what we call planogram paralysis -- consumers come in confused by all the choices. So they understand clearly what good, better, best means, we help them with that.
We also try to instill in our counter professionals the value of factory replacement; replacing your vehicle with a factory spec blade, whether it’s conventional or beam blade. If you’re living in a more weather intensive environment, you may want to consider moving up to a premium blade that lasts longer. For example, some of ours have Teflon and provide a better wipe. Something you don’t want to compromise is visibility or safety for yourself, your family or others around you. Something you don’t want to compromise is visibility and safety, not only for yourself and your family, or, for that matter, others around you. Take advantage of the new technologies out there, not only wiper performance but the new technologies that make it much easier for you to replace (wipers) yourself.
