The world’s landscape is changing daily, with gas prices reaching all-time highs and troubles bubbling along in Iraq and other hot spots. In the American aftermarket, changes are occurring as well, with continued competitive pressures and an ongoing race to gain marketshare at all levels of the supply chain.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of our Do-It-Yourself Survey, and, although DIYers have changed over the years, they continue to be a driving force behind parts sales in the U.S. economy. Needless to say, our years of experience studying these consumers has given us a wealth of information about who they are, what they drive, where they shop and why they shop there.
Last year we took advantage of technology and transferred this survey process to an online system. You might recall that past results came from face-to-face interviews with DIYers. This year we kept the process online, which enabled us to cover DIYers in more corners of the country and to avoid any skewing that may have resulted from standing in the stores when asking, “Where do you shop?” We’ve also gotten a far better response from female DIYers using the online method. More than half of this year’s respondents were women. (For a detailed analysis of these customers, see this month’s cover story.)
We invited a record 100,000 DIYers in the U.S. to complete our detailed online questionnaire and almost 3,500 consumers tackled this form. As an incentive, we offered respondents a chance to win cash prizes and 18 people received monetary awards after thoroughly completing the study.
Do-it-yourself customers were queried on a record number of DIY activities (65 in total) to see what tasks they have performed in the last 12 months. Their answers to these questions have been cross referenced with other answers to develop a matrix that discloses more about the consumer than is usually discovered.
Of consumers interviewed, 28 percent were located in the Midwest; 35 percent were from the East; 19 percent came from the West; and 18 percent were Southerners. The number of completed interviews means we have 98-percent confidence (±2.4) that the results of this study would be the same as if we had interviewed all DIY customers in the U.S.
One important note is that, starting on page 30, we report on some of our findings for 25 key categories. This information is being reported based on the advertising support we’ve received from product manufacturers. While we appreciate their advertising support, the results from this study were not swayed in any way by the supporting companies.
The overview
As you look through the overview that begins on the next page you will see that, predictably, most DIYers (85 percent) perform their own work “to save money.” It’s interesting to note, though, that more DIYers prefer to shop at certain stores because of “convenience/location” (31 percent) than because of the “price” (30 percent). You also can see that when consumers were asked to explain why they buy national brands or private brands, price was never a primary issue when national labels were involved. In all cases, price came in fourth behind essentials like “quality,” “availability” and “warranties.” So perhaps “price” is not as strong a factor as one might think with today’s do-it-yourselfers.
To give you a better understanding of how to read these charts, we’ve divided our research into six main product segments: Cosmetic, Underhood, Electrical, Under Chassis, Diagnostic/Self-Help and Other. This gives us topline information about the number of DIYers who participate in each segment.
Using Cosmetics as an example, 95 percent of the DIYers who responded to our survey participate in some Cosmetic activity; and of the Beginning DIYers who responded, 93 percent participate in the Cosmetic segment.
One final observation before turning you loose on the data — it’s obvious that today’s DIYers are still around in force. If there is a DIY activity to be found, they’ll find it, simply because they love working on cars. The number of car shows that have cropped up in recent months indicates that DIYers are not going anywhere, despite what some might have you think. And as long as they are interested in studying cars and tinkering under the hood, we’ll be around to study them.
