Message text written by "BP - \"Infarct a Laptop Daily\""
>The
paint industry knows that we will not spend much more than $25./gal for
paint and so they give is paint products with short-term performance
because
a better ones would cost more. This paint marketing fact is well known
within the paint industry. <

I agree and disagree. The consumer/trade sales paint industry is EXTREMELY
price sensitive. As a specialty paint manufacturer, we understand the
formulating compromises made by mass marketers of paint, and if you take 32
cents a gallon in raw material savings, multiply by a million gallons, you
have a formulation chemist who has paid his salary for the year and then
some. You also have a company that is in a position to bid huge projects
involving thousands of gallons of paint at a few cents lower than the
competitor. 

But with regard to high quality exterior coatings, for wood or masonry,
there is no reason why general purpose paints cannot be sold for $25 a
gallon, give or take a few dollars. I suspect that what drives the price
higher is the huge advertising budgets spent on promoting premium quality
paint. This, in turn, necessitates formulation compromises to keep the
price down, if the industry thinks $25 is a magic price barrier. It's a
vicious cycle, isn't it?

I guess my point is just that it is possible to formulate paints that give
10 to 20 years service and sell at $25/gallon, but that it is difficult for
the consumer to distinguish between hype and the real deal.

Mike E.