Consumer/Professional Line

[gmitch23]

Just curious but why have two different lines of products. I understand Professional Lines products are stronger and a lot of times better, but as a consumer wouldnt you always want access to the best products in popular stores? Why have to order or go to a paint shop to try and find the best products. Maybe its a marketing thing, just wondering.

[boiler7904]

Re: Consumer/Professional Line

Different levels of performance for different budgets, needs and abilities.

The average consumer isn't worried about if a product is body shop safe and can be used with a DA or Rotary. They're applying by hand once or twice a year. A lot of consumers wouldn't believe you can remove swirls and scratches from paint if you demonstrated for them so they don't have a need for a lot of the Detailer and Mirror Glaze lines. Many just wash the vehicle, slap some wax on it, dress the tires and call it good. Meguiar's has to be able to fill all/most customer demands from pro to beginner and everything in between.

It's kind of like GM's line of brands in the 80s and early 90s. They offered the same platform with 3 or 4 sets of body panels and trim to meet various needs and left it up to the consumer which mix attributes were really needed/wanted.

[gmitch23]

Re: Consumer/Professional Line

Makes a lot of sense. I guess us enthusiats suffer because we are not "average" lol.

[Aeolis]

Re: Consumer/Professional Line

Pro stuff is available in bulk too, unlike consumer line. saves money.

[bmrfan]

Re: Consumer/Professional Line

Actually, I think Meguiar's has four "major" lines of products - Mirror Glaze, Detailer, Marine, & Consumer - to fill different market requirements.

As boiler7904 stated - body shops need products that won't jeopardize their painting operations whereas the average consumer needs products to "safely" fix minor defects and maintain the finish (i.e. wash & wax).

Meguiar's Mirror Glaze & Detailer lines is similar to Snap-On or Mac tools - a lot of high quality tools for specific applications and the Consumer line is similar to Craftsman tools - good quality tools without being quite overly specific.

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Consumer/Professional Line

I like the pro lines for the ability to buy in bulk, and the versatility. Use with ? machine. But a person that is not as fanatical about car car does not need to buy in bulk. So there is a segment out there for them also.

[nick98338]

Re: Consumer/Professional Line

AAhhh... the light comes on! Ask a question, in this forum, something like.. "what do I use for this..." and you get several different answers. Now it makes sense! The answers are based, in part, on the "segment" of the person answering. You'll get a different answer from a pro than you'll get from a consumer. I'm thinking that we should state our "segment" when we post. Both questioning, and answering.

[boiler7904]

Re: Consumer/Professional Line

AAhhh... the light comes on! Ask a question, in this forum, something like.. "what do I use for this..." and you get several different answers. Now it makes sense! The answers are based, in part, on the "segment" of the person answering. You'll get a different answer from a pro than you'll get from a consumer. I'm thinking that we should state our "segment" when we post. Both questioning, and answering.

Not sure that is totally necessary because when most people respond to questions they throw out multiple options across all of the product lines with pros/cons and advise for each to let the person asking make the best decision.

[Murr1525]

Re: Consumer/Professional Line

Yeah, once you get a little nuts like us, you'll mix and match.

[Bill Davidson]

Re: Consumer/Professional Line

Yeah, once you get a little nuts like us, you'll mix and match.

Most of the people on this forum are not the "average" consumer. Even though we use products from all of the product lines the different product lines have distinct target markets.

There is similarity in some of the products but there are distinct differences as pointed out by boiler.

Some of the professional products have been around for a very long time. Pro's get used to using them, even if there are technological advancements typically the professional product line will just expand with a new offering, but the old will remain. It's pretty clear that this type of breadth in the consumer product line would only lead to confusion and it wouldn't go over well with the retail distribution channel.

You can download the consumer and professional catalog from this link.

http://www.meguiars.com/catalog/

Just looking at them it becomes quickly apparent that we're talking about two entirely different target markets.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Consumer/Professional Line

gmitch23, just so you know, when Meguiar's started out back in 1901 we were strictly a furniture polish company. Yep, furniture polish.

As more and more cars started popping up on the roads (and as more and more actual roads were built) we easily transitioned to automotive products since cars back then made use of a lot of painted wood - just like the paint on furniture back then. And so we moved a good portion of the business in that direction, dealing with auto manufacturers in the factories, with paint companies as they developed new paints, and in that new and growing industry, auto body repair.

Products used in those environments are usually machine applied and there is usually fresh paint being sprayed. This creates certain necessities in ingredient selection that can make a product a bit finicky to work with unless you've been properly trained. This is sort of a non issue for someone who makes a living using this type of product, but for the average "man on the street" who doesn't know, it can be a challenge.

When we introduced our first consumer product in 1973, Cleaner Wax, we knew we needed to make products that were easy to apply by hand and could return great results across a wide spectrum of finishes.

Jump forward to the 21st Century and technology has changed a bit. The need for different ingredients in the pro line versus consumer line still stands, but the performance level is often much, much closer than you might think. The Mirror Glaze pro line is just far more diverse than the consumer line when it comes to compounds, paint cleaners and polishes. The "average" pro will work on a wide variety of finishes in the course of a week. The "average" consumer will work on one or two different finishes through the course of a few years. And the consumer isn't normally spraying fresh paint all day long either! But in many cases, the consumer products are easier to use and can yield equal results.

Consider Ultimate Compound, which is derived from M105. No, it isn't as aggressive as M105, but M105 was designed to remove 1000 grit sanding marks with a rotary buffer and a wool pad. Is that what you're working on? Are your car wash swirls, towel marks and occasional shopping cart nudge as severe as 1000 grit sanding marks? Not even close. Ever see comments about M105 creating a lot of dust when used on a D/A? That has a lot to do with the fact that it's a professional product originally designed for rotary use. Yes, it was altered slightly to make it more D/A friendly, but there's a big difference between "altering a product to make it more D/A friendly" and "making a product designed for D/A use". UC offers great cutting ability, but is much more forgiving on a D/A than M105.

So why do we make these two different lines? It really has nothing at all to do with one being "better" than the other. It's more about developing products to meet certain requirements and expectations. To offer usability and variety/choice when and where each is needed.