Stephen G. Barone

barodine marketing communications/research/design

For a professional product line, customers’ loyalty to the brand is wrought of its perceived exclusivity: the aura that only professionals own or even know about it.

The brand loyalist feels that by having these particular tools & equipment at the workplace, he or she will be perceived a priori as an expert. Such “product brandishing” is an easy and effective way to set one’s self apart from novices and amateurs.

Indeed, for apprentices in many trades, the gradual replacement of “consumer line” tools with “professional” ones is a sort of protracted rite of passage. And the ownership, care, and borrowing of professional-line tools in many shops can be marked with rituals and hierarchies.

Younger apprentices might be expected (or at least forgiven) for having to borrow a tool from a more-experienced coworker. Contrarily, an older worker might suffer social ramifications for begging the same (more than once) from his peers of equal experience. And having more or better tools than justified by one’s skill or tenure can be seen as hubris by older workers, thus constricting the flow of avuncular help, advice, and lore needed for an apprentice to learn the “tricks of the trade.”

Perceived exclusivity

Perceived exclusivity is an ephemeral quality that needs to be developed carefully and nurtured by a manufacturer of a professional line. It depends mightily on distribution channels. By way of illustration, consider the contrast between Sears Craftsman® tools versus Snap-on®.

The Craftsman line is highly regarded and almost revered by many home mechanics. The quality is superb and the replacement guarantee is legendary. 

Nevertheless, even though many professional mechanics have a cache of Craftsman tools at home, they probably do not bring them to work, because Craftsman tools are widely available to the general public—and from a source that is literally a euphemism for mass merchandising: Sears.

In stark contrast, Snap-on tools take effort to come by. Most typically, an independent franchisee peddles them, visiting individual mechanic shops on a scheduled route, and developing personal relationships with his customers.

The arrival of the Snap-on vendor in his truck is an anticipated part of the workweek in many mechanical workplaces and the occasion for ritualistic camaraderie. Tools of ascending specificity are purchased week-to-week by individual mechanics, each a sort of trophy to his or her specific skills, tenure, and experience.

This is different than incidentally picking up a new set of sockets on a Saturday afternoon while you’re otherwise buying a lawnmower at the local Sears; and the additional effort that is required induces an artificial exclusivity that is crucial to brand loyalty—especially for products where the price difference between a consumer brand and its professional counterpart is large.

In other words, if Snap-on tools were suddenly, ubiquitously available at Sears and Walmart, the company would be destroying the largest part of its brand equity as a purveyor of professional tools to the trades. And that would leave it competing chiefly in the consumer market against Craftsman, where it would be at a decided disadvantage with less consumer brand recognition and a relatively miniscule distribution network.

Professional vs. 'Consumer Brand' Differentitaion

Black & Decker© was a typical purveyor of power tools to the trades before World War II. According to company lore, in the 1940s, they could not keep up with defense contractors’ orders for electric hand drills because employees at these companies kept taking them home (i.e. stealing) for personal use.

This gave Mr. Decker the idea of producing a diminutive 1/4” drill for the consumer market. It was a grand success. Thus, other electric hand tools were added to the mix for the homeowner, and Black & Decker perceivably evolved into the consumer brand of present renown.

The problem became, of course, that by the 1970s, Black & Decker tools were no longer welcome in the workplace, especially since much of the line was designed for light-duty household use. Yes, there was a Black & Decker “professional” line. But there was nonetheless a workplace stigma developing against the brand because it was associated with the amateur requirements of the consumer market

The answer for Black & Decker was the acquisition of De Walt tools, a professional line with a good workplace reputation. Black & Decker professional tools, in many cases, were simply re-branded as De Walt and repositioned to compete against the likes of Milwaukee Tools, Bosch, and Porter Cable.

In sum, Black & Decker management understood that a brand trying to be everything to everyone generally winds up being nothing to anyone.

Stephen G. Barone is a marketing communications specialist and co-principal at barodine marketing communications/research/design, a general contractor of creative and analytical marketing talent to the science, technology, engineering, medical, professional, and general business communities.

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