Many consumers who are passionate about keeping their car in top condition are opting for premium brands and premium formulations of motor oil even in the current economic environment, said David Portalatin, industry analyst for NPDs Houston-based automotive unit. For consumers of this mindset, perceived quality is an important issue.

On the other hand, NPDs Automotive Aftermarket Industry Monitor reported that for the year ending April 2009, private label (store brands) dollar volume increased by 8.8 percent from a year ago. The industry monitor tracks retail and commercial sales at the point-of-sale for more than 18,000 auto parts stores in the United States.

The recession has clearly focused consumers on value, said David Portalatin, industry analyst for NPDs Houston-based automotive unit. The lower prices often offered by private label brands are a compelling offer for consumers looking for ways to cut back.

NPDs Selling Automotive Products in Tough Economic Times report indicated that consumers define value differently and dont always equate value with quality. When asked to evaluate store brands and name brands, NPD said, automotive consumers are more evenly divided. For most products, about one third of consumers say name brands are the best value while a similar percentage claim store brands deliver the best value.

The takeaway is that manufacturers need to understand where consumers of their brand stand on the quality versus value question, and they must clearly differentiate those attributes that will best drive purchase behavior, said Portalatin. Retailers likewise should evaluate brand assortment to make sure they are meeting the requirements of both quality and value driven consumers.

The reports findings, based on a nationally representative sample of consumers in an online panel, are the result of custom research conducted by NPD.

We maintain a panel of more than one million consumers for the purposes of conducting online research, Portalatin told Lube Report. In the custom survey that was done, we asked people about their purchases of their automotive products, and then specifically we asked about motor oil. Thats primarily because in a consumer research context, youre going to have a very large sample of people that have bought motor oil within a given time period.

NPD conducted the research for the report in April 2009. That included asking consumers about their recent purchasing, their purchasing over the past 12 months, and in some cases their future purchases or attitudes, Portalin noted. The context is, given the current state of the economy and everything that has happened, how is your behavior changing, how do you expect it might change in the future?

Portalatin said feedback from consumers reflected how the U.S. economy has impacted purchasing habits, noting that automotive products consumers were really no different than consumers in other categories. Throughout 2008, consumers were really in cutback mode, they were looking to save money everywhere they can because of the economy, he continued. What was happening was they were really deferring as much automotive repair and maintenance as they possibly could. Whats happened now is were well into 2009. So many of these things are non-discretionary, or cannot be deferred indefinitely. Were starting to see consumers spend in a lot of those areas as theyre repairing or replacing parts on aging vehicles.

He noted that the reality now is that for some consumers, a little bit of spending to provide better care for an existing vehicle is a much better economic value proposition than replacing their vehicle. So it appears consumers are actually motivated in many cases to spend a little more taking care of their cars right now, Portalatin added.

New York-based NPD is a market research company. For information on purchasing a copy of the Selling Automotive Products in Tough Economic Times report, contact NPD at 866-444-1411 or visit www.npd.com. The report explores changes in retailer and brand loyalty, the impact of promotional activity, and future purchase intent for major automotive product categories.