The Valvoline Company is a leading marketer, producer and distributor of branded automotive and industrial products and services. Valvoline’s Manager of Consumer Research, Larry Solomon, of the company’s Lubricants Division, has a strong relationship with NPD Automotive. The NPD Aftermarket Industry Monitor (AAIM) service provides the point-of-sale insight Valvoline uses to gain a clear view of purchase dynamics in its lubricants categories. Larry Solomon recently shared his perspective on the value of NPD market information.

NPD: What have been the greatest benefits of Valvoline’s use of NPD market information?

Larry Solomon: AAIM information is good, solid shelf-movement data that we rely on to understand our market share. I was part of an industry group that originally identified a strong need for better market information. NPD was able to serve as a neutral third party source to which retailers felt comfortable providing their data. Today, NPD is the only source we, at Valvoline, can go to for the point-of-sale information needed to better understand our market.

NPD: What kinds of business challenges has NPD market information helped your company resolve?

Larry Solomon: Making market information accessible to retailers is important to us. NPD tells us how our products are doing, down to the SKU level. Our Category Management team uses this information to evaluate entire shelf sets for each category. It’s an integral part of fact-based selling and category management. This team made Valvoline Category Captains with some of our major retail accounts, helping us show the retailers what’s going on in their categories – not just from Valvoline’s point of view, but from a broader perspective. NPD definitely helps in this process.

NPD: How is NPD information used across your company?

Larry Solomon: Our Consumer Research group provides reports on monthly share data to the company. Our President, Sam Mitchell and Senior VP DIY Business Walter Solomon (no relation) truly encourage the entire brand and sales team to use the information extensively. This use goes beyond just reading my summary results e-mail; they encourage use of the NPD PowerViewer system to dig deeper into the data to develop fact-based points-of-view. One can tell who uses the NPD PowerViewer system extensively, as they are the ones who truly know their respective businesses. We use NPD information throughout the company for many purposes from benchmarking to uncovering new opportunities to facilitating our sales and marketing processes.

NPD: Can you provide a specific example of a challenge or important business question you were able to address using NPD data?

Larry Solomon: For years, there were only three types of motor oil on the market. In the early 1990s, we introduced the semi-synthetic category in the U.S., which had been successful in Europe. We were able to significantly reduce the price, compared to European products, and subsequently, competitors entered the category. In 2000, we introduced another category: higher-mileage motor oil, and a similar pattern emerged. We asked NPD to help us monitor higher-mileage products so we can track how well we’re doing in the category we created.

NPD: What would you say to manufacturers or retailers considering NPD marketing information services?

Larry Solomon: We are very satisfied with NPD’s AAIM information and with the client service NPD provides. Like all major companies today, we’re short-staffed. We rely on the providers we choose to give us good service, and NPD comes through. Having NPD data means you don’t have to make decisions blindly. It’s the best way to know where you stand in the marketplace so you can make better, more informed decisions.