Each week, The Pulse provides insight into the buying, sourcing and brand-loyalty habits of counter personnel and professional technicians. This week, using Babcox Research, we look at the top three items purchased by collision repair shops and who decides which brand to buy. Data come from the Babcox 2007 Industry Profile presented by BodyShop Business magazine.

Some of the most common items used in collision repair shops are paint, primers, fillers, waxes, masking products and other materials. Among those items, the most recent survey of BodyShop Business readers shows that, on average, collision repair shops spend about $1,200 each month on paint, about $300 per month on primers and $150 per month on masking products. 

Shelling out over a grand each month on paint is no drop in the bucket. So who decides what brand of paint to use? Babcox research shows that the final decision maker on which brand of paint to purchase is primarily the shop owner/partner (78 percent). Shop managers are the final decision maker 14 percent of the time; the painters decide about 8 percent of the time.

For more information about Babcox Research, go to: http://www.babcox.com/marketing_research.html.