There are quite a few different tool brands under Stanley Black & Decker ownership, such as Dewalt, Porter Cable, and Craftsman, and it can be confusing to think about how all of these different brands are positioned against each other.
Luckily, they put together a neat chart to help us better make sense of things.
We last talked about Stanley Black & Decker’s brands and their target audiences back in 2017, and… nothing has changed by then. Black & Decker has been bumped up a little on the chart, but that’s it.
On the Y-axis of the chart you have different pricing levels – OPP, MPP, and HPP, which stand for opening price point, middle price point, and high price point. On the X-axis of the chart you have target markets – consumer, tradesmen, professionals, and automotive/industrial users.
So, from the chart you can see that the Craftsman brand is – or will be – developed as a very wide-spreading brand that spans from consumer to industrial users. With regard to price, Craftsman offerings are considered slightly higher than mid-level, higher than Irwin and Porter Cable, but lower than Dewalt.
The thing to remember is that this is a simplified representation, a generalization of how the brands are positioned against each other on average. For instance, Craftsman’s premium brushless cordless drill/driver kit is priced at $150, while Dewalt’s DCD777 kit is priced at $99. Craftsman’s entry-level cordless drill kit, reviewed here, is better described as an entry price point product.
Personally, I don’t quite agree with the chart. Irwin is considered an opening-to-mid-priced brand, and lower positioned than Stanley? Stanley is higher than Irwin and Porter Cable? Stanley FatMax is considered a professional and automotive/industrial brand?
But then I remember that some brands are cordless power tool brands, others are more focused on hand tools, and only some of them are full-featuring brands with cordless power tools, outdoor power tools, hand tools, tool storage, and power tool accessories lines.
Additionally, the vertical values seem to be relative and thus different for each brand. That could explain how Stanley tools are considered slightly above mid-price-point values and Stanley FatMax, the more pro-leaning step-up slightly below MPP. Thus, perhaps the pricing target for each brand aren’t relative to other Stanley Black & Decker brands, but relative to each of the markets they’re in, on average. With that in mind, I still don’t agree with the chart completely, but might me more understanding of it. However, the notion breaks down when remembering that brands such as Proto, Mac, and Facom are relatively priced on-par with competing brands.
Stanley Black & Decker’s brand targeting charts used to be a little different, with more categories, including “sophisticated hobbyists” and “residential contractors.” Perhaps the X-axis scale is better simply described as a scale of iser demands, from light to heavy.
I wonder – where do the new affordably-priced Dewalt Atomic cordless power tools fall in place on this chart?
I take it back, I like this chart, or at least the idea of it. Maybe we can use something similar in future coverage, to depict our perceptions of where a tool or brand might be positioned against competitors and other available options.
Stanley Black & Decker seems to intend for the Craftsman brand to be extremely wide-spreading, covering nearly every target audience. Personally, I think it should be shifted to the left a bit, as the brand seems to meet many consumer needs as well. So far, we also haven’t seen any new tools that could be categorized as professional or automotive/industrial-grade, but hopefully that will change. Perhaps we’ll see new USA-made pro-grade Craftsman tools once their new Texas plant is up and running.
I’ve posted about this chart before, or least a very similar one, and despite my nitpicking about how I might place the brands a little differently, I can’t help but appreciate the complexity of it all. How many different tools do all these brands represent? How many SKUs? In how many tool boxes would you find tools from at least one of these brands?
How many other tool brands can rival the colossal capabilities and presence of Stanley Black & Decker?
As we reported in early 2016, Stanley Black & Decker earned $11.172 billion in 2015, with $7.141 billion revenue coming from tools and storage.
In 2018, Stanley Black & Decker earned a total of $13.982 billion, with $9.814 billion of that in tools and storage. That’s nearly $2.7 BILLION in additional tools and storage revenue compared to three years ago. Their tools and storage profits were $1.439 billion in 2018. Clearly they’re doing something right.
Chart Source: Stanley Black & Decker May 2019 Investor Presentation (PDF)
