The blatant misuse of the term “Ceramic”

[William_Wallace]

@budgetplan I clicked dislike to one of your posts by accident and can’t remove it.

[Desertnate]

May as well include coating mfg`s who tout such things as Diamond-Infusion and Scratch Resistance if looking for such `exaggerated` marketing.

Not long after I coated my neighbor`s SUV, I got a text from him regarding a question he received from someone while showing off the work done to his car: "Will CQuartz keep a dog`s nails from scratching the paint?"

You know that`s a direct result of some marketing that claims the 9h hardness of a coating will provide protection from automated car washes all the way to 7.62mm rounds fired at medium range.

Fortunately, my neighbor is a smart guy and understood how a coating only a few microns thick won`t protect from much of anything. I`m not confident a PPF would even protect from dog nails.

Back on topic...

The overuse of the term "ceramic" and "coatings" does make things confusing. In just the last few months I`ve had several people ask me either what a coating is, or how hard it would be to "cover" their vehicle in "ceramic". Some people are patient enough for an explanation, others just give you a funny look and say, "Can`t you just spray it on like that TopCoat F11 stuff I saw on Facebook?"

[Coatings=crack]

Ceramic I don’t mind so much as the product has some amount in it. Coating.... well I guess technically if it goes over top it’s a coating.

The low end Ceramic sealants selling themselves as coating will most likely only apply to those who don’t want to pay for corrections and coating themselves.

I think the biggest thing that is hurting the pro detailer market is prosumer products. At home coatings. These prosumers are the ones’ like me who would pay for these services.

To be honest I’ll blame the local detailers and the big pro coatings to blame.

The local detailers couldn’t give a good explanation on why a pro coating was better only talking about the warranty and the prep/polish before hand.

I get the prep/polish aspect of it but if i’m going pay multiple hundreds to a thousand more for a coating i wanna know why. Even the warranty is marketing as i need to come back and maintain to keep warranty.

This no real good explanation and no info i could find on the web about how they are better got ne to venture into doing my own.

Could the pro have done it better....absolutely, but i got a finish product I was more than happy with and the satisfaction of doing it myself.

Marketing is gonna be what it’s gonna be. It’s up to the companies that do it better to get out the info why...

This not on you who do this for a living. It would make sense to have an answer for those who do ask. This is on the CQuartz Finest’s, Ceramic Pro’s and Gyeon pro type companies.... if their gonna charge you to use their products their should be some marketing involved.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk my

[David Fermani]

When I think of the word “ceramic” I equate it to hard or something that hardens. That’s basically what a ceramic coating does/is....it gets applied to the surface as a liquid and turns into a solid. Nothing solid about these products, yet they’re misleading people into thinking their product does it. I must of missed the day my professor went over the topic of tricking people as being a key element to marketing? Lol.

[William_Wallace]

Here’s a good chemist/mixer covering the ceramic over use https://youtu.be/bGAHI0xruwU

[RZJZA80]

When I think of the word “ceramic” I equate it to hard or something that hardens. That’s basically what a ceramic coating does/is....it gets applied to the surface as a liquid and turns into a solid. Nothing solid about these products, yet they’re misleading people into thinking their product does it. I must of missed the day my professor went over the topic of tricking people as being a key element to marketing? Lol.

Completely agree, however to me, marketing is literally about tricking people into thinking they want/need something. The best products don`t need clever marketing when they simply work well.

[Coatings=crack]

When I think of the word “ceramic” I equate it to hard or something that hardens. That’s basically what a ceramic coating does/is....it gets applied to the surface as a liquid and turns into a solid. Nothing solid about these products, yet they’re misleading people into thinking their product does it. I must of missed the day my professor went over the topic of tricking people as being a key element to marketing? Lol.

But that’s what you think. If your an average joe who’s waxed a car once or twice in your life and saw this New TW Hybrid Solutions (Hybrid great marketing) on the shelf of Autozone on a sunny day and used it over your 3 year old Meguiars wax this is the next great thing since sliced bread. Hype is what sells. Getting a ceramic product at a fraction of the cost works because most don’t know the difference. Is TW supposed to teach them that? No their trying to sell their products.

Unfortunately not everyone puts the thought you put in it. If it’s “new and improved” “pro grade” “fat free”

Look at most retail. Everything we buy is always on sale. Sales were created to get rid of old stock or products did not sell well.

The average buyer is conditioned to see sale and buy...

This was interesting when JC pennies got a new CEO he went away from coupons, 24 hour sales and rebates he had priced everything low. Taking away all the gimmicks and just giving everyone a great price.

Went horrible people were conditioned to buy it on sale. Same with this. How many people bought the New Formula Seal nShine when it came out even though they had the old one they were happy with on the shelf? Not knocking it i’ve read it was better but what actual change did they make?

Didn’t matter a product they liked is new and improved.

Just the Marketing world today.

If anything it might help your industry. Using me as a case study......I got my Mustang and it just didn’t look right. I talk to some car guys and they talked about ceramic coatings. Didn’t really explain what it was.

I went to to Amazon, found Hydrosilex. To me next best thing since sliced bread. But here is where I got the taste and started doing more research.

Seeing at best this being 5-10 percent sio2 and seeing a true coating was up to 75%

I was then willing to spend 600-800 to have my car ceramic coated and more if it was presented right.

It brought your industry a customer. Problem is most consumers on an Autopian level know same or more than a good number of the “pro’s” out their. The couldn’t educate my why a pro coating was better than a prosumer.

It then got me to spend my industry dollars on top dollar consumer products..... because of Hydrosilex (which i still like in the ceramic sealant range)

I’ve spent more in last three years than 20 times the amount in my previous 41 on this earth.

This Hyped Ceramic coating got me deeper into this rabbit hole. If not for inferior detailers i probably be a ceramic coating customer instead of an Autogeek one.

To be fair I don’t think that Washington is a great state for detailers. Not enough business for alot of great detailers.

Here’s a link into Penny’s fiasco....

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pri...%3fhs_amp=true




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ik

[William_Wallace]

Dave it’s fine.... so far I haven’t been sued yet selling Dark Matter Coatings

Marketing Strategy: Gravitational Shield of dark matter is better scratch resistance

[gorram]

You know that`s a direct result of some marketing that claims the 9h hardness of a coating will provide protection from automated car washes all the way to 7.62mm rounds fired at medium range.

You need some Armor All for that.

[John U]

Completely agree, however to me, marketing is literally about tricking people into thinking they want/need something. The best products don`t need clever marketing when they simply work well.

You reminded me of the “wax” they would apply to a hood and light it on fire. What was the name?

[heloguy]

You reminded me of the “wax” they would apply to a hood and light it on fire. What was the name?

AURI was one of them. There were so many.
The little Brit would yell “Look Mike, it’s bulletproof!!!”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[acuRAS82]

Ceramic I don’t mind so much as the product has some amount in it. Coating.... well I guess technically if it goes over top it’s a coating.

Pretty much where I’m at. If it has SiO2 that occurs in any form during use, this is how I’ve conditioned my mind to accept “ceramic” being in the name. Even if it’s 0.5%, this isn’t much different of a concept than any other industry (“gold” jewelers is a good comparison, even when it’s only lightly gold plated... it’s still gold in some form).

[David Fermani]

Here’s a good chemist/mixer covering the ceramic over use https://youtu.be/bGAHI0xruwU

Thanks for the link! This basically echos everything I’m complaining about.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[David Fermani]

This topic is too funny. I was at Home Depot this week and almost knocked down this display in the “car care isle”(when the heck did they get one of those?). Again, another company trying their hand at deceiving people people with their marketing.

[JustJesus]

That before and after. Great results. No buffing!

I had noticed the car stuff at Home Depot about a year ago. I did a double take, and back tracked to stop and look. I was surprised

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk