Out of the three segments in the paint industry the Jones-Blair Company focuses mainly on architectural coatings and occasionally on OEM coating fields. Architectural paint in the Jones-Blair service region was estimated at a dollar volume of 80 million dollars in 1995 with the professionals market accounting for 22 percent and the do-it-yourself market accounting for 78 percent in sales. At one point the Jones-Blair region accounted for just about 60 percent of the market. In the mature market Jones-Blair competes in sales have steadily increased at the rate of inflation, which is a good however the problem is maintaining their growth and keeping the profit margins on the rise. To do so, upper level management cultivated a marketing strategy that will not only increase sales but maintain the profit margin as well.
Paint selling companies like Sherwin-Williams, Benjamin Moore, Glidden, Sears, and Wal-Mart has caused the paint market to be more competitive. Merchandisers of the masses have control of at least 50 percent of the do-it-yourselfer paint market in the Dallas Fort-Worth metropolitan area. The market that Jones Blair is positioned in can be