The bucket and the beat by Michael Fallarino

Got Exotica?

Let’s face it — the metaphors we use to describe paints, finishes, and sundries often dance upon sensuous themes, and given the thriving economy in products for mature audiences our industry should be enjoying parallel success.

Customer: “I’m on the prowl for something that will perform well in my bedroom — something beautiful and different. I mean I’m after a trusting, long-lasting relationship. And special effects are a consideration, too. By the way, have you got an amazing stripper you can show me? I’m looking for fast, easy action! And I’ll need something for protection, too — preferably something thin. Oh, and let’s see... what do you have for extended performance? And I need a delicate mate — that’s some kind of green organic masking tape isn’t it?”

Our industry is inherently powerful and influential: color suggestions can elicit strong emotions and colors can be cool or hot (oooo...baby, Christopher Lowell move over). When pairing two subjects (like paint and primer) we need to take compatibility potentials into consideration. And then we have latex gloves, extension poles, protective cremes, and well...the list goes on and only gets more seductive.

Look at what the other construction industries have to deal with: bulky, noisy, dangerous, dust-generating equipment, warehouses full of large components most of which need to be assembled and installed by pros, unwieldy chunks of vitreous china (like toilets), and wiring that gets sealed up inside a wall once and for all.

Our industry consists of a lot of compact, lightweight commodities that can be sold equally well to either laypeople or pros, involves cyclical sales for an installed product that doesn’t take up any space and is necessary for proper maintenance, can profoundly affect health (through color), or can adapt an enclosure or a space to a new occupant. Who in the building industry has it as good as us?

In the paint and coatings business we deal with a theme that by nature is fluid. But ironically, as Andrea Bingham in the Cabot marketing department said to me about the technical side of things: “This is a really dry subject.” So when I set out to write my recently released book Contemporary Relationships between Wood and Finish (reviewed on p. 68 of the August 2001 issue of this magazine or see www.woodandfinish.com), I aspired to write a fun-to-read popular book that could have a positive ecological impact, help facilitate procedural rigor throughout the stages of finishing, and open up creative possibilities for homeowners and professional installers. As friends discovered I was composing my first book and asked what it was about, I told them it was an erotic thriller thinly cloaked as a how-to book for the paint trade. I needed a way to entertain myself through 10 tedious drafts of a 200 page manuscript while trudging through all that dry material. Needless to say, by the 10th draft the smut was mostly cleaned up.

As a full-service contractor I always felt that painting and finishing was the most underappreciated, misunderstood, underdeveloped, and underexploited aspect of the building industry. In my columns for the Paint Dealer, I’ll go to bat on the full gamut of products that are so close to our hearts, as well as touching upon less tangible subjects such as health-related topics. I’ll do my best to help you sell more product to happier, better-educated, healthier end-users and that, I suspect, might even save some trees and a little ozone. [February 2002]

©2002 Michael Fallarino/Pan-Global Gumbo SM, Ltd.