During the past few years, the BASF Dispersions, Resins and Performance Additive Team has been engaged in original market research to better understand the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) architectural paint consumer market. The research included consumer focus groups across North America, which showed that DIY consumer satisfaction is largely determined by the experience with the paint, and that “Application” is a differentiating factor. Terms such as Easy, Smooth, Efficient and Spreadable were mentioned consistently across different focus groups. To better understand such qualitative descriptors and guide new polymer and performance additive product developments, the BASF R&D labs set out to establish correlations between what DIY’ers say about paint application with technical measurements.