Summary of quantitative and qualitative research
At its core, this study finds that where coatings themselves are seen as close to parity between companies, people matter as much as the product. What wins and keeps loyalty is the reassurance customers feel - the reps they deal with, the support they receive and the overall relationship with the manufacturer. Premium brands are expected to come with premium service; this reassurance is one territory that no brand in the market has yet claimed as its own.
When buyers are asked what matters most to them, quality (55%), performance (43%) and finish (34%) are clearly priorities; sustainability (6%) and innovation (1%) do not feature in our findings. No brand is seen as meaningfully innovative in abstract - but the industry does value practical innovation that makes their jobs easier: fewer products, fewer steps, faster and simpler application. Competition is increasingly decided by delivery rather than differences in formulation.
Awlgrip has near-universal awareness worldwide (92%). So do International across Europe and Asia (96% aware) and Interlux in North America (94%). Awlgrip is the global market leader (48%) and dominates the Americas (61%); International leads Europe (43% vs Awlgrip's 39%); Interlux is named leader by 20% in North America. Awlgrip is the premium topcoat; International and Interlux are perceived as availability-and-support workhorses in their respective markets.
Awlgrip is recognised for its prestige and leads on finish and quality. But a common theme in our interviews was the perception that this might be based on heritage, with one interviewee invoking Nokia as a potential warning for the future. Its leadership position is real but is currently conditional on no one leapfrogging the brand. Our recommendation is not to rest on the name but to keep investing in the support that underpins it, including market presence, fast claims handling, and reps with real practical expertise.
Only about a quarter of respondents always use the same brand, but overall continuity is high because there's usually no technical reason to move. 51% name performance issues as a trigger for switching. The factor that retains customers is the people and service around the product as much as the product itself. With respect to AkzoNobel, one interviewee told us that "the products are on par… but the people are substantially better."
Distributors prize availability (47%, vs 21% for owners); retailers and owners prioritise performance (58%) and finish; boatyards and applicators rely hardest on technical support (35%). Regionally, Europe values brand prestige far more than anywhere (30% vs 10% in the Americas), Asia-Pacific is the most value- and availability-driven (value 38%), and sustainability ranks near the bottom as a buying factor everywhere, Europe included (5%).
Responses ranged from indifferent to frosty - "Is it a driver? Zero. Unless the law changes." In the survey it ranks near the bottom as a buying factor in every region; the only genuine interest sits with a European minority that were interviewed, and even there the feedback is that this is mainly led by regulation rather than values.
Interlux's warmth and personal service in North America is recognised as an asset to protect. Interlux is far less differentiated at home (22% top-two-box) than International is in Europe (40%), and trails Awlgrip much more heavily in its own market (20% to 61% as market leader). Interestingly, each brand is recognised for different qualities in their respective markets. Interlux is recognised for its dependability and personal service. Conversely, International is seen as an availability workhorse in Europe and Asia.
The single most consistent unprompted request from distributors and dealers in the resale channel was price protection, and it was sharpest in the US, where online discounting of dealer stock is most established. We repeatedly heard that where competitors offer it they win business back; one dealer returned to a brand the moment it protected its price.
Our approach was built on delivering a clear, evidence-based understanding of how Awlgrip, International, Interlux and Sea Hawk are perceived across the global yacht coatings market, and how these perceptions shape real-world brand choice.
By combining quantitative and qualitative research, the study captures the measurable realities of brand awareness, differentiation and channel influence, as well as the underlying motivations, expectations and behaviours of key professional and consumer audiences.
This mixed-method structure identified where the brands currently sit in the market, how they compare to competitor sets, and where opportunities exist to strengthen positioning, sharpen messaging and clarify the distinct role of each brand.
Our goal is to deliver a definitive, actionable picture of the brand landscape, and one that empowers AkzoNobel to refine its strategy, strengthen its competitive advantage, and build greater relevance and resonance across all key regions and customer groups.
The sample we set out to reach, what was achieved, and how respondents were recruited.
A target sample of n=300 was set for the survey, with a split of 40/40/20 across North America, Europe and Asia. The aim was to reach minimum quotas on a regional basis across three groups: boatyard/refit yard and applicator, distributor, and retailer/owner/captain.
The total sample collected was n=237, with regional splits of Americas n=67, Europe n=128 and Asia n=42. These groups are too small to consider splitting by role. Across the three stakeholder groups the sample was: boatyard/applicator n=97, distributor n=66, and retailer/owner/captain etc. n=74.
Recruitment was planned with 80% coming through AkzoNobel's marketing databases, with the remainder recruited through paid social media and the Saltwater database. The use of specialist media titles was also considered.
Recruitment ran in two waves. Wave 1, using AkzoNobel's database and paid channels, struggled to secure responses over a three-week period, resulting in n=24 and a very low response rate. This wave was abandoned in early April.
Wave 2 reduced the length of the survey to minimise fatigue and included other actions to boost the response rate. It ran for a month, from 24 April to 26 May, securing n=213 responses and relying on several collectors:
The survey sits alongside 21 in-depth stakeholder interviews, which are quoted throughout this report and collected in full in the verbatim appendix to the interactive version.
What mattered most to the 205 respondents who ranked the attributes: how often each made the top three, and each attribute's average rank when all twelve are included.
Durability and finish are valued more consistently than their top-three share suggests, so they climb on average rank. Availability and value for money matter intensely to some buyers but are passed over by many, so they fall back in the overall ranking. Quality and performance lead on both.
The topline results from the quantitative study.
237 trade professionals: mostly boatyards and distributors, almost all active in yacht coatings within the last six months.
Awlgrip, International and Interlux all enjoy near-universal awareness and are the most-used brands. Competitors are more recognised in regional and category niches. The two that punch above their usage - Alexseal in the Americas, Jotun in Europe - are the ones interviewees describe as most aggressive on the ground.
Usage holds up across newbuild, maintenance and refit for the AkzoNobel brands; for competitors, Pettit and Epifanes are stronger in aftermarket.
Every project type uses most categories, so differences are modest. Newbuild leans least on antifouling (81% against 89% for maintenance & repair) and most on interiors; refit leans hardest on topcoats (91%) and varnishes.
Q5 (project type) is multi-select, so the columns overlap: 58% of respondents work across more than one project type and 23% do all three. Therefore, read these as tendencies within a shared base, not as separate groups. n=235.
Each card shows the brand's strongest category tie: 99% of those who rated Awlgrip connect it with topcoats.
The attributes buyers rank in their top three shift by region. Europeans are three times more likely to rank brand prestige in their top three than Americans; value for money matters more in Asia than elsewhere, though it still ranks outside the top three; and sustainability sits near the bottom everywhere - lowest of all in Europe.
Distributors place availability far higher than retailers and owners do; quality leads for everyone.
The three main trade segments don't value the same qualities. Distributors prize availability, retailers and owners chase performance and finish, and boatyards and applicators lean hardest on technical support.
In Europe and Asia every trade segment uses International the most; in North America Interlux leads instead, shown here as its own bar. The Interlux figures rely on small North American sub-bases, so read them as directional. Boat owners and retailers are much less likely than trade customers - boatyards, applicators and distributors - to have been involved in an Awlgrip project in the past 24 months.
Every brand across all twelve attributes, on the same axes - so the shapes can be read side by side and compared directly.
The share of respondents associating each attribute with the brand.
Brand prestige is where the premium brands separate most clearly: Awlgrip 69, International 54, Interlux 33, Sea Hawk 36. These are the global associations.
Those who see Awlgrip as the market leader prioritise finish; International's lean to technical support and value for money.
Staff rate the brands higher than the market does on most attributes - the exception is sustainability, which the market recognises in the products more than staff do, even though it barely drives a purchase either way.
Internal survey of 36 AkzoNobel staff (mainly sales and technical service, weighted to Europe and North America), February 2026, set against the market survey of 237. Availability was not asked in the internal survey.
Awlgrip is seen as the market leader and the most differentiated brand in the field.
Two maps, stacked: a simple value map, then a fuller correspondence map that uses all eight qualities at once.
Each brand is plotted by two things the market told us - how prestigious it feels (left to right) and how good value it feels (bottom to top). The more prestigious a brand looks, the less value people credit it with. Awlgrip sits alone in the high-prestige corner; International, Interlux and Sea Hawk cluster in the value zone. The point to take away is that Interlux is priced as a premium brand but perceived as a value one.
Q10 · Perceived prestige and value-for-money, every tested brand; * marks small bases (n<25). Note on method: the survey measured how prestigious and good-value each brand feels, not its price. ‘Premium’ in AkzoNobel’s sense is a price position.
This reduces all eight quality associations to a single map, so a brand sits toward the qualities it is most strongly linked with.
Correspondence analysis of Q10 - the eight quality associations reduced to two axes (85% of the variation). A brand sits toward the qualities it is most associated with; hover to light those qualities. Every tested brand shown; small bases (n<25) faded, and the two tiniest (n≤10) pulled inward where their position is least reliable.
In North America Interlux holds the wider preference - 45% to 33% - but Sea Hawk is a genuinely liked specialist and the gap is narrow. Awlgrip leads the region overall, sitting in the premium topcoat tier above this fight.
European respondents value brand prestige far more than other regions, lean less on value for money, and rank sustainability the lowest of anywhere.
Asia-Pacific is the most value- and availability-driven region - and, unusually, gives sustainability its highest billing, though this is still low.
Nearly half choose brand by project, and only a quarter always use the same brand. Performance issues and a better finish are the strongest reasons to move. North America - Interlux's home market - is the least loyal, splitting roughly 40/60 loyal-to-switch. Price weighs far more heavily in Asia, where 53% would switch for a better price - against around a third in Europe and the Americas.
People and word of mouth are key drivers of influence. Applicators and yards, manufacturer reps, and owners and captains are the sources buyers name most often; brand websites, online research, trade press and events matter, but less so.
The word-of-mouth pattern repeats across our dataset. The clearest variation is online presence: International and Pettit draw a little more from online research than the rest of the field, though even for them it remains a secondary channel.
Relationship channels dominate for both Awlgrip (n=89) and International (n=55). Those who see Awlgrip as the leader lean slightly more on brand websites, while those who name International are markedly more influenced by trade-press coverage.
Shares shown to the nearest whole percent. Bases below thirty are not reported.
International and Interlux are two distinct brands, each with its own footprint, numbers and reputation - International across Europe and Asia, Interlux in North America. Here is how each is used, rated and ranked in its own market.
Interlux is priced as a premium brand - and has the same premium shelf price as International - but in North America it is not perceived as premium: only a third of buyers link it to prestige (33%), against 58% for International in Europe and Asia. In other words, the price positioning is premium; the perception is workmanlike. That gap - premium cost, mid-market standing - is the central question for AkzoNobel regarding Interlux.
Interlux is markedly less differentiated in North America (22% top-two-box) than International is in Europe (40%). In North America the contest that matters for Interlux is against Sea Hawk in the antifouling space, where the two are already splitting the channel - Sea Hawk preferred by US distributors and retailers, Interlux by boatyards. On numbers, the two are close on value (Sea Hawk 40%, Interlux 36%), but Sea Hawk's strongest association is performance (68%), not value - so its antifouling reputation rests on more than price, which matches AkzoNobel's own positioning of Sea Hawk as a premium antifouling.
Operators working only in maintenance & repair (n=61) compared with those working only in newbuild or refit (n=42). Small bases, so read these as direction rather than precision.
A question-by-question summary of what we heard and the themes that recurred most.
Respondents span the full coatings value chain - distributors (the largest group), refit yards and applicators, superyacht builders, chandlery/retail stores, plus a handful of coatings consultants, private owners and an adjacent-industry (overland camper) manufacturer. Boat sizes range from sub-12m lake fishing boats and DIY trailer craft right up to 100m-plus custom superyachts, with most respondents specialising in a clear band. A recurring theme is that many are not pure paint sellers but offer technical advice, project guidance and full shipyard or chandlery services around the product. Several are long-established family businesses, some dating back over a century.
Tenure is generally long, with many respondents reporting 20-40 years in yacht coatings and several whose companies have stocked International/Awlgrip for 30+ years. A common thread is that the relationship with AkzoNobel predates the current individual – often, these relationships are inherited through a family business or long company history. A notable sub-theme is distributors who left and rejoined the Akzo family, and several brand-switch stories driven by changes in sales reps or warranty support.
Volumes vary enormously by business type, from superyacht builders delivering ~25 boats a year to refit yards doing hundreds of bottom-paint jobs but only dozens of topside jobs annually. The newbuild versus refit split is sharply segmented: superyacht builders are almost entirely newbuild, while most yards and chandleries are overwhelmingly refit and maintenance, with newbuild often described as rare in their region. Several distributors note exact counts are hard to pin down because of spec timing and sales through third parties.
Coatings decisions are generally shaped by a small group - yard, owner/captain, applicator and the paint rep or consultant - but the dominant force is habit and the yard's established system: people stick with what they know works and what their workforce is trained on. In newbuild, the specification is usually yard-led and often locked early. In refit, the prior coating on the boat is the strongest predictor (respondents repeatedly cite ~80-90% of refit choices being predetermined by what is already on the hull), with painters and increasingly surveyors/consultants acting as trusted recommenders. Less expert buyers largely defer to the chandlery or yard.
Usage is heavily weighted towards Awlgrip for topcoats and International for primers, fillers and antifouling, used as part of a full or mixed system rather than isolated products. Awlgrip is the premium superyacht topcoat and is the default at the high end, while distributors serving the mass market often don't sell it because it demands specification expertise. Sea Hawk is more of a dividing line: well used for antifouling in the US, but largely unknown or unavailable in Europe. Mixed systems are common and accepted.
Awlgrip is perceived as the premium, benchmark topcoat - the historic number one, still the "most premium" name and a byword for durability - but this now sits alongside two concerns: batch-quality inconsistency ("if you have a good batch") and a sense of complacency or weakened technical support that has let competitors gain ground, with several saying the brands are now technically interchangeable. International is strongly regarded for primers, fillers and antifouling but seen as needing to innovate. A consistent thread is that product quality is rarely the differentiator - perceptions hinge on support, relationships, availability, price and ease of application.
AkzoNobel's coatings are near-universally placed at the premium end, with Awlgrip the clearest premium topside brand and International spanning a broader range from value antifouling up to premium. Most respondents say "premium" but mention this with caveats: it is expensive, carries low margin for distributors, and price sensitivity is rising. Segment matters - chandlery/retail buyers are largely value-driven, while builders, owners and refit yards treat premium as a given. Several flag that the premium position is under pressure from cheaper entrants (notably Jotun).
Views split on whether the AkzoNobel brands are clearly differentiated. Insiders and many distributors keep Awlgrip and International/Sea Hawk mentally distinct, and several actively keep them separate when advising customers. But senior, non-technical buyers and some applicators see heavy overlap - same reps, same service, near-identical products under different names - with adjacent-industry manufacturers most critical, citing duplicate products sold under different labels, numbers and prices with no transparency.
In premium topside, Alexseal is the recurring and rising threat to Awlgrip, repeatedly cited as taking share, competing on price and support. In the US retail/antifouling space, Pettit is the main rival - well-run, with a praised sales team - alongside Sea Hawk. In Mediterranean, Nordic and emerging markets, Jotun is the dominant concern: a good product, aggressively priced, and a bigger threat to International than to Awlgrip. Other named competitors include Hempel, Boero and local national producers. A strong theme is market conservatism, and track record clearly is a barrier to entry.
Technical support is the most polarised topic and is overwhelmingly judged by the local rep rather than the brand. Where a strong rep with genuine hands-on painting experience is present, support is rated outstanding - responsive by phone/text/WhatsApp, on-site, and a direct line into the manufacturer. But the picture reverses in markets with thin coverage: Barcelona, the broader Mediterranean and parts of Europe report support as slow, under-resourced or "the worst in the market", with Alexseal and Jotun seen as more present. Recurring frustrations include too few technical people, slow colour/formula turnaround, and a patchy website blocking PDFs and safety data sheets.
Awlgrip is repeatedly named the only brand that actively pushes to get applicators trained, which respondents accept as logical given the higher technical risk of spraying topcoats versus rolling antifouling. Training is hands-on and well-regarded where it happens - seminars, workshops, joint testing, on-site colour-matching and reps spraying alongside staff. The main gap is presence on the floor during live application in some regions. Antifouling/bottom-paint training is lighter, and several note competitors run similar workshops but rate Awlgrip's training on top locally.
Availability is generally rated good to excellent at the local/distributor level - many yards report next-day or within-five-days delivery and praise responsive reps and local mixing stations. The pain sits upstream and is concentrated on Awlgrip/AkzoNobel lead times: several distributors say lead times are worse than competitors', that delays have cost projects, and that hard-to-forecast products (notably fillers) leave them unable to supply. International is again trouble-free. Cross-border logistics into Europe and inventory financing in high-inflation markets are recurring structural problems.
Respondents consistently rate the products as top-tier on finish, durability and consistency, with several saying they are "first or second" on the market and noting strong batch consistency and low warranty/recall rates. A dominant theme is that performance depends less on the paint and more on the applicator and the overall system, and that as application labour costs have risen the ease and speed of application matters more than the price of the paint. There was meaningful commentary around hardness as a trade-off (durable but harder to apply, polish and repair), while value-for-money perceptions split between premium buyers and price-sensitive segments.
The standout innovation cited overwhelmingly is the sprayable/spray filler, repeatedly called a "game changer" and "revolutionary" for replacing slow, wasteful hand-fairing on large hulls, alongside gloss finish primers. Innovation is closely tied to commercial models, with distributors financing and even owning the filler machines as a loss leader to secure the wider project. There is a clear split in tone: some see genuine, leading innovation, while others see little real change and question how much more innovation paint can take.
The single biggest driver of brand choice is the people behind the product - the local reps, technical support and "having your back" - which respondents say matters more than the product since the products are seen as broadly replicable. Trust comes overwhelmingly from first-hand experience, the recommendation of the paint-application company, word of mouth and personal relationships, with training seminars, boat shows and forums as key sources and explicit scepticism towards unofficial "inspectors" and YouTube. Loyalty is real but conditional, with several noting "no loyalty in our industry" and that price is increasingly the key argument for end users.
Switching is consistently framed as failure-triggered: respondents say they will not move "unless there's a reason", with repeated product failures across multiple boats, a major quality issue, or loss of technical support being the main triggers. Pricing alone is rarely a deal-breaker because coatings are a small share of total project cost, and habit, accumulated system knowledge and inter-product incompatibility create strong inertia. Notable specific catalysts include product-line gaps, withdrawal of warranty on house brands, demand shifting to a rival, and customer-led pulls towards eco options.
The dominant attitude is dismissiveness, with respondents repeatedly insisting performance and durability trump sustainability, that paint is inherently not environmentally friendly, and that companies "selling sustainability" are often greenwashing. The strongest consensus is that change is driven by regulation rather than customer demand. There is a clear regional/generational split: US and Caribbean voices are most performance-first and sceptical, while several European refit yards are notably more engaged, framing longevity and reduced recoating as sustainability and citing younger crews and crew-safety/VOC concerns as a genuine emerging driver.
Pricing dynamics dominated, with widespread concern that premium paint prices have risen sharply and that boating overall is pricing itself out of recreation. Independent dealers strongly favoured MAP pricing and price-protected products as protection against online undercutting, and lamented the loss of rebate and loyalty programmes and ongoing channel consolidation. Distributors described geographic variation in price sensitivity, the erosion of margins, and structural disadvantages where larger US buyers secure better discounts and grey-market buying undercuts authorised local distributors. The general view is that competing purely on price is a losing game.
Negative experiences centred on poor complaint handling, slow or opaque logistics, and reluctance to accept fault, with several respondents stressing these related to past teams or to International rather than the current AkzoNobel team they now value. Specific grievances included multi-week delivery delays where no one could trace the shipment, commercial staff specifying the wrong products against technical advice and leaving customers with worthless warranties, and applicators being blamed for failures they had documented evidence against.
The few colour comments point to slow turnaround on bespoke colour recipes as a commercial problem, with one distributor describing a three-week wait with no response on a custom colour that risked a sizeable sale and forced a workaround through automotive recipes.
Regional and regulatory friction emerged as a major and arguably underlying driver of market dynamics, with regulation and the shift to biocide-free or replacement antifouling repeatedly cited rather than product preference alone. In Canada, slow and expensive approvals and unmonitored grey-market imports cost authorised distributors business. In Europe, respondents described VAT, VOC taxes, customs friction, Swiss restrictions limiting International to a handful of approved products, French preference for locally made paint, and the banning of VC 17, which forced a scramble for a private-label replacement that ultimately outsells the official line. Regulatory approval and biocide rules shape which products can compete as much as quality or price.
“Looking ahead, what should coatings brands improve or deliver, and how should they support your business in future?”
The most frequent asks are commercial and process-focused: distributors want pricing/margin protection so "everybody makes money", while builders and applicators want fewer steps and products in the cycle, ideally a sprayable filler that is already paint or a single coat. Filling product-range gaps is a strong theme, with repeated mention of a missing aluminium paint, hard coatings and discontinued lines. Better technical presence, tailored training, and reaching divers/end users in marketing recur, alongside a clear future demand for sustainable, lower-VOC products that still last and remain easy to apply.
“Which brands are best positioned to lead the market over the next three to five years?”
Most respondents expect the competitive order to hold steady, with Awlgrip seen as the established topcoat leader and Alexseal as its closest challenger, while Jotun is viewed as an active newer entrant still needing time to prove long-term results and build name recognition. Several argue that leadership will be decided less by product innovation, where the brands are seen as broadly comparable, and more by which sales team works hardest and which distributor gets product onto the street. A few feel the brands under the AkzoNobel umbrella are well positioned because their scale gives them more field feedback and financial muscle to adapt.
“If you could give one piece of advice to AkzoNobel - or coatings manufacturers generally - what would it be?”
Advice centred on protecting people and channel relationships, defending premium positioning, and not becoming complacent, with several invoking Awlgrip's strong brand as something that could erode quickly if taken for granted. Independent dealers pushed hardest for MAP pricing and channel support to stop online price erosion. Others asked for better training, simpler and more interoperable product lines rather than relabelled and siloed systems, and a careful balance of sustainability with the aesthetic performance that makes paint matter. A recurring point was that AkzoNobel's people and support are seen as a genuine differentiator above the products themselves.
A snapshot of each brand on the evidence in this report - who it is for, what it is known for, the emotional pull underneath, and our recommended positioning.
The premium topcoat standard at the top of the market, specified for newbuild and high-end refit where finish and reputation matter most.
Finish (77%), quality (76%) and prestige (69%) - the most clearly differentiated brand in the field.
Pride and heritage - a badge of being "the best" - shadowed by a real fear that position may be eroding, and surrounded by customers' general frustration at being talked down to.
Fix the two things eroding the premium - slow claims and thin technical cover - before they cost share. Guarantee claims turnaround, put reps with genuine hands-on field expertise in the big refit hubs, and lead visibly on practical innovation (the sprayable filler) rather than resting on the name.
The dependable workhorse in Europe and Asia - specified across categories and regions for availability and support rather than prestige.
Availability (72%), performance (66%) and quality (62%) - strongest on being there when it is needed.
Quiet trust - "never a problem... something on its own." Valued more than loved, and overshadowed by Awlgrip.
Sell International where it is already strong - availability and the widest below-the-waterline range - and defend antifouling now, before Jotun and private-label substitutes take more. Don't chase Awlgrip on finish or prestige.
The North American brand, where the Interlux name and its people carry real local loyalty - an established North American institution.
Quality (62%), availability (59%) and performance (59%) - a workmanlike North American profile, lighter on prestige (33%) and finish (33%) than Awlgrip.
Affection for a trusted institution - "an institution... you call them at 6pm on a Friday and they answer." Its warmth comes from being the established, full-line brand North American buyers have relied on for years.
Lead Interlux on North American service and dealer economics, not prestige: protect dealer margins with price protection, keep stock deep, and make the personal relationship the reason to specify - the ground a focused specialist like Sea Hawk cannot match at full-line scale.
A focused antifouling specialist winning in the Americas - the preferred antifouling for US distributors and retailers, largely unknown in Europe.
Performance (68%), quality (60%) and availability (57%) - a niche, well-regarded brand.
Personal, owner-level access - "you can talk to them directly... I shoot him a text and quickly get an answer" - the scrappy, small-company closeness of a specialist, which buyers fear corporate ownership could erode.
Guard the edge that is real - direct, owner-level access and a single-minded antifouling focus - and protect the small-company responsiveness buyers fear corporate ownership will erode. Sea Hawk's territory is the specialist antifouling name in the Americas, not a service rival to Interlux; keep the fast, personal answers and resist over-corporatising the brand.
It is clear that the market prizes – and no competitor has fully claimed – brands that are perceived as having the market's back. Loyalty is derived from people and support provision, not to any particular coating ("it's the people that keep our alliance... the products can be replicated, the people cannot"). Our recommendation is to build master positioning around reassurance - "we've got your back" - and let each brand voice it in its own way.
The market has a clear and settled idea of what matters; buyers put quality, performance and finish at the top (ranked top three by 55%, 43% and 34%), while innovation and sustainability are priorities for almost no one (1% and 6%), and no brand, AkzoNobel's included, is credited with being especially innovative.
Another clear theme is that people prefer to keep using what they know, but they generally only shift brands when there has been a technical failure.
This inertia runs deep in our research. The knowledge a yard or distributor builds up around a brand, and the way its products work together as a system, make changing expensive in itself; as one distributor put it, once someone is "hooked on a brand" they are hard to move, because they are "creatures of habit." This protects AkzoNobel wherever it is the incumbent and works against it wherever it is the challenger.
That inertia sits more with the people applying the coatings than with the owner. When an application company loses confidence in a system it tends to move quietly to another on the next job.
Three broad recommendations follow. The first is brand architecture: how to define International and Interlux in their respective regions. The second is where to defend and where to press your competitors. The third, and largest, is whether to claim the space no competitor owns: a position built openly around people and service.
Currently the brands rarely compete with each other, which works in AkzoNobel's favour.
Awlgrip is recognised as premium; it is most associated with prestige (69%) and least with value (16%). International is the dependable workhorse across Europe and Asia - it leads the field for availability (72%) and is the most widely used brand. Interlux is the North American brand: a workmanlike, well-stocked brand rather than a prestige one. Sea Hawk, an independent competitor, is a well-regarded antifouling specialist - associated more with performance (68%) and quality (60%) than with low price.
It helps that there is clear recognition in the market that Awlgrip and the below-the-waterline brands are not premium and budget versions of the same coating. International (and Interlux in North America) is the underwater and foundation brand, covering primers, fairing and antifouling; Awlgrip is the topcoat. One distributor described it as bread and butter, with antifouling as the bread: "you can have the bread without the butter, but never the butter without the bread".
However, there are two challenges. First, International is markedly stronger in Europe and Asia than Interlux is in North America. International is named market leader by 43% in Europe (ahead of Awlgrip) and 41% in Asia; Interlux takes just 20% in North America, against Awlgrip's 61%, and is rated clearly differentiated far less often (22% top-two-box, against International's 40% in Europe).
On the ground the two brands are well understood - the technical and trade figures we spoke to are clear which one they deal with in their own market. The confusion sits higher up: at a senior and corporate level, the two names genuinely get muddled with one another.
Second, on portfolios, currently both Awlgrip and International (or Interlux in North America) carry near-identical products under different names and prices, which the industry reads as opaque rather than reassuring, and distributors then keep the brands separate from the end customer, so very little credit flows back up to AkzoNobel.
There are gaps in the product line that create openings for competitor brands even among distributors that are loyal to AkzoNobel. Gaps include particular substrates, formulations suited to local regulations, and changing colours. AkzoNobel is viewed as being weakly responsive to changing regulation and slow to develop and launch new products and formulations, while competitors have products that better meet the need.
AkzoNobel should settle what each brand is for and the audience each serves, and bring some order to the overlapping product lines beneath them. Whether the structure ultimately stays as it is or is brought closer together is a strategic decision for AkzoNobel to take on the evidence.
The overlap now carries an operational cost, not only a perception one. A buyer dealing with the AkzoNobel brands often has two separate reps and can get a full cross-brand answer from neither - "the AkzoNobel reps don't know a ton about Awlgrip, and your Awlgrip reps know a tiny bit about AkzoNobel." In our view, this is a fixable irritation.
This is an argument for clarity. The confusion is real at specifier and corporate level, but hands-on distributors navigate it perfectly well, and several were anxious not to see the range merged away - "I hope they don't fold a whole bunch of products into one another." Settling what each brand is for should help to sharpen points of differentiation.
Awlgrip is the best-defined brand in the study and the most differentiated by some way. It leads on finish (77%), quality (76%) and prestige (69%). The concern raised in the interviews is that it may be starting to coast on that reputation; one senior refit contact said Awlgrip was slowly becoming "just the name," and used Nokia as a point of comparison.
Currently, complaints are about reliability and support: batch and delivery problems, and a perception that technical advice has thinned out, with one major refit hub describing local technical support as "non-existent." Our findings show that those applying the coatings will tend to respond to this quietly, moving to another brand on the next job rather than raising it, increasing the risk of brand erosion over time.
Awlgrip is clearly a leader in topcoats and there is equity behind the brand name. In contradiction to the wider findings of this study, where it has genuinely innovated, with a sprayable filler that takes a step out of the process, the industry is enthusiastic and calls it a "game changer."
Our take on this contradiction is that people surveyed do not value innovation in the abstract (1%); what they value is a brand that stays reliable and well supported, and Awlgrip's standing now depends on its ability to be these things while also pushing the envelope.
The reliability concern is more specific than it first appears. Where applicators feel let down, and quietly switch, is on hard colours and special finishes - metallics and ultra-matte - rather than the product in general.
There is also one particular concentration risk worth naming. In the Netherlands a small number of large painters effectively decide where most Dutch-built yachts land, and the market "will always remember the things that went wrong." A reputation problem there is disproportionate to its size.
And the leadership is now genuinely contested in places. On parts of the US West Coast, Alexseal is held to have the better reputation, and it is support - not the product - that is keeping Awlgrip in front.
Across Europe and Asia, International is genuinely strong. In Europe it is named the market leader more often than Awlgrip (43% vs 39%), and it is more broadly associated and more clearly differentiated than Interlux is in the North American region (40% top-two-box differentiation in Europe against 22% in the Americas). Its strengths are apparent: the industry sees it as dependable and available, and in its own categories it is regarded warmly; one yard that is otherwise hard on Awlgrip said simply, "we love International." Availability is its most resonant quality, and a top-three consideration for nearly half of distributors.
Risks surround a perception of under-investment in antifouling; a distributor noted that below the waterline "the research of new products is low" at the precise moment biocide rules are changing and Jotun is competing hard on price.
The warning against assuming "because we are International, that will do the job" is prescient. The warning has already started to come true. Discontinued lines have left distributors scrambling mid-season, and in at least one market we were told that a private-label substitute now outsells the official International antifouling it replaced.
Interlux is a clearly distinct, if paradoxical, proposition in its own right. In North America it is viewed as workmanlike rather than prestigious - which cuts against any internal picture of Interlux as the premium, luxury name - associated above all with antifouling (95%) and primers (56%), and credited with brand prestige by only a third of respondents (33%), about half the rate International reaches in Europe and Asia (58% each).
The defining fact about Interlux is that it is overshadowed in its own market by a sister brand. In North America, Awlgrip is named the market leader by 61% of respondents; Interlux secures just 20%. That is healthy for AkzoNobel overall, but it means Interlux has to earn its place on value, availability and dealer economics rather than on prestige.
Two competitive pressures are specific to the region. Pettit is a genuine North American rival - far better known to Americans (91% aware, used or specified by 45%) than anywhere else - and Sea Hawk contests the same antifouling space. The two look alike on the numbers - both quality- and performance-led - but they differ in character: our findings show a perception of Interlux as the broad, established full-line brand, Sea Hawk the focused, performance-led specialist (its top association is performance at 68%, against Interlux's quality at 62%) with owner-level responsiveness. Interlux still wins the head-to-head in the Americas (45% prefer it to Sea Hawk's 33%), but the margin is not commanding, and Sea Hawk is the better-known antifouling name among American distributors and retailers.
Interlux also carries the market's most switch-prone customers. North American respondents split roughly 40/60 between loyalists and switchers - the weakest loyalty of any region - and rate the brand as clearly differentiated far less often than Europeans do (22% vs 40% top-two-box). Performance and finish are the levers that move them, in that order.
The recommendation is to build Interlux's identity around the North American warmth and personal service that is its real equity - the established, full-line, personally-backed brand for North America, broad where Sea Hawk is a specialist, leaving the premium topcoat ground to Awlgrip. It can still compete on the price protection, dealer margin and local availability that customers clearly respond to, but the distinctive asset is around relationships and support, not prestige.
Sea Hawk is the most focused brand in the study. The market associates it almost entirely with antifouling (a 100% category tie) and credits it mostly on associated grounds: performance (68%), quality (60%) and durability (55%). It scores low on finish (23%) and prestige (36%).
Its position is heavily regional, and that is the defining fact about the brand. Awareness runs at 90% in the Americas and 88% in Asia but only 44% in Europe, and usage tells the same story far more starkly: 54% in the Americas against just 5% in Europe. As one interviewee put it, Sea Hawk is "well used for antifouling in the US, but largely unknown or unavailable in Europe." This is specifically a channel base - in North America, Sea Hawk is the preferred antifouling brand for distributors (50%) and retailers (60%), while boatyards lean to Interlux.
The European gap is not a marketing problem but a regulatory and supply one. Certification and registration delays were "repeatedly blamed" for the brand's absence. The decision is close to binary: either commit to the registration work needed to make Sea Hawk genuinely available in Europe, or accept that below the waterline Europe belongs to International, and stop spreading the brand thin in the meantime.
The study tells us that Sea Hawk and International are at risk of overlapping product lines that the industry finds opaque rather than reassuring. There is an opportunity to draw the line clearly so that the two stop competing with each other for the same shelf and start covering different ground.
There are also signs that the brand is underrated internally. On durability, the market rates Sea Hawk more highly than AkzoNobel's own staff do (55% versus 28%) - one of the very few attributes anywhere where the market is the more positive of the two.
The most consistent finding in the interviews is that AkzoNobel's advantage is as much the relationships around the product as the product itself. The survey points the same way; innovation scores are flat across every brand - so no one is winning on product alone - and leadership comes down to who the industry trusts and works with most closely.
For the less expert buyer, AkzoNobel effectively stands in for their own judgement, choosing the product and vetting the job.
Two things complicate this. The advantage is built off individuals and is uneven by region; it is strong in some markets and thin in others, and it leaves when they retire. The industry's own test of loyalty is whether a supplier "has our back" when a job goes wrong, and is where AkzoNobel is evidently least consistent in our interviews.
The most technically credible interviewee described a "gatekeeper" culture - with claims handling that starts by blaming the painter, and a warranty that in practice he called "basically worthless."
The advantage has a specific source raised by people we spoke to: reps with genuine hands-on expertise in the field - people who have actually applied product. "If you're a paint rep and haven't painted, you are never going to be able to walk the walk." It is also why a rep in an AkzoNobel shirt beats a distributor's multi-line rep - the buyer is dealing with the manufacturer directly.
The weak link is structural. Several described a gatekeeper culture around claims that begins by blaming the painter, alongside an internal split in which "the commercial people shouldn't be specifying it, but don't want to stop." The warranty, in practice, was called "basically worthless" - the part of the relationship most at odds with the "has our back" test the industry sets.
The market is clear about what it rewards - finish and quality - and clear about what it does not currently buy on; sustainability and innovation.
Sustainability still needs handling, but it is clear that it cannot be done in a unilateral way.
Interest is moderate in Europe and slight in the US, and the only force the industry expects to drive real change is regulation, where AkzoNobel is currently perceived to be behind on the move to biocide-free antifouling. In one market, respondents were clear on the problems caused by the slow response to new regulation – "we've been waiting three years for them to produce the new product we were promised, in the meantime our competitors import it from across the border."
However, there is a clear opportunity on process - and it reframes what innovation means to this market. The survey says nobody buys on innovation; the interviews say buyers love anything that makes a job easier - fewer products, fewer steps, faster and simpler application.
The process opportunity is really a commercial one. Ease and speed of application is measurable labour saving, and that lets a premium product win on total cost rather than price - "I'm offering you this ease of application advantage that is going to make my product even better price than some of the others." The sprayable filler is the proof that AkzoNobel can lead here, and the industry's enthusiasm for it shows what genuine, useful innovation looks like to this market.
There is also a cheap, direct lever the trade asked for repeatedly: structured training and the chance to "spray it on our panels at your facility." It is clear that hands-on trials are what actually move a sceptical applicator onto a new product.
There is a related story in how quality is sold. At handover the premium brands look identical; the difference only shows up after a season in service, in durability and how the finish holds. That gives AkzoNobel an opening to differentiate on aftercare and long-term performance - at product or campaign level.
The most consistent unprompted ask from distributors and dealers - the resale channel, not end-retailers - was not about product at all, but about margins. The single most-named request was price protection: a minimum advertised price that stops them being undercut. The concern is sharpest in the US, where online discounting of dealer stock is most established. Where AkzoNobel's competitors do this, it wins business back: one dealer who had moved to Interlux returned the moment Pettit price-protected its antifouling. Where it does not, online sellers offering products for "close to what I pay for it" hollow out both margin and loyalty.
Sources: AkzoNobel quant survey n=237 (analysis tables) · 21 qualitative depth interviews, March to June 2026. Quotes anonymised by stakeholder segment. Built by BLUE Communications. Methodology: achieved sample of 237 survey responses and 21 depth interviews against a proposed 300 and 25; regional mix roughly 28% Americas, 54% Europe, 18% Asia-Pacific. Subgroup figures for North America and Asia-Pacific, and any finer regional or single-market cross-cuts, rest on small bases and are directional.
The summaries and themes for each question are in "What the interviews told us" above.