Ceramic Coating Marketing Lies: BS Hardness Values 9H 10H

Because little information exists, exploring the applied hardness of automotive ceramic coatings, the goals of this article are:

At this point you may be wondering, “if these common claims about ceramic coating hardness values are false, then why does most of the auto detailing industry use and support these claims?“

The answer is a single word: Marketing.

On media and social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and TikTok OVER oversaturation is normalcy.

In recent years, many detailing product companies, advertising campaigns, and even individual online personas/reputations were entirely built online. They positioned their ‘credibility’, ‘authority’, and ‘professional chops’ through social media posting and marketing alone.

The oversaturation strategy relies on a relentless barrage of marketing and advertising campaigns promoting: catch phrases, slogans, hashtags, or ‘cool images.’ For the companies or individuals implementing these strategies the offering of: facts, actionable content, and valuable information is rarely an objective.

Essentially these methods are nothing more than attrition based ‘marketing strategies’. At the heart of this strategy is the belief:

If a phrase, slogan, or mantra is repeated enough–over a long enough timeline–eventually people will start to accept it as fact.

This is the basis of indoctrination through repetition. And it is eerily similar to the psychological concept called the “illusion of truth effect.”

People may recognize this concept from the infamous phrase from the 20^th century; “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.”

It is WIDELY ACCEPTED that marketing “Statistics” and/or “Claims” are often narrow slivers of information ripped completely out of context. Often, these claims are then reapplied as ‘scientific fact’ or ‘proof’ in other areas. And often, these reapplied ‘facts’ hold little to no merit out of context.

The general public is typically skeptical when many statistics are quoted in rapid fire succession to validate statements or arguments. Therefore, it shouldn’t shock anyone when unsupported manufacturer marketing campaigns, centered around automotive ceramic coating absolute hardness values (e.g. “xH”, “9H”,”10H”), are challenged as factually hollow and false.

A Substrate is defined as either the base material something is made from, or the material that something attaches to.

Within auto detailing, substrates for ceramic coating applications are mostly automotive clear coats (paint) and variations of exterior plastics.

To understand the significant role substrates play to ceramic coatings, let’s examine an similar concept outside of detailing; construction. Let’s explore how substrates play a critical role when choosing paint for a home.

Most people, and certainly all contractors, agree that different paint types are required for the various the duties of paint for many needs of the interior and exterior of a home. Even just for exteriors, the needs of an exterior pant for a home in the winter frozen extremes of Duluth Minnesota are entirely different than a house enduring the hot sticky summers of Baton Rouge Louisiana. And both of those have needs which are vastly different than a beach front house in

When painting inside the home, a painting contractor’s list quickly fills up with three, four, or more types of paint when tasked with repainting the entire interior of the home. The types of paint typically used on kitchen cabinets, on walls, on baseboards, and in bathrooms are unique and are vastly different than the paint used on the average bedroom or hallway. This is because these substrates have varying needs and require unique paint formulations to meet such needs.

This article will not fully delve into the pointless use of the ‘pencil hardness’ (Wolff-Wilborn) test. Or even of the flawed and outright blatant misrepresentation of the Mohs hardness scale. Why? Because common logic dictates that no automotive ceramic coating is anywhere near as hard as a diamond. It doesn’t take a PhD material scientist to UNDERSTAND that.

Neither the pencil hardness test, nor the Mohs scale, hold any actual merit for the context they are frequently referenced– applied ceramic coating hardness values. They literally have nothing to do the ‘hardness’ of a ceramic coating once applied to an actual vehicle paint system. Instead, the pencil hardness test measures the hardness of the substrate which the ceramic coatings are applied to for the laboratory testing; which frequently are 9H, 10H, or 11H prior to the coating application.

To summarize, the 9H or 10H coating pencil hardness testing claims are, in actuality, skewed laboratory tests performed in a vacuum. These tests literally have zero relevance to the many varying real world vehicle paint systems they are applied to.

Therefore, to mention the data derived from the ‘scientific test pencil test’, in the context of a ceramic coating applied to automotive paint, is pointless. At best it’s similar to an attraction found at a traveling circus or carnival. When walking around you frequently hear or see a large commotion. A person is heavily touting a unique visual spectacle as or legendary experience at a booth to quickly grab attention and generate a crowd. Yet, when the audience gathers to examine the attraction up-close, they realize there isn’t much actual substance to the larger than life words of the hype man.

Mentioning the ‘scientific pencil test’, or the the Mohs scale of hardness, in reference to an applied vehicle coating, is no more useful or truthful than the endless claims spouted by greasy used-car salesmen. These outright false and completely misleading bits of ‘scientific information’ are simply marketing tools, used to perpetuate hype to boost product sales. And, unfortunately, this hype has proven highly effective for most of their existence in the detailing industry.

The problem is this–Many of the false product claims about coating harness values are now frequently believed and marketed as fact throughout the detailing industry!

It’s simple, automotive coating manufacturers pass product spec sheets onto their marketing departments or to independent marketing agencies.

Marketers generally don’t know much conceptually or scientifically about how or why products work or about auto detailing businesses or processes for that matter. A marketer’s single objective is to position products to be: understood, relatable, and desired by the target audiences or industry for immediate purchase. Typically, they use simplistic product details and bullet points to appeal to consumer wants, aspirations, and pain points.

There is often a huge disconnect between the realistic functionality of a product when speaking to a scientist vs. speaking to a marketer. When marketing campaigns for new products debut, the advertised functions, benefits, and realities of the product may greatly differ from the real life results. Often, other departments within the company view this advertisement wording as harmless ‘marketing speak.‘

It’s currently the second decade of the 21st century, so obviously the general public understands that marketing speak isn’t reality — or do they?

Here’s the rub. There really isn’t a mechanism, other than potential legal concerns or consequences, to prevent companies from claiming anything they want about products they market. Generally, company marketing agendas and beliefs are not publicly altered until false information or misleading claims are widely and publicly accepted or proven as false or misleading.

Sadly, some automotive coating companies use these false marketing claims and tactics. They do so because of the lack of knowledge of automotive paint within the general public and within the dealing industry.

Due to this missing public knowledge, select companies have taken the opportunity to flood the market with endless marketing campaigns about claimed hardness ratings of their products.

These unrelenting campaigns have taken place over many years.

So, what once started off as a marketing strategy has morphed into a ‘perceived reality’ for a large majority of the detailing culture and by direct influence—the general public.

Remember the “illusion of truth” effect, mentioned at the start of the article?

Here’s the gist of it: Repeat a phrase, belief, or slogan enough times, for long enough span of time, and it will become the accepted norm.

THIS is the golden goose or ideal that all marketing slogans and campaigns chase over years or decades. It’s War of Attrition Marketing at its finest.

Cigarette manufacturers practiced very similar strategies for many years in the 1930’s, 40’s, 50’s, and into the early 60’s. Many companies used a variety of health and weight-loss claims and fully developed campaigns to market and sell cigarettes.

This went on for decades until Surgeon General Luther Terry published the first “Smoking and Health Report” In 1964. This first public safety report (and 32 subsequent reports over the past 50+ years) prompted warning label regulations to cigarettes and forever changed how they could be marketed to the public.

Before this information, and the regulations that followed for marketing to the general public, cigarette companies were essentially free to market their products however they saw fit—even if they knew the info was false or misleading.

The current marketing history of automotive and marine ceramic coatings is on a similar trajectory as the cigarette industry of the 1930’s, 40’s, and 50’s.

Currently the public, including much of the detailing industry, is unaware of how coatings and automotive paint systems work on a scientific level. Therefore, companies exploit this market aspect and advertise many coatings with fixed hardness ratings. These advertising campaigns either explicitly mention, or strongly suggest, a coating’s ‘fixed applied hardness value’ as a solve-all solution to vehicle surfaces.

The countless ways this advertising affects, misleads, or outright fools the detailing industry, and therefore the mass public perception, could be the subject of another dedicated article. And, frankly it should be written in the narrative of a Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Western because these marketing tactics are often achieved in a “wild-west-free-for-all” style.