Bob Richardson, from the Clorox Company, and David Sholtis, from Robert Bosch, were panelists at recent DIY discussion at the Global Automotive Aftermarket Symposium in Chicago.

CHICAGO -- The time to think about the next generation of do-it-yourselfers (DIYers) is now, say panelists from a recent presentation at the Global Automotive Aftermarket Symposium (GAAS).

This future DIYer, also referred to as a millennial, may look different than those who are fixing their cars now, but they will have the same needs as today’s DIYer.

However, the younger adult generation’s thirst for information is immediate, due to the demographic’s instant online access to fulfill its needs, a phenomenon that panelist Bob Richardson, director of sales, customer and industry development of the Clorox Company, refers to as a “megatrend of convenience.”

“The DIYer today isn’t dead,” says Michael Swearengin, another panelist at the Symposium. “The face of the DIYer is going to change, but his needs and wants are more consistent than ever,” says Swearengin, who’s also senior vice president of merchandise, marketing and advertising for O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. “We need to, as a group, figure out how we reach that consumer.”

“This is your new DIY market,” says Richardson. “They Google, they Net, they YouTube. It’s a different marketing area, and we’re going to need to appeal to (that segment). The people most demonstrative about their cars are the younger ones. We need to go back to education and market to those people.”

But sometimes, reaching out to the younger demographic can prove difficult, in an industry populated by older executives.

“How do we reach out to those changing faces?” asks David Sholtis, vice president, regional business unit leader for Filtration Americas, a unit of Robert Bosch. “The way we communicate isn’t going to be the way we communicate in five years.”

The millennials will likely come of age as DIYers in 2014, say panelists. And technology enables this group to want questions answered quickly, along with creating the need for robust Web content. So a strong digital presence is paramount, the panelists add.

“The Internet has taken the place of the Yellow Pages,” says Swearengin. “And that’s what that new DIY consumer wants to be. He’s also going to look at those electronics that are going to grow in the future. He’s going to be more prone to do those repairs that are technologically sound.”

An additional demographic that’s equally important is the Hispanic consumer. “Multiculturalism will help grow the consumer landscape,” adds Swearengin. “(Hispanics are) a really good consumer base for us and an increasingly emerging one. It’s going to be a critical group that we’ll go after in the future.”

Richardson mentions that Clorox has marketing geared 100 percent toward the Hispanic marketplace, which is an unprecedented move for the manufacturer.

The panelists also addressed commodities. “With some of the more commoditized parts we sell, we’ll continue to see downward price pressure,” says Sholtis.

Although these industry leaders predict an increase in the presence of private label brands, premium brands will have their place in the DIY market of the near future, but there needs to be a differentiation between the two.