I reached out to our contacts at Stanley Black & Decker, hoping to learn more about what I was seeing, and to see if this was a company-wide initiative or if it only applied to the promo displays I had checked out.
First, this is a new initiative and yes it will apply to all Stanley Black & Decker brands and tape measures. We will see changes coming to all of their brands over the next year, starting with Stanley.
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I visited a local Home Depot store to see if there were any changes to their regular tape measure displays, and found that the changeover has already occurred.
The Stanley tape measures were advertising their “reach.”
On the next shelf up, Milwaukee tape measures were still advertising their “standout.”
Let’s take a step back for a moment and talk about tape measure blade standout. What’s standout?
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Standout is the maximum extension of a blade before it collapses under its own weight. Or, more formally, standout is a measure of a tape’s capacity for unsupported extension without breaking.
Stanley coined the term around 20 years ago, something I was not aware of. Competitors have adopted the term since then.
Stanley Black & Decker brings up a good point, in that there is no independent standard for this claim, leading to significant variation in claims amongst tape brands.
How clear is “standout” for end-users? Stanley Black & Decker shared some information about their research efforts:
We conducted considerable research on the terminology and after countless hours on the jobsite, speaking with nearly 1,000 professionals in the past year, we’ve found that users do not relate to the standout terminology – they relate to and understand reach.
What they found was that:
1) 70% of users could not recall the term standout as the term for tape extension unaided.
If more than 2/3 of users could not accurately interpret a marketing claim, I would agree that it could stand to be updated.
As an aside, I wonder if more than 2/3 of cordless power tool users understand the difference between 18V and 20V Max…
2) What users care about is how far the tape extends from where they are working – including their ability to manually extend the tape.
That does make sense. How many users will really extend a tape at or anywhere near its maximum standout without supporting the blade with another hand?
Research dating back to 1999 indicates high relatability to reach.
I can see how standout might be a more technical spec, and reach a more user-relatable one.
What Will This Mean?
Right now, it’s going to make for some confusing spec comparisons. Will users notice all of a sudden that Stanley and Dewalt tapes are advertised with “reach” specs instead of “standout?” How many users took note of standout specs before?
Competitively, well, if I were a product manager at a competing tape measure brand, I’d be trying to figure out my brand’s response. As shown above, you have Milwaukee tape measures with 14′ standout specs close to Stanley tape measures with 14′ reach specs. The average consumer is not going to be aware of the distinction between standout and reach, or at least that’s my opinion.
Five years from now, I think that other tape measure brands will have adopted “reach” terminology as well. I can’t see them not doing so, otherwise there’s a huge disadvantage in terms of customer perceptions, or at least when shoppers compare tape measure specs across brands.
Stanley Black & Decker’s shift from standout to reach product claims has been very quiet, for lack of a better word. But, Stanley was first to use “standout” to describe blade extension performance, and so it seems appropriate for them to be the first to want to change it.
From what they described in our conversation, REACH is what users relate to, much more so than standout. So, with this shift, aren’t they just shifting their marketing language closer to how users might already be interpreting standout?
In the comments to my previous post, it’s clear that a lot of people don’t even look to standout as a comparative measure, they care more about real-world performance. Also, a lot of people are loyal to specific tape measure brands, and might compare specs across just that brand rather than looking towards others.
We now know why Stanley Black & Decker is changing the terminology they use to describe tape measure blade extension. It will be interesting to see how tape measure competitors respond to or adapt to this shift.
Matt
I’m pretty sure I said a variation of this exact thing in the comments of your previous post about this. Can we move on now or will everyone still be confused about this for the next 5 years?
Jared
As a term, “reach” doesn’t bother me. I think the complaints about the switch relate to the perception that it was motivated by a desire to gain a marketing advantage instead of conforming to how consumers use the tapes.
“Reach” as it’s being used by SBD still seems a bit ambiguous though. I.e. it would be straightforward and repeatable if reach was measured from the fingertips holding the extended tape blade out to the tip (though I expect the “reach” measurement would conform to “standout” in that test). Your previous post suggesting it is standout plus 3′ though, makes it seem artificial.
Thom
I am one of those luddites that do not use reach/standout as a metric when buying a tape. That being said I agree with SBDs reasoning for changing the term and criteria. I think all of us extend our arm when trying to “reach” out with the tape so to me it makes sense as a real world metric.
Aaron
I don’t that people are buying tape measures with the thought of needing to hook an exact object an exact distance away. I don’t need to know the exact reach or standout of a tape, I just need to be able to compare them with each other. Changing the statistic ruins comparability. This seems like a lot of market speak for “we weren’t winning so we changed the rules”
If they want to advance a new way of thinking and not look like a scam they should prominently use both systems.
John
Same stupid crap similar to the length of extension ladders. Grown men pissing contest.
Dt
Yeah, basically how I see it is standout is a bragging term and reach is a working term.
Joseph
Sounds like 70% of users aren’t buying tape measures based on standout or reach, so just put bigger numbers on the package, and it’s better.
Jo Bourque
Reach or stand out – it doesn’t matter. The reality is that these tape measures, regardless of brand are junk after 6 months of use when I’m marking out houses (electrical). They need to find a way to stiffen the first 10 feet. The Stanley Fatmax are the best that I’ve found so far. The Milwaukee tape measures are not good at all for my use. We use tape measures above our head all day long when marking lights and headers and have the tape turned sideways. Regardless of stand out, they flop over easily after 1 month of use. They need to put measurements on the bottom to make this problem go away.
Thom
The Lufkin tapes have markings on the bottom.. Very handy when working overhead
max
I have a tape I bought from Costco a few years ago (can’t recall the brand) that is marked on both the top and bottom and both left and right handed. It makes things much easier and is my go-to around the house.
hangovna
Try the new Milwaukees, quite a few improvements to solve the issues you stated.
Benjamen
Survey questions can be manipulated to get any answer you want.
1) 70% of users could not recall the term standout as the term for tape extension unaided.
Irrelevant, the question should be: If a tape states standout what does it mean?
How many times have you forgotten the technical term for something? I bet it’s pretty often because there are thousands of technical terms in the industry and unless you use them everyday, they don’t always come to the tip of your tongue when called.
2) What users care about is how far the tape extends from where they are working – including their ability to manually extend the tape.
This is even more highly subjective, it adds several more variables (arm length, stance, balance) to the already subjective measurement of standout.
In other words, at least standout measures something about the tool, Reach measures something about the tool and the average user.
Farid
Seriously, how hard is to to standardize on method to measure this and show it on the package.
I’ll throw in another wrinkle: At what temperature do you measure unsupported extension? I bet performance on is not the same on very hot days.
Will we see wind resistance specified next?
Michael Quinlan
I was thinking the same thing. They’re taking term – that according to their own research, most users don’t understand – and replacing it with a term that’s even less definable. I would expect nothing less from the company that brought us Unit Watts Out and 20V Max batteries.
Frank D
I don’t get how this was ever confusing to people.
Standout means the tape can be out x feet from the tape housing, before collapsing to the ground, and obviously when using two hands and arms you can reach a foot or two further.
Standout can actually be proven with a very simple test. Reach gets to be fuzzy.
To me this just more marketing mumbo for the big number = better … akin that brand that sells 14 ft ladders that are only 12 ft long … you know because you can reach higher than a ladder is long if you are 6ft tall etc … except I knew I needed a 14 ft long ladder.
Nate
To me, standout should be a measure of how far the tape will extend before drooping. When you’re trying to measure a room by yourself you don’t need the tape to droop. This is more important to me than it’s break strength.
mattd
“As an aside, I wonder if more than 2/3 of cordless power tool users understand the difference between 18V and 20V Max…”
I would bet that it is closer to 80% of cordless tool users don’t understand the “difference” even the people in the store selling the products don’t know they are the same. Seriously next time you are in a lowes or HD ask the hardware guy how much more powerful the 20v is, I guarantee you will get a weird response that they make up to sound like they know instead of the truth.
Fran Byrd
Who cares, the only word that matters is word of mouth!
Ryan
Does a 13 foot stand-out have more UWOs than a 13 foot reach?
Corey Moore
Only in Celsius.
James C
There’s only so many ways you could possibly measure standout. I just tried it with a Stanley 25′ Powerlock model that happened to be near me. With the tape body angled slightly upward and the tape more or less extending horizontally (with a bit of an arc of course), I measured consistently about 7 feet before breaking. That seemed to be the best it could do. Now, you could certainly “cheat” and get more by extending straight up vertically. I got to 9 feet before I came to my senses and cancelled my experiment. I don’t know how I could rationalize what I was doing if anyone were to walk in on this. Seems like a stretch to spend any more time on the subject.
Jared
I’ve got an idea for Milwaukee:
A fellow could always hold the tape extended in the “reach” position, then get a buddy to take the body of the tape measure and walk it further back while the first guy holds the extended portion of the tape steady.
Using this method it might be possible to extend the tape all the way out while one person holds only a portion of it hanging out under it’s own weight. I call my new measurement “span”. So now a 30ft tape measure could be prominently marked as having a “30ft span”. This way there’s no way to improve upon the claim without making a longer tape.
Frank D
LOL
Chris
They could even use big numbers on the packaging to say “2X the reach”*.
It could “technically” be truth.
*vs the leading competition.
OldDominionDIYer
I love it, to funny!
Brian A
So SBD is essentially saying that Stanley failed in educating the masses over that past 20 years to what standout was and represented….
JoeM
I’m just going to ignore it, to be perfectly honest. I’ve always found it silly that people use tapes that way, running it out so far as to hit their target, and then putting it down to measure the distance. It has a hook at the end. You may want to save a couple steps, but if you want accuracy in what you’re doing, you put the hook where you need it, and walk the tape to the other point you’re measuring. Whether that’s along the ground, or with pulling it straight out while standing, and letting it bend when it hits the ground, then so be it. That’s what you do.
“Sometimes that’s not an option for time” that isn’t the tape’s fault, that’s the user’s. “Lots of pros do it that way” yeah, and cotton farmers in the Southern USA used to use slave labour to pick cotton. Not everything the pros do is correct 100% of the time. Reach, Standout… They’re nice terms for the rigidity of the tape itself, but they’re really not telling you anything you should actively be doing with the tapes.
MichaelHammer
Do that from ladder 30 feet up. Pay attention. Look at the roof pic in the article. It’s a good example.
JoeM
Point A: I would never be on a ladder with a Tape. That is were a laser Target and a Laser Measure do the job better. Point B: Again, that’s not a good way to use a Tape, tradition or not, standard practice or not. A Laser Distance Measure and target are safer, and more accurate. Standout or Reach, if you’re doing a balancing act, it’s not the place for a tape measure.
Jason T.
When I buy a tool, the first thing I do is take it out of the package and throw the package away. I buy most of my tools based on reputation and how well I think they are designed. Marketing is for catching people that don’t do their research.
ToolGuyDan
“Reputation”, you say? https://xkcd.com/125/
DC
Standout, really? I was at HD last Sunday and saw the Milwaukee tape measures that listed 14 ft standout on the package. It was a 16 foot tape measure and I pulled the tape out and it buckled at 5 feet. I did the same with the Stanley Fat max and it buckled at 15 feet. The Milwaukee tape felt thinner than the Stanley as well.
Michael Quinlan
“accurately interpret a marketing claim”
ROFLMAO
Ecotek
Let me say that I do appreciate the standout rating as it gives me an idea of what it will do. However, I can also say ive never been able to get any tape measure to equal it’s claimed standout. But the number is at least good for comparisons sake. I’ve pretty much settled on the Stanley Fatmax as the best price per performance tape measure out there. I forget how good it is until someone hands me their cheapo tape measure that doesn’t have 3′ of standout, and then I remember how much I appreciate it.
inventor dane
How do you quantify reach because when you add the assistance of a hand supporting the blade when it comes down two ones wingspan? I think it should be the greatest distance you can measure out horizontally from inside corner and Mark accurately.
Although wingspan comes into play again, but it’s a real world situation.
Cindy M
Gentlemen ive read the comments u have posted. I’ve been producing Stanley n other tape measures for 46 yrs. Trust this old woman when i say the improvements have been steady n significant. Continuous improvement is our motto. This all sounds like dunkin donuts parking lot talk.
Frank s
Pls don’t besmirch Dunkin’ Donuts….lol
OldDominionDIYer
Standout claims are not really that useful but in practical use on the jobsite it can be helpful to have a tape measure that doesn’t flop around on you if you extend it beyond a few feet. The ability to extend your tape measure is a practical metric so that one can get it hooked onto whatever it is you intend to measure. If you’re doing layout on a 4×8 sheet you can slide the tape hook to the end, no standout required, but if you are trying to hook onto something 8 feet away to get a measurement it can be annoying if your tape measure won’t stay stable enough to catch on. I’m not sure about everyone else but I never try to get an actual measurement while dangling the tape measure out because it would be useless due to the arc that it creates, it’s about giving the user the ability to extend to some distant point with enough control so that they can establish a measurement once hooked. Now with all that said how much “standout” is really needed and useful to the average person. I feel like if you can get 8ft that it would cover over 90% of any situation most would run into, 10-12ft is probably nice to have but loses a bit of effectiveness due to the large amount of arc at that point and how unwieldy they become.
It’s also clearly apparent that once again SB&D is changing the goal post to better suit their plan to sell more stuff, and that’s exactly what they’re supposed to do. I also think other companies will follow suit just to create an even playing field. None of it needed to change but the change creates a clear (uneducated as it may be) advantage in their display when set side by side to a tape measure that is offering standout, because the average consumer will not notice the distinction.
Moses
Someone misplaced one of my DeWalt tapes,
I went to home Depot to pick up a new one they were out of the one I liked do I decided to try a Milwaukee the marketing stand out was I think the same… Yeah the tape reads let’s say got example 10 feet before it buckles but you can’t reach not than 8 because it curved couldn’t make holes for spot lights so standout doesn’t help if you can’t duck it out more than 2 feet without bending….
So back to DeWalt tapes for me
Rick
As I bought a new tape measure today at Home Depot, I was looking at the Stanley model FMHT33865 magnetic 25′ tape.
They had 2 different ones with the same model number. One had an “11′ standout” and the other had a “14′ reach”.
After researching the difference even after reading this article which to me does not really clarify other than how people refer to them, all I can figure is “standout” must be from the tape measure itself with out using other hand to support it and “reach” of course must mean using other hand to support the tape as far as you can reach.
Ian Random
Minor aside as a kid I would try to see how far it would go without buckling. For some reason my dad had a blower without a cover on it and I can tell you that a Stanley tape measure will destroy a plastic impeller.