Motor oils slide into half of top slots - discount store motor oil sales

Discount Store News, Oct 4, 1993

Attempting to go upscale and increase price points beyond an off-price image and putting one's corporate house in order seem to pay dividends when it comes to automotive Top Brands rankings.

When discount store managers rattle off their top performing automotive brands, oils and chemicals dominate the list over hard parts brands. In fact, motor oil brands accounted for half of the Top 10 brands this year. In addition, there was one oil filter brand and three chemicals labels.

Only, Champion, spark plugs and batteries, made under license, made the Top 10.

In a shift from last year's rankings, though, the efforts of Havoline to promote itself as a higher priced brand, midway between the leading national brands and its previous off-price position, contributed to a slump in its standings, a fall to No. 6 on the survey from the strong No. 2 spot it had held for the previous two years. To the contrary, the efforts of Quaker State to put its sales operations in order and restore corporate profitability helped it to recover its historical place as one of the two top brands in competition with Pennzoil.

Pennzoil continued to hold its lead in '93, while Quaker State, changing its trade dress to a recycled, green battle, nailed down the No. 2 slot.

In the '93 polling, only 3% of store managers questioned said they had increased the number of national automotive brands in the department, down from 6% last.

Kmart managers were the only ones who said the number of national name brand automotives increased this year. No Wal-Mart or Target managers reported an increase national brands in automotives.

The hallmark of Target's automotives department is traffic-building sharp prices on regional motor oil brands, such as Chevron and Trop Arctic.

Those managers who noted an increase in national brands tended to be from the West or North Central regions.

Among the 28 product categories over which managers said they feel they have influence, automotives falls in the middle. Only 5% of surveyed managers said they have influence over automotives for a 14th place tie with stationery.

No Target managers named automotives as a department over which he or she had influence, vs. 7% of Wal-Mart managers and 3% at Kmart. [TABULAR DATA OMITTED]

Pennzoil, in racking up 46% of mentions to remain at the head of the Top 10 list, got a boost when Wal-Mart renamed its more than 500 auto service centers Pennzoil Tire & Lube Express. And Kmart's promotion of Havoline products on the front of its 1,000 or so auto service centers couldn't stop the brand's slide to No. 6 on the list, with 20% of top brand mentions. That compares with No. 2 and 37% in 1992.