Big thumbs up Mr. L.
I’m just quite literally an oil nerd, that grew up in the business, works every day in the business and vested time/energy/etc into learning more about the industry.
Sure, I see an extremely different perspective than 99.9% of people on here. But I share it, as much as possible, because I like the internet. You need thick skin, but I like sharing information. Sure you’ll get people “oh no it’s not like that! If you don’t do xyz it’s your funeral!” Well, whatever. If my opinion represented what we market, I’d be a shill. Not an educator. Sure, I’ll recommend a product by name, that I happen to know that works in that exact application. Say, a screw air compressor. Or a fire resistant hydraulic oil. Or a combined cycle turbine. Because I know it works in that application and have hands on experience. In situations like that it’s a little different than PCEO.
But with PCEO’s… motor oil… like, we all know it works. Doesn’t matter the brand as long as it meets spec. Just *how* you want it to work, is a different question and answer. Do you want the minimum? Then the minimum is enough for you. Do you want the absolute, no question best? There’s an answers there.
But when it comes to marketing like this… I’ll tell a story.
A major oil company’s “marketing” manager, came from their pipeline/mid stream division. As happens a lot of time, he was moved into the lubricants division for retirement. 2-3 years, then out.
He hired a marketing firm that consisted of ~5 very, very attractive young ladies that were, a little younger than me at the time. (I was ~32-33 for time reference. I’m 38 now.)
They asked me to consult on their website re-organization and marketing material… I was probably not very nice. But I got a sweet black camo pattern hat. That… you can’t even read the brand name on it. And I believe they ran some TV commercials that, to me, you’d have no idea they were about oil.
I don’t particularly think they were hired because they knew anything about marketing oil… or their customers… or listening to their customers… or listening to their distributors… I feel like they wanted to look “cool” more than get to the point of what they were trying to sell. And the rest you can fill the blanks in on why they were hired.
That’s just my take on it…
Stories like the above, are parts of the industry I see. And, will try to share within reason, when I have time and such. As well as my feed back through all my connections all over the place in every aspect from additives, to base oils, to blending and packaging. If people don’t believe me, no sweat from me. But, this would all become non sense if I was here to sell something. If I said “you gotta buy Kendall or else!!!” I’d be laughed out of here, because it’s simply not true. And anything else I say, becomes BS. Easy as that.
I prefer just to let my oil nerdery show, my insider knowledge share some experience, and now my developed expertise help people solve problems. Trying to sell something would become more of a nuisance to the site, and thus me.
Which is why I keep my “Brands” private, besides who I’m flagged with in terms of majors. And I’m very clear about that, such as why I use redline: it’s free for me. If it wasn’t, I probably wouldn’t. But free is for me.
