Why does Amsoil market the way it does?

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If you're a relatively unknown mfg you have to go and audition your product to Wally's buyers in Bentonville (fwiw). If you're lucky enough to get shelf space, you stay on the shelf by your product moving out the door. WM is by in large a volume retailer, they make money the more a product moves and not less. Hence why you see them do rollbacks and closeouts. If both WM and Amsoil thought they could make a worthwhile profit compared to other oil related offerings from other mfgs occupying similar shelf space in the automotive section, they would. Lss, it's not profitable for one or the other...or both.

I'm sure WM has reams of data to support it's buyers decisions. They've got the value of shelf space down to a science.


Originally Posted by kschachn
I don't think it is quite as nefarious as some make it out to be, I believe the marking method they have now was probably the most effective for the time it was introduced. But things have changed in retail and now it likely somewhat less effective than it used to be. Besides, being a small blender there's no way they can compete on cost with a major oil company, so when viewed on the shelf it is at an immediate disadvantage to their competitors based on price alone - just look at the Royal Purple example that was already mentioned.

Amsoil, Royal Purple, Redline and others just do not have the name penetration to generate sufficient sales in mass marketing. It's going to lose every time on the shelves at Walmart.


+1 this👆
 
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The nearest Advance Auto has some Amsoil products, probably from their Carstadts lineage. Not sure if they carry the oils or just the motorsports stuff. Some NAPA's also carry them, the locally owned ones...
 
If it aint broke, why fix it? If they were struggling Im sure youd see them all over the place. I didnt know it was MLM, we have a local guy that comes around but we never have the need for it at my shop. I honestly think that in 8 years of business weve had maybe 3 customers supply their own Amsoil.
 
Let's say you have an application that requires a product to meet a completely indeterminate value of '10' in order to service all facets of the application.

For the sake of discussion, we assign a random major oil company product a value of '14' and an Amsoil product a rating of '15'.
The numbers aren't so important here, rather, let's focus on the service requirement and respective product capabilities.

The reality is that both products will service the application in every conceivable way. There will be no measurable difference in performance or service life.

At this point it's up to the Amsoil marketing team to convince the user that the Amsoil product is needed anyway.

If they do a good enough job, Amsoil meets their revenue targets. If not, then something has to change.

TLDR: I doesn't take a 15 foot ladder to get out of a 10 foot hole. An 11 foot ladder will do just fine....
 
Originally Posted by Rat407
The system works well for AMSOIL now and no need to change.


Pretty much what Sears thought 20 years ago, and see where they are now.
 
I have no idea why AMSOIL markets the way they do but, 15 years ago when I first heard about AMSOIL, I assumed it was oil sold by AMWAY. The sales tactics and pitches are very similar.


Ray
 
Originally Posted by SubieRubyRoo
If WM can sell RP on the shelf at the prices it does, with the volume they move...

I always shake my head when I see the Royal Purple bottes on the shelf at Walmart and ask myself, "who pays for this?". I know enough people do though or else WM wouldn't stock it. As another poster said, WM's first priority is their profit and then volume. What might be going on is WM is getting that RP product for a very, very low price and while selling it for as much as they do, they offset the lower volume/turnover of the product with killer mark-up.
 
I've bought single quarts of Amsoil 2 stroke oil at car show booths and at Fleet Farm stores. Both were priced the same.
 
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
Originally Posted by SubieRubyRoo
If WM can sell RP on the shelf at the prices it does, with the volume they move...

I always shake my head when I see the Royal Purple bottes on the shelf at Walmart and ask myself, "who pays for this?". I know enough people do though or else WM wouldn't stock it. As another poster said, WM's first priority is their profit and then volume. What might be going on is WM is getting that RP product for a very, very low price and while selling it for as much as they do, they offset the lower volume/turnover of the product with killer mark-up.


That's the only way RP stays on the shelf with it's high price point. WM don't care who you are, if your product isn't making the kind of money that they know that shelf space can generate - they will kick you to the curb. And it's my guess that the WM buyers couldn't/can't get Amsoil to discount their product enough to put it on the shelves. If WM can't make it's money on the volume, it has to make it on the margin.
 
Because the billions of people out there not on BITOG arent looking at spec sheets or VOAs, etc.

Supertech is probably walmarts best seller because it's the cheapest thing on the shelf.

If your average uninformed oil buyer is buying oil they're gonna look at the price and the grade and essentially go "this amsoil QUART is 15$, while this 5QUART JUG of ST Syntheric is only 15$, both say XwXX and synthetic so let's go with that"
 
I for one do not like the whole MLM concept. I don't see the value.

Most people do not change their own oil. Nor do they know or care much about motor oil. Heck millennials don't even care much about cars. It's something to get me from point A to point B. If the shop uses name brand spec'ed oil in the engine, the engine will not be the cause of the car being junked.

So it's hard to get the vast majority of car owners sold on why pay extra for Amsoil. Whatever the shop uses is fine with them.

With respect to motor oil, there is a good selection of excellent motor oils at Walmart. No need to ever buy Amsoil motor oil.

Now the selection of ATF, gear oil, etc is much more limited at Walmart. While some change their own oil, only a small percentage of those change any other lubrication fluid. So I buy Amsoil ATF and gear oil as I think it's better than what I can get at Walmart. Still do not like the way Amsoil markets.
 
Originally Posted by GumbyJarvis
Because the billions of people out there not on BITOG arent looking at spec sheets or VOAs, etc.
Soooo true

Originally Posted by GumbyJarvis
Supertech is probably walmarts best seller because it's the cheapest thing on the shelf.
You are probably right. If it's not their # 1 selling brand, it's gotta be their # 2 at the worst.
 
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
Originally Posted by GumbyJarvis
Because the billions of people out there not on BITOG arent looking at spec sheets or VOAs, etc.
Soooo true

Originally Posted by GumbyJarvis
Supertech is probably walmarts best seller because it's the cheapest thing on the shelf.
You are probably right. If it's not their # 1 selling brand, it's gotta be their # 2 at the worst.



Alot of Walmart shoppers around here fall under two segments, those who buy generic, and the ones who buy the cheapest non generic (the cheapest step above)

I guarantee walmarts biggest selling oils are something along the lines of Supertech (the people who buy the cheapest generic whatever) and QSGB (as it is the cheapest non generic on the shelf)

There biggest selling filters are Supertechs and Fram. These also follow that same pattern, ones a generic and ones the next avaliable cheap non generic.

Coincidently, everytime I go to Walmart, these are always the products in that aisle with the most out of stock selections. You'll see an entire shelf filled with Mobil 1 and Royal Purple, as well as Fram Ultras and Bosch D+'s with maybe one or two missing, but theres always movement at the cheaper areas, less stock on hand of the cheaper selections on the shelf.


This doesn't just apply to motor oil. Go to Walmart at night when they're stocking you'll see how much something like Walmart Generic soup sells, then your next non generic such as cambells sell, meanwhile they dont even have to stock something like progresso.

Theres a bigger market for Economy products (generic equivalents) and Standard products (the household name product thats old faithful, affordable, Cambells soup, ragu spaghetti sauce) when compared to the Performance market (royal purple, Bosch distance plus, progresso soup, bertoli spaghetti sauce)

This being said, things like Amsoil, Schaeffers, redline, etc are more small market exclusive. Theyre a name brand that isnt name brand marketed like Pennzoil or valvoline. They arent relying on big market consumers such as the soccer mom that gets lube jobs at jiffy lube or valvoline quick change, they're relying on a small segment (offroading market, racing, Tim Taylor types) to go online and look at what's best for their jeep, mustang, etc.. they usually end up here.
 
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
Originally Posted by SubieRubyRoo
If WM can sell RP on the shelf at the prices it does, with the volume they move...

I always shake my head when I see the Royal Purple bottes on the shelf at Walmart and ask myself, "who pays for this?". I know enough people do though or else WM wouldn't stock it. As another poster said, WM's first priority is their profit and then volume. What might be going on is WM is getting that RP product for a very, very low price and while selling it for as much as they do, they offset the lower volume/turnover of the product with killer mark-up.


RP have a few Jewels in their lineup of mediocre products...back when they had a comparative data sheet, this was obvious.
 
Originally Posted by Shannow
RP have a few Jewels in their lineup of mediocre products...back when they had a comparative data sheet, this was obvious.
I'm not disputing that it's a quality oil but how much better is it than the other name-brand oils or even Supertech ? And even if better, is it just overkill better ? Then there's the higher cost....
 
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
Originally Posted by Shannow
RP have a few Jewels in their lineup of mediocre products...back when they had a comparative data sheet, this was obvious.
I'm not disputing that it's a quality oil but how much better is it than the other name-brand oils or even Supertech ? And even if better, is it just overkill better ? Then there's the higher cost....


I'm sure you can find applications/conditions where these high end oils are called for but today's oils, even conventional, are so good that most daily drivers will run just fine on the so called "value" oils. But to each his own; if you sleep better at night knowing you have Amsoil or RP in the sump..then have at it. Don't let me stop you! ...
 
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Originally Posted by GumbyJarvis
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
Originally Posted by GumbyJarvis
Because the billions of people out there not on BITOG arent looking at spec sheets or VOAs, etc.
Soooo true

Originally Posted by GumbyJarvis
Supertech is probably walmarts best seller because it's the cheapest thing on the shelf.
You are probably right. If it's not their # 1 selling brand, it's gotta be their # 2 at the worst.



Alot of Walmart shoppers around here fall under two segments, those who buy generic, and the ones who buy the cheapest non generic (the cheapest step above)

I guarantee walmarts biggest selling oils are something along the lines of Supertech (the people who buy the cheapest generic whatever) and QSGB (as it is the cheapest non generic on the shelf)

There biggest selling filters are Supertechs and Fram. These also follow that same pattern, ones a generic and ones the next avaliable cheap non generic.

Coincidently, everytime I go to Walmart, these are always the products in that aisle with the most out of stock selections. You'll see an entire shelf filled with Mobil 1 and Royal Purple, as well as Fram Ultras and Bosch D+'s with maybe one or two missing, but theres always movement at the cheaper areas, less stock on hand of the cheaper selections on the shelf.


This doesn't just apply to motor oil. Go to Walmart at night when they're stocking you'll see how much something like Walmart Generic soup sells, then your next non generic such as cambells sell, meanwhile they dont even have to stock something like progresso.

Theres a bigger market for Economy products (generic equivalents) and Standard products (the household name product thats old faithful, affordable, Cambells soup, ragu spaghetti sauce) when compared to the Performance market (royal purple, Bosch distance plus, progresso soup, bertoli spaghetti sauce)

This being said, things like Amsoil, Schaeffers, redline, etc are more small market exclusive. Theyre a name brand that isnt name brand marketed like Pennzoil or valvoline. They arent relying on big market consumers such as the soccer mom that gets lube jobs at jiffy lube or valvoline quick change, they're relying on a small segment (offroading market, racing, Tim Taylor types) to go online and look at what's best for their jeep, mustang, etc.. they usually end up here.





Well put.
 
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
Originally Posted by Shannow
RP have a few Jewels in their lineup of mediocre products...back when they had a comparative data sheet, this was obvious.
I'm not disputing that it's a quality oil but how much better is it than the other name-brand oils or even Supertech ? And even if better, is it just overkill better ? Then there's the higher cost....


Actually, what I meant was that hen they had their comparative data sheet available, the mojority of it looked pretty ho hum...bar a couple of jewels...nothing wrong with supertech...and I wouldn't have paid the RP penalty for (particularly e.g.) the 5W30
 
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