Future of Quaker State?

Quaker state seems to be there cheapy walmart brand at this point. Not knocking it, I have used it. So if there target market is cheapskates with 15 year old cars, and thickies from BITOG, no 0W-16 required.
I do agree that their oils are fine but the brand name / logo / color of the bottle etc scream old school. Maybe not cheap skate but definitely more old school than people buying the latest thin oil hybrid vehicles from Japan.

I'm sure eventually older folks would gradually upgrade to newer old cars that uses 0w16 so probably by then it will start their 0w16. I don't think they are in a hurry and waste shelf space for it yet.
 
0w16 is tiny in the DIY market.


QS is not a large distributor brand.


So there is extremely little demand for it to be put into consumer packaging right now. Why take it away from Pennzoil currently? It’s not a viscosity grade you price fight on the shelf for. It’s still a premium priced product. So no sense to put the marketing money and money into inventory, etc. into it.
 
Quaker state seems to be there cheapy walmart brand at this point. Not knocking it, I have used it. So if there target market is cheapskates with 15 year old cars, and thickies from BITOG, no 0W-16 required.
The Walmart quicklube business is not a small one, and their target market has a line out the door most days for service.

Their oil change comes with Quaker state motor oil. I used to use it all the time.
 
Quaker state seems to be there cheapy walmart brand at this point.
That's the answer in a nutshell. SOPUS has two consumer retail oil brands for gasoline cars- Pennzoil and Quaker State. They're going to position these in the market at multiple price points- QS is the "value" offering, and as such, it'll be aimed at the more value-conscious consumers. Pennzoil is the middle/high-end offering, and is positioned to aim at the people wanting something "better".

The idea is that if Joe Six-Pack goes into the Wal-Mart looking to buy some cheap/old-weight oil for his 1993 F150, he's got an option beyond SuperTech with Quaker State. If Bob Nice-Car comes in, they're going to have Pennzoil's products lined up and ready. And if someone in between comes in, they've got both.

Only marketing the 0w-16 oil to the new car people makes sense- few of them are shopping for the "value" oil for their new ride, so why bother? Same reason why they don't make Pennzoil Platinum in 10w-40 either.
 
That's the answer in a nutshell. SOPUS has two consumer retail oil brands for gasoline cars- Pennzoil and Quaker State. They're going to position these in the market at multiple price points- QS is the "value" offering, and as such, it'll be aimed at the more value-conscious consumers. Pennzoil is the middle/high-end offering, and is positioned to aim at the people wanting something "better".

T
That's how it was explained to me as well. Quaker State is like the Oldmobile of oils.
 
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Quaker state seems to be there cheapy walmart brand at this point. Not knocking it, I have used it. So if there target market is cheapskates with 15 year old cars, and thickies from BITOG, no 0W-16 required.
This is 100% what it is. Quaker State for the past several years, ever since they moved past their "high performance" marketing phase (remember almost 20 years ago when they had Q Horsepower in clear bottles, Q Torque Power, ads featuring top-fuel funnycars and off-road racing trucks, and for little while had OE Ferrari licensing in the US?) has positioned themselves as the budget brand next to "premium" Pennzoil.

Pennzoil gets way more advertising and has a modern, sleek image. Quaker State is lower priced and caters to the DIYer wanting to stretch their dollar farther. Quaker State is largely going to be after owners of older vehicles who aren't looking for a 0W-16 or 0W-8 yet, so there likely won't be a QS 0W-16 on the shelf for awhile longer.

I miss when Quaker State had that performance image. Obviously the product itself is solid regardless, but this was more exciting: https://www.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/6702425/ferrari-recommended/quaker-state
 
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Example:

Havoline has 0w16, 0w20, 0w30, 5w30, 0w40, etc. etc. etc.


Chevron Supreme has synthetic blend 5w30, 5w20, 10w30. And is *just* rolling out a full synthetic 0w20 and 5w30 this year.


Is Chevron brand going anywhere? Absolutely not. Does the Chevron brand focus on PCEO? Absolutely not. The presenter who launched the Full synthetics this year at kick off 2025, it was rather ironic that he was picked for it.


QS is an ancillary brand vs Pennzoil or even “Shell” on everything else. (Shell encompasses Rotella brand too. But all “Shell” named brands.)

So QS isn’t going anywhere. It’s just not going to have a full range of products. It costs a lot of money to support all these brands, product lines, marketing, inventory, etc.
 
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