Originally Posted By: y_p_w
Originally Posted By: Tdbo
There is a lot of dominance when you consider that the mother ship (Marathon Oil) goes at it with two marques: Speedway and Marathon Oil.
Even though most oil companies still have some company owned stations, not many can say that they operate under two brands.
Sure about that? With all the consolidation in the industry I'm pretty sure that there are a lot of oil companies that operate under two (or more) brands.
ExxonMobil is of course the most obvious. They still market as Esso in some countries. Phillips 66 has that brand, as well as Conoco and 76. Chevron has their brand, as well as Texaco and even the occasional Standard branding. BP has a variety of brand names - they still use Amoco as well as BP branding. BP used to own ARCO too, but now have some complicated relationship where they still own the ampm brand name, and operate ARCO stations in some regions under a licensing agreement. Valero operates a bunch of different brands
I'm talking US and in the same market.
You don't usually see oil companies differentiating franchisee and company stores in the same market using different marques.
To use your example of ARCO and BP, both are regional. That is why one does not see ARCO in the Midwest or on the east coast anymore.
Valero generally operates under the Valero name. There still may be an odd ball Shamrock station around (I know of one,) but everything is generally promoted as Valero on a national level. I believe they have their own chain of Mini-marts, but they still sell Valero fuel.
Conoco has a number of brands, but most of those are regional; although, there does seem to be some movement to reconstitute the brand(s) nationwide again. I know of one 76 station in Ohio. I gave up my 76 gas card when they pulled out of the state about 15 years ago.
Around here we have a few rare Exxons and Mobils. They are relatively scarce. However, they are all franchisees and one one does not see an Exxon and a Mobil on opposing corners competing around here.
My point was (and still is) that it appears Marathon is using company stores (Speedway) to compete against franchisees (Marathon.) Even though it increases their market share, I'm not sure what the advantage is to owning a Marathon station.
Originally Posted By: Tdbo
There is a lot of dominance when you consider that the mother ship (Marathon Oil) goes at it with two marques: Speedway and Marathon Oil.
Even though most oil companies still have some company owned stations, not many can say that they operate under two brands.
Sure about that? With all the consolidation in the industry I'm pretty sure that there are a lot of oil companies that operate under two (or more) brands.
ExxonMobil is of course the most obvious. They still market as Esso in some countries. Phillips 66 has that brand, as well as Conoco and 76. Chevron has their brand, as well as Texaco and even the occasional Standard branding. BP has a variety of brand names - they still use Amoco as well as BP branding. BP used to own ARCO too, but now have some complicated relationship where they still own the ampm brand name, and operate ARCO stations in some regions under a licensing agreement. Valero operates a bunch of different brands
I'm talking US and in the same market.
You don't usually see oil companies differentiating franchisee and company stores in the same market using different marques.
To use your example of ARCO and BP, both are regional. That is why one does not see ARCO in the Midwest or on the east coast anymore.
Valero generally operates under the Valero name. There still may be an odd ball Shamrock station around (I know of one,) but everything is generally promoted as Valero on a national level. I believe they have their own chain of Mini-marts, but they still sell Valero fuel.
Conoco has a number of brands, but most of those are regional; although, there does seem to be some movement to reconstitute the brand(s) nationwide again. I know of one 76 station in Ohio. I gave up my 76 gas card when they pulled out of the state about 15 years ago.
Around here we have a few rare Exxons and Mobils. They are relatively scarce. However, they are all franchisees and one one does not see an Exxon and a Mobil on opposing corners competing around here.
My point was (and still is) that it appears Marathon is using company stores (Speedway) to compete against franchisees (Marathon.) Even though it increases their market share, I'm not sure what the advantage is to owning a Marathon station.
