Hoping to distinguish its Havoline from that sold by Shell, ChevronTexaco last week unveiled an enhanced version of its flagship motor oil.
ChevronTexaco officials called the reformulation a continuation of Texacos efforts to keep Havoline a premium product. They also acknowledged that the most immediate competitor is the other company using the same brand.
Were always trying to distinguish our product from the competition, said Peter Fuentes-Afflick, brand support manager for North America, in this case, specifically from Shells offering.
Havoline is the fourth best-selling motor oil in the United States, ranking behind Pennzoil, Quaker State and Valvoline. ChevronTexaco and Shell have both been selling Havoline products since February, when Shell bought out Texacos stake in Equilon, a downstream joint venture that included both partners lubes businessesin the United States. The sale, required by the Federal Trade Commission as a condition of Texacos merger with Chevron, gave Shell temporary rights to the Havoline brand through July of 2003. ChevronTexacos rights are permanent.
Even before the introduction of enhanced Havoline, ChevronTexaco had reformulated Havoline products, along with other Texaco lubes that it continues to market; the Equilon buyout gave Shell rights to existing formulas. Staff engineer Mark Sztenderowicz said the first reformulation was similar to the Equilon product. The new version, available in SAE 5W-30, 10W-30, 10W-40 and 20W-50, -30 and -40 grades, uses a different additive formulation to provide greater wear protection.
There is no new industry specification requiring performance upgrades right now, but regardless, our customers look to us to provide a premium quality oil, Sztenderowicz said. When we looked at the areas we could improve upon, [wear protection] stood out as onewhere we could most readily make an improvement.
ChevronTexaco also wants to underscore for customers that, at least for the moment, there are different producers selling different Havoline products. ChevronTexaco believes that Shell has benefited from a Havoline NASCAR sponsorship and Havoline advertising campaigns paid for by ChevronTexaco.
Shell officials could not be reached for comment.
If ChevronTexaco can distinguish its Havoline from Shells, it may keep more of the fruits of such efforts for itself. At the same time, Fuentes-Afflick said, ChevronTexaco will be investing in an asset in which it has a long-term interest.
We feel that since we will have full rights to the brand come August 2003, we have had to do the yeomans job of propping up the brand, he said. We havent observed similar support from Shell.