Riding on a long legacy with a loyal following of customers will only take your brand so far. Gulf Oil needed to keep driving the brand forward in order to take new customers along for the ride. We help them evolve into a modern brand that mattered to new customers.
At Bernstein-Rein, we believe retail intelligence comes from consumer insights, a true brand purpose, and half a century of unrivaled experience. We put these beliefs together to accelerate growth. This approach is called Retailigent™ – it's what drives our work every day.
Listening to how and why consumers truly utilize a category allows us to lean into audience expansion opportunities while considering how to leverage a brand to gain a larger share of wallet in an ongoing competitive landscape.
Gulf Oil enjoyed a long history of trust and dependability in the gasoline/C-Store category. However, over time the brand had become stale and was not resonating with a younger, more family-centric audience. The brand needed a stronger narrative and brand presence to help differentiate from an over-crowded and commoditized category.
People don't care about gas. They care about getting to the places they want to go. Looking at consumers' beliefs and attitudes about gas purchases, we uncovered that people aren't listening when gasoline companies talk about their fuel grades or their relationships with their customers. Consumers are looking at where they want to go and how the fuel-stop they have to make is going to get them there. Will it be convenient? Clean and well-lit? Easy to pay? Consumers want to be out living life and going where their life takes them. That journey starts at the pump.
Building on the key insight that a visit to Gulf is just the beginning of the journey, not the destination, we developed the brand idea — It All Starts Here. We focused on the things that matter most to consumers: the places they want to be and the people they want to do life with.We drove that idea home with local connections that stayed true to Gulf's legacy and heritage, while pushing the brand forward with a focus on passion and quality. The brand architecture became the strategic foundation for launching Gulf's mobile pay app Gulf Pay and provided strong extensions to partner with the Boston Celtics and Boston Red Sox. Additionally, we developed an omni-channel campaign that encouraged consumers to start their next adventure with a fill up at Gulf.And through qualitative and quantitative research, we identified a new customer segment to expand the brand messaging and acquire new customers.
Gulf saw an increase of 52% in downloads of its Gulf Pay app, establishing strong acquisition benchmarks as well as leading way to future retention efforts. Additionally, at the pump, Gulf saw a 9% increase in sales, proving that customers truly believed it all starts at Gulf.
