Castrol Oil in Vietnam

Kara Allinson
Castrol Oil has become known in the lubricant and oil arena by branding itself as the leading,
luxury oil brand through a unique positioning strategy and creative marketing and advertising
techniques that are tailored to the local market. Examples of this branding can be seen in any
Castrol campaign or marketing collateral and in which taglines such as Its more than just oil,
its liquid engineering, and Its more than just a machine, its your livelihood.It is because of
this marketing strategy that the name Castrol is synonymous with greatness, elitism and power.
One look at the company website and you are immersed in the brand awareness - not simply
the logo or the green and red coloring, but the images that depict hard-working farmers in the
field, technical engineers and scientists in the lab and race car drivers ripping up pavement. But
this marketing is not new. In fact, the marketing started with the creator of Castrol Oil back in
the early 1900s - before marketing was even a concrete concept. According to the company
website, Charles Wakefield, the founder, was said to market Castrol Oil by publishing the race
times of cars that used their products. This is the practice that put Castrol Oil on the map.
Since its inception, the technology has changed, the oils and products themselves have evolved
and Castrol Oils product line has grown, but the core branding principles of the company
remain solid. In the most recent history, the company has expanded from the original United
Kingdom and United States markets to developing nations such as Asia and Vietnam. In this
essay, I will focus on the Castrols marketing tactics in developing nations such as Vietnam and
contrast them to marketing tactics used in developed countries.
Castrols expansion into Asia
In the early 1900s, Castrol oil sales were specific to the United Kingdom and the United States.
But, as competitors in these arenas grew and Castrols high performance product with the high
price tag product lost market share to competitors Shell, Mobil and British Petroleum, Castrol
looked elsewhere. Asia was seen as a key market for Castrol because of their emerging middle
class and the industrys lack of competition there. The expansion of Castrols product to
emerging markets is considered one of their greatest successes (Ashworth 1996).
In 2002, Castrol launched an advertising campaign in Asia that featured British soccer star David
Beckman. According to Keith Hales, Castrols managing director in Thailand; this was the first
time that soccer and Castrol Oil were linked. The two were paired together in the campaign
because Castrol and Beckham were both associated with attributes such as "world class,"
"powerful" and "winning". The advertisement helped Castrol increase sales and visibility
(Intarakomalyasut 2002).
In 2006, Castrol was enjoying success but knew that there were other emerging markets in
which to expand. Launched by Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Singapore, a campaign for markets
including China, Malaysia, Germany, Brazil and Argentina was created. This campaign was built
on the idea that bikes were the livelihood of those cultures and utilized the tagline Its more
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than a bike and a new product called Power1 was developed that added increased power to
motorbikes (Castrol campaign).
Vietnam
Vietnam is a market that Castrol was said to have built from scratch. Since cars were not as
prevalent and customers had much less expendable income in Vietnam than they did in the
West, Castrol knew that shiny magazine advertisements would not be effective. In this market,
they had to think outside of the box (Ashworth 1996).
So, what exactly did they do? It may sound elementary, but their marketers targeted their
audience by placing signs and billboards where the Vietnamese would see them - on roadways
and at roadside garages. They developed a unique and catchy slogan that in Vietnamese means
best quality lubricants. And, they also employed grassroots campaigns in order to spread the
word to as many people as possible by giving out bumper sticker for motorcyclists. As a result
of these efforts, studies show that nearly 99 percent of all Vietnamese people are familiar with
Castrol Oil (Hill 2011).
Although the tactics may have been different in Vietnam than they were in Western cultures,
the branding and imagery still conveyed the same message - that Castrol Oil was a premium
product. The thought was that if Castrol could start selling to motorcyclists and penetrate the
culture with its slogan of best quality lubricants that when these motorcyclists trade up and
buy cars, they will also buy Castrol. Castrol is positive that developing the brand and awareness
early in an emerging market is critical to the enduring success of Castro (Ashworth 1996).
India
Castrol India (now part of BP) is the second largest lubricant company in India and is the
number one in lubricant retail, including five manufacturing plants across India (Premier
producers).
Thailand
Tactics similar to those used in Vietnam were also employed in Thailand. In Thailand, Castrol
once again capitalized on the motorcyclist market. In Thailand, the aim was to sell the Castrol
products in their jiffy stores and pit stops created in high-traffic residential areas as a quick
fix. Jet wanted to build a chain of service stations with Jiffy convenience stores, and wanted
Castrol as their premium brand to help them with quick customer recognition (Andrews 2003).
Recent marketing
In more recent news, Castrol Oil has jumped on the South Africa bandwagon, capitalizing on a
history-making situation. Castrol Oil is a very large sponsor of the Fifa World Cup, which took
place for the first time in its history in Africa. This was a monumental statement for a company
who thrived because of its globalization and especially its marketing tactics in developing
countries. Castrols presence at the World Cup also solidifies its brand as a competitive, strong
product (Arrigo 2010).

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Castrols ability to adapt its marketing techniques to the market in which they are selling, their
ability to think of new and innovative ways to market their product, their strong brand name
and audience recognition and generation of first mover advantage by expanding their products
into developing markets has consistently helped Castrol be successful throughout its more than
100 year existence.

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Works Cited

Andrews, T. (2003). The Changing Face of Multinationals in Southeast Asia

http://books.google.com/books?id=YHFSwRi5jAC&pg=PA290&lpg=PA290&dq=castrol+
success+in+thailand&source=bl&ots=J1dZT89VwX&sig=_gvEkpx7rFwkM54GRCh4ndU
VHk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=PEvfT5fvGIKL6gHq5rmkCQ&ved=0CHEQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&
q=castrol%20success%20in%20thailand&f=false
Arrigo, Y. (2010). Corporate Kick-Off. Conference and Incentive Travel, , 20-21.
http://search.proquest.com/docview/523023036?accountid=8285
Ashworth, J. (1996, Jul 20). High-Speed Life Oiling the Wheels of Castrol; A working
week for: Tim stevenson;profile. The Times, pp. 1-1.
http://search.proquest.com/docview/318616765?accountid=8285
Castrol campaign to build on repositioning. (2006, Aug 25). Campaign Asia - Pacific, pp.
2-2. http://search.proquest.com/docview/206305363?accountid=8285
Hill, Charles. International Business: Competing in the Global Marketplace. New York:
McGraw-Hill Companies (2011)
Intarakomalyasut, N. (2002, May 15). Castrol, English Foot Ball Sta Join Forces in
Advertising Campaign. McClatchy - Tribune Business News, pp. 1-1.
http://search.proquest.com/docview/462047195?accountid=8285
Premier producers. (2006). Asiamoney, , 1-83.
http://search.proquest.com/docview/206612764?accountid=8285

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