Speedway Gas - Competitive Landscape Part 1
Speedway Gas is the nation's second-largest convenience store chain. Among its advantages are its reputation and the way they reward customers; its ethics and customer convenience is what makes it a leader in the market. Sunoco is another convenience store chain, which is an environmental company with more than 5,000 gas station locations in the US and it is also the official fuel of NASCAR. Below are details of these companies' competitive advantage, strengths, perceived weaknesses, revenue, and geographical presence.
Speedway Gas
Competitive Advantage
- Prices: one of Speedway's missions is to enable the customer make the most of every dollar he spends. For that reason, they offer very affordable prices and below the market price, which is an advantage that the company has over the competition. This strategy attracts customers of all social classes, resulting in the rapid growth of customers.
- Rewards Program: It is the way how Speedway says thank you to its loyal customers. To join the program all the customer has to do is to stop by one of the Speedway stores and register as a member. After that, every time the person makes a purchase, he will receive points that he can redeem for gift cards, merchandise, and many more.
- Mobile App: Nowadays most companies are migrating and changing the old format/platforms/services in which they offered their products to fulfill clients' expectations. Speedway has its mobile app available to both Apple and Android users. Besides, as a way to encourage customers to download it, they offer 500 bonus points when a client makes his first purchase through the app. Some of the app benefits are the ease in which customers can find stores near them, QR scan for gift cards, and personalized stats.
- Cards: Speedway offers a very varied range of cards for clients, including prepaid, reloadable, and credit cards. Some of them allow customers to use them in stores that accept Visa and Mastercard. Apart from that, every time the client makes a purchase with the card, he gains points for using the card, and for loyalty, that is to say, the person gains 2x more points than those who do not have it. Speedy Rewards Mastercard, Speedway FleetCard, Speedway Pay Card, and Prepaid Reloadable Debit Card are the cards offered by the company.
- Social Media Presence: Despite being a gas station chain, Speedway is a company with a strong social media presence. In fact, the company has more than 1 million followers on Facebook. They like to post memes, quotes, and funny pictures, as well as information about the company to keep their followers engaged.
- Charity: The company likes to make its customers' life better making a positive impact on everyone's life. They have been helping children and families in need for more than 20 years. Currently, they work along with the Children Miracle Network and United Way.
Strengths
- Customer Convenience: Speedway receives 2 million customers every day, and they say is because at Speedway, customers are always first. When they create products for clients they check if this will be convenient to customers or if it would add value to their lives. This is one of the reasons Speedway is very successful, and that is one of its biggest strengths.
- Nation's Second Largest Company Owned and Operated Convenience Store Chain: Without a doubt, having that position makes Speedway reach more customers. The company has been operating for more than 15 years and that, together with the position it has, generates trust in customers.
- Reputation: Speedway is identified as a company that works as transparently as possible, which is governed by North American laws to provide excellent service. The company also claims that all its operations go hand in hand with ethics. Besides, customers have made sure to spread the word regarding how good the company is.
- Outstanding Service: Speedway has a customer focus. For that reason, they make sure to provide customers with several ways to express themselves. As an example, they have a customer service team, in which people can leave feedback to the company. Another one is the way employees treat customers to make them feel at home.
Weaknesses
- Employees Opinions: For a company, one of the most important thing apart from making customers feel good is to make employees feel their best, because they are, for 8 or more hours every day, helping the company to function. In fact, the more satisfied the employee is with his work, the more likely he is to do stellar work. Unfortunately, Speedway's reputation at Glassdoor, a place where employees leave anonymous reviews of the companies they work for, have a total score of 2.7 stars, which leaves much to be desired. Most of the comments allege that the company does not give breaks to employees, and that they receive a bad pay. This fact indisputably affects the reputation of the company, however, they could improve by listening to workers and then take actions that benefit them.
- Store Disorganization: A report made by Mystery Shopping says that in Speedway stores, there is so much disorganization, especially when it comes to the distribution of prices. Besides, they also said that the bathrooms in the stores could be better and less dirty.
Publicly Available Revenue
Geographical Presence
- The company has its headquarter in Ohio, and it is present in 36 states, which are: "Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming".
Sunoco
Competitive Advantage
- Official Fuel: For more than 50 years, Sunoco has been the official fuel of NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA, and Grassroots. This fact is something that not many companies can compete with, especially when Sunoco uses the same fuel for both professional clients and day-to-day customers. Many customers express joy and confidence when using the fuel of professional drivers.
- Environmental Company: Sunoco not only seeks to satisfy and fill the lives of its customers with joy, but in the process, it is responsible for taking care of the environment as well. Sunoco is considered an environmental company, which is great especially now that people are demanding sustainability.
- Quality Fuels: Sunoco team believes that what is in the tank of a car matters a lot. The company provides top-tier fuels that adjust to everyone's needs. On their website, they have a full-page explaining to people the different fuels they offer.
- Rewards: The rewards offered by Sunoco every time someone makes a purchase are quite functional, because people can redeem their points for groceries, an excellent alternative to save a few cents. Of course, if the person wishes to redeem his points for other products like Sunoco's merchandise, it is possible too. This category also includes the two cards offered by Sunoco (Consumer Credit Card and Commercial Credit Card), because every time they are used, they earn points (they are only valid for expenses in the company).
- Sunoco App: It was launched in 2018 with the purpose of facilitating customers' transactions. On the app, customers are able to find stores near them, collect points, grocery rewards, and exclusive offers.
Strengths
- Giving Back: Children's Miracle Network Hospital, NorthTexas Food Bank, and the American Red Cross are the organizations Sunoco gives to. They have raised more than $10 million for them, and the way they have been helping the American Red Cross for 50 years is providing the fuel.
- Safe Environment for Everyone: For the company, employees are its most valuable asset. Because of that, Sunoco works tirelessly to provide its workers and customers the safest possible environment. All the techniques performed by the workers are 100% safe and do not include risks. Through this effort, the company achieves peaceful coexistence among all and manages to keep the company in a good place.
- Reputation: Sunoco has been operating since 1886, this represents an advantage for them because of everything they have learned and experienced. In addition, Sunoco expanded internationally in 1950 with the purpose of producing fuel in other countries and at the same time, assessing market differences. All that knowledge makes people trust the company.
Weaknesses
- Website: A company's website must be designed with the user in mind. If a website is not user-friendly, or it is a bit complicated to manage, the potential customer loses interest and goes to another page to buy. For example, the Speedway website is very functional, and quite user-friendly. One of the most notable weaknesses of the Sunoco website is that formatting makes reading a bit difficult. As a result, the website receives 80,000 monthly visitors and Speedway has more than 1 million.
- Social Media: The presence of Sunoco in social networks is quite low. They only have two accounts, one from Facebook where they have 300,000 followers, and another from Instagram which only has 2,000 followers. Sunoco is missing the opportunity to attract new customers online. One of the possible ways in which it can improve is by conducting dynamics or training and thus attracting customers.
Publicly Available Revenue
Geographical Presence
- Sunoco has more than 5,000 gas station locations in more than 30 states of the US. The following are some of them: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, California, Texas, Oklahoma, Nevada, Louisiana, Atkins, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Oahu, the Big Island of Hawaii, Maui and Kauai.