What Does Your Innertube Say About You? The Unexpected Power of Subtle Branding

One company is revolutionizing the most boring cycling product with nothing more than a touch of paint. Standard butyl inner tubes are really boring, but they are still one of the most sold cycling-related products. There are very few things that brands can do to set their inner tubes apart. Still, one of the biggest tube distributors has been doing something that sets their tubes apart, and it is a low-cost way for them to sell more tubes. This is that story, with some takeaways that can be applied to businesses of any size.

Teravail is owned by QBP, who are the biggest cycling component distributors here in the US, and they sell a lot of tubes. For the last few years, Teravail has been marking the stems of their tubes with a little bit of green paint. This is the most successful example of external branding on a butyl inner tube in the cycling industry.

The humble inner tube is the most commoditized product that we have in the cycling industry. This means that there is virtually no difference between any tube on the market. For this reason, no single company can charge more for a tube than what the competition is selling them for because ultimately the consumer will always choose the cheaper one.

The effect of having a Teravail tube on a bike is that the green mark on the stem is sending a message to the keen observer that this bike frequents a reputable bike shop. This can be deduced because Teravail tubes are only available to shops who have a business account with QBP. This means the green-marked tube has gone through a bike shop at some point, and is not just from a big box store like Walmart.

This green mark is an example of product branding. Just like how a T-shirt with a logo on it sends a message to the world about the person wearing the shirt, a bike with a green mark on the valve stem says something about the bike. Therefore, it is safe to assume just like how any given fashion brand can charge more for their T-shirt because of the brand image, Teravail can use their branding to set their tubes apart from the competition and in doing so sell more tubes.

So, what is the larger lesson here? I have two takeaways from this case study.

Firstly, even when a product (or service) seems un-brandable, like an inner tube, there is likely a way to brand it. In the context of a bike shop, things like tune-ups or bike fittings commonly go unbranded. However, there are some less obvious ways a shop can brand these services. For one thing, shops could have a small sticker made that can be placed in a discrete location on the bike that has the shop logo, and say something along the lines of: "Fit/Service Guarantee, come back if there are any issues!" This would send the message that the shop stands behind their work. Most cyclists would be honored to have this sticker on their bike because they would want to be seen as the type of person who supports a shop that is confident and stands behind the quality of their products.

Secondly, branding like this only works if the brand represents a quality that the customer wants to be associated with. The other example of branding on the inner tube valve stem is the bright green valve cap that comes with Slime inner tubes. This branding has been less successful in the cycling world, because the Slime tubes are not loved, to say the least. Most bike mechanics and even cyclists that I know have had at least one messy experience with a Slime tube; this experience would be more acceptable if the product worked in the first place. As a result of this, unlike the green Teravail mark, the Slime valve cap is not something that carries pride on the bike. Hence, it is not something that sends a positive message to the onlooker of the bike. This can be applied to the bike shop example by promoting the biggest selling point of brick-and-mortar stores: the service. The store's branding should send the message of service and community, and avoid being associated with the potentially high price that can come with traditional retail stores.

In conclusion, if done right, branding can be an inexpensive way to share what your business stands for, and in doing so set your products apart from your closest competitors.