Running head BP OIL .docx

Running head: BP OIL
1
PAGE
18
BP OIL
BP Oil: Marketing to Repair the DamageAuthors
NameAmerican Public UniversityDate
Abstract
This marketing plan focuses on the repair of BP’s brand image
that was negatively impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
in the Gulf of Mexico. The main focus is to market via:
television, billboards, magazine, and social media to consumers.
The company’s message is to go over its increased safety and
risk management efforts and also the research to ensure that
spills do not happen in the future. Additionally, the company
will place Electric Vehicle Charging Ports at all of their
gasoline stations and will also have a new low carbon fuel that
will be available at their stations in 2014. This will draw new
and old consumers as they switch to lower emission and more
fuel efficient vehicles. BP is at the top of their market in
alternative fuel and energy technology and consumers will
appreciate that BP is changing with them and continuing to
provide quality products that meet their needs.BP Oil:
Marketing to Repair the Damage
British Petroleum’s (commonly known as BP) discovery of oil
in the Gulf of Mexico in 2009 brought them to the top three of
oil producers in the United States, reaching a goal of 300,000
barrels of oil per day (Reed, 2009). This discovery, although
very profitable to BP, also lead to the Deepwater Horizon
Catastrophe on April 20, 2010 where a drilling rig exploded off
of the coast of Louisiana. It took BP three months to be able to
seal the pipeline while excessive amounts of oil were gushing
into the Gulf’s water. Luc Bardin, BP’s Chief Marketing Officer

conceded that the company would have a difficult road ahead to
repair the damage done by the spill in the Golf; for the first
time the company is not at the top of its market (Durrani, 2010).
BP is a company that has marketed green initiative and positive
environmental impact; the company had “flooded the media
with advertisements showing solar panels, windmills and
waving fields of grass without a drop of oil in sight” for nearly
ten year prior to the spill (Daley, 2010). Green marketing for
BP pulled blinders onto consumer’s eyes, shielding them from
the image of it being one of the largest oil producers in the
United States. The green marketing initiative for BP Oil was
very successful – I am not sure many other oil companies could
have the population believing that they were a green company.
BP’s white gloves were oil soaked as soon as some of the
consequences of the oil spill began to emerge in the media and
this significantly damaged their brand image with consumers.
This environmental disaster brought a lot of negative publicity
to BP and the company faced heavy criticism from both
consumers and the government (Harlow, 2011). BP’s social
responsibility and ethics have even come into question, many
debating whether it is ethical for a company to market
themselves green if in fact they are not (Balmer, 2011). Green
marketing is no longer going to be enough for BP to sustain and
to regain the public’s trust. BP needs a new marketing plan that
will focus on gaining back some of what was lost in the tragic
Deepwater Horizon Catastrophe. BP needs a plan that will not
hide behind green marketing or ignore past mistakes. The focus
of this marketing plan is to repair BP’s brand image, regain the
trust of consumers, and to provide some innovation to keep pace
with changing technology.
Situational Analysis
BP Oil is still working on recovering from the Deepwater
Horizon oil spill in 2010. Consumers still have a bad taste in

their mouth from the spill and the brand image needs to be
revamped with new positive associations. BP Oil has been in the
public eye a great deal since the oil spill. Although the image
portrayed has not made BP look like a shining star, the publicity
has kept their name in consumer’s minds. Luckily the company
is still strong, but marketing needs to take the spotlight away
from the actual spill (and its negative effects) and find a
different positive focus for the company to aid in complete
revival within the market. BP will distinguish itself from other
oil companies by showing that it is not going to hide from past
mistakes; BP will continue research on long term effects of the
spill and by focusing on ways to improve safety and risk out on
the oil rigs and taking action to do so. BP Oil will continue to
be committed to giving aid to help restore the environment and
economy of the Gulf. The company no longer needs to hang
their head in shame over what happened, they need to show
consumers that they are taking action to ensure that something
like this does not happen again. Additionally, BP will also be
moving forward with innovative technology to find cleaner fuel
options and to provide consumers with energy alternatives.
Market Summary
BP Oil knows a lot of information about their target markets.
The company knows what types of consumer or company
attributes make a good customer. BP will use this information to
find out what consumers are looking for in an oil company and
also discover what needs to be done to regain trust. BP focuses
on a global target market who utilizes fuel and energy.
Market Demographics
The profile for the typical consumer is anyone who uses fuel or
energy.
Geographics. BP oil is a global company that ideally would like
to target people of every geographic location. The company is
already present on every continent with the exception of

Antarctica (BP).
Demographics. According to a Rasmussen poll, demographics
that favored BP the most were white males, those over the age
of 65, conservatives, and republicans (See Figure 1) (Nelson,
2010). Marketing will continue to strengthen the bond with
these demographics, but it will also focus on building a
relationship with other demographics that do not currently
support BP Oil. The company would like to strengthen support
from a wider variety of races, liberals, and those in the age
group of 16 - 26. By expanding the favor of additional
demographics the change in consumer’s opinions will increase
positive brand recognition and generate additional sales and
revenue for the company.
Market Needs
BP Oil is providing the market with petroleum products at
competitive prices that will help consumers get where they are
going (BP). Additionally, BP Oil is working on the forefront of
creating new sustainable energy technology to bring consumers
with the newest energy resources on the market. The company
is responding to consumer’s needs by its efforts to: enhancing
safety and risk management, supporting long-term oil spill
research, providing consumers a competitive priced quality
product, and using innovative technology to find a sustainable
energy for years to come.
Market Trends
BP will continue to push innovation and will keep up with the
current market trends by adding Electric Vehicle Charging Ports
at all of their gasoline stations. Additionally, BP plans to have a
low carbon fuel available at their stations as early as 2014 (BP).
One of the big marketing pushes will be towards those with
electric cars and desire for low carbon fuels – the potential for
growth through this is quite large, especially if BP is the only
company with these things available to consumers on the

market.
Market Growth
There will not be an increase in demand for petroleum products;
oil, especially gasoline has been heavily used for a long
time.There is however, potential for market share growth
because BP Oil has the capability to win back consumers that
have strayed away from the brand. Additionally, as consumers
purchase more alternative fuel vehicles, there will be strong
market growth in the products that make those cars run (low-
carbon fuel, electric, etc) and BP will be there to provide these
products to consumers.
SWOT Analysis
The following SWOT analysis pinpoints the Strengths and
Weaknesses of the company as well as the Opportunities and
Threats the BP may have to face.
Strengths. One of the biggest strengths of BP oil is that it is one
of the top three largest oil producers globally (BP). The
company is also very involved in innovation, providing new
products with changing times and demands. BP has also
survived the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, this could have easily
destroyed any other company; BP’s immediate action and
corporate strategy helped keep the company on its feet during
that challenge. Lastly, BP has excellent brand recognition with
consumers.
Weaknesses. The negative associations with the brand image are
a serious weakness for the company right now, mostly due to
the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill. This was not the first incident
for the company where proper precautions had not taken place;
however, the company is stepping up its safety and risk
management to ensure that things like this do not happen again
(BP). Hopefully, BP can turn this weakness into a strength by
setting new safety standards in their workplace.
Opportunities. BP has a lot of opportunities. Their investment in
new and innovative technologies could prove to be the next big

thing in sustainable energy. The company also has a lot of
consumers that they have the opportunity to win back with the
right strategic plan and marketing initiatives. Additionally, BP
has special technology to enable them to find new oil reservoirs
under Earth’s surface to help them increase the amount of oil
produced and this will help them move closer to the top spot in
oil production (BP).
Threats. The main threats for BP are competitors stealing their
market share and also another catastrophic oil spill. If BP has
another major incident they may lose consumers that have no
already strayed to another company. Additionally, with the
increased risk the government has been increasing fines and
penalties for the company.
Competition
BP Oil has many competitors in their market. Some of the other
top oil producers are: Exxon Mobil, Shell, PetroChina, and
Petroleo Brasileiro (BP). There will always be competition in
this market. First, there is competition between all of the oil
companies to find the next oil reserve to drill and then they are
competing for government, companies, and consumers to buy
their products. BP has very advanced technology to ensure that
they continue to find quality reserves in a scientific efficient
manner. By sheer volume of oil produced they have been a
quality product and are well established with governments,
companies, and consumers around the world. There is no cause
for concern over any one company absorbing BP’s market share.
Product Offering
BP Oil offers several products to consumers: natural gas,
biofuels, oil, liquid petroleum (for homes), chemicals (for
making clothing, plastic, detergent, etc), and energy (BP). The
company’s diverse portfolios help keep the company strong and
enables them find ways to meet almost every consumer’s needs.
Keys to Success

BP’s has several keys to success. First, BP is ahead of other
oil/energy producers in creating new technology to create a
cost-effective, sustainable bio fuel and energy source. This will
offer consumers something that the competition cannot provide
them with. BP needs to ensure that a major spill does not
happen again in the future and also repair the brand image with
consumers.
Critical Issues
BP Oil is well established as a company, however, they need to
repair their brand image due to the impact that the Deepwater
Horizon oil had on it. This is the biggest issue the company will
face in the next year. Additionally, the company needs to take
appropriate steps to ensure that another catastrophic spill does
not happen again.
Marketing Strategy
The key to the marketing strategy is to engage BP’s target
audience in an effort to reshape the brand image and regain
trust. BP has a very large volume of oil produced each year and
could cover the majority of the market if there were no
competition. Additionally, BP has products that are useful to
every market segment. Marketing efforts will be widespread
throughout each possible segment.
Mission
BP Oil’s mission is “to contribute to providing sustainable
energy solutions and fuels, chemical products and services to
improve the quality of people's lives in the 21st century and
beyond” (BP). By making new sustainable energy and fuel
products available to consumers, continuing to maintain an
incident free record, and by doing some strong marketing, BP
will create a network of consumers loyal to the brand.
Marketing Objectives
The main marketing objectives are: bringing back consumers

that strayed after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, maintain
growth each quarter, and increase positive brand image for the
company.
Financial Objectives
The company’s financial objectives are: to increase cash flow
by 50% by the end of 2014 (only half of this increase should be
from an end in the Deepwater Horizon payments), continue
investing in alternative energy research, and continue to be
committed to the Gulf restoration projects.
Target Markets
An increase in population (as estimated in BP’s 2030 Outlook)
is directly correlated to an increase in the amount on energy
required to sustain the population. This means that the need for
oil and energy products is not going to decrease; in fact there
will be a significant increase. BP is going to target typical
consumers that utilize gasoline in their vehicles as well as those
who have moved onto alternative fuel vehicles. They are going
to do this by adding an Electric Vehicle Charging Ports at all of
their gasoline stations. This will create a niche in the market
that BP can only fill for consumers – there are not any other
fuel companies that are providing this to consumers on a wide
basis. With the increased costs of gasoline and the stricter
regulations on emissions standards there will be more
consumers purchasing fuel alternative cars and if BP is one of
the only places that consumers can charge their electric vehicles
or fill up with alternative fuels they will see an increase of up
to 85% of the market (an estimate).
Positioning
BP will position itself as the oil company that is championing
the cause of alternative fuels and providing them within reach
to consumers, giving them the possibility of switching up to an
alternative fuel vehicle to save on fuel costs. This will be
achieved by strong research in alternative fuels, having BP’s

low carbon fuel be ready for the market in 2014, and by strong
brand imaging.
Strategies
The main focus on strategy is to restore the brand image of BP.
The best way to go about this is to show the changes that BP
has made to its risk management and safety programs –
consumers need to be aware of all of the extra efforts the
company has made to ensure that another catastrophic oil spill
does not take place. Additionally, it will be beneficial to
showcase the continued support of the economic and
environmental restoration of the Gulf and also the continued
research on how to prevent and/or repair something like the
Deepwater Horizon spill again. Once consumers are again
associating BP with positive things, the company will be able to
regain the consumers that they have lost. Then BP can then
position itself as the frontrunner in alternative energy and fuels.
When consumers go to make the change BP is the company that
they will automatically rely on to fulfill those needs. This will
secure the consumers now and in the future.
Marketing Program
BP Oil’s marketing program will use the following approaches
to: pricing, distribution, advertising, and customer service.
· Pricing. The pricing will be based on competitive market value
of barrel price. Additionally, for innovative energy options and
alternative fuel, BP is going to price them so that they are
economical for the average user to enable more consumers to be
able to purchase the new technology.
· Distribution. The gasoline and alternative fuels at BP stations
will be direct to consumers, however, other products like home
fuels or solar panels will distributed through other retailers.
· Advertising and Promotion. Several different methods will be
used for the advertising efforts. BP will utilize television, social

media, magazines and their website for the promotion of their
products.
· Customer Service. BP will have an excellent customer service
team; the goal will be for low wait time and very knowledgeable
staff providing a quick response to any questions or issues.
Marketing Research
BP has a very well recognized brand. This will be a good
advantage because the company does not have to start from
scratch with its marketing – the consumer already knows the
company and the message in the advertising will stick more
clearly in their mind. This will enable the consumer to create
new positive brand associations at a more rapid pace.
The other really positive thing that BP has going for them is
that there is a great need within the market for alternative
energy options. There are a couple out there currently that are
either too pricy or they don’t go far enough without a charge.
With BP being at the forefront of alternative energy research
with a low carbon fuel option in 2014 they are going to be at the
top of their market.
Financials
This section will offer a financial overview of BP related to
company health. BP will address marketing costs, cash flow
forecast, and its financials year end 2011.
Year end 2011
The year end of 2011 ended much better than 2010 due to the
oil spill. Although the company had not fully recovered from
the Deepwater Horizon oil spill it showed signs of improvement
since a lot of the payments and costs that were associated with
the spill had ended. See Figure 3.
Marketing Costs
The marketing costs for BP immediately after the oil spill
soared to nearly $100 Million per year (BP). BP plans to reduce
this to $75 Million for 2013 and then down to $40 Million for

2014. There was an increased need to marketing and public
relations after the spill. Currently the company needs to
continue an aggressive marketing campaign to re-build a
positive brand image. After re-established the company will
taper the marketing funds back to normal.
Cash Flow Forecast
BP forecasts that its cash flow will increase up to 50% by 2014
(BP). This is because both the trust payments to the Deepwater
Horizon spill will be complete and because the company expects
its sales to increase by 25% (See Figure 4). We will plan to use
half of this for growth and the other half for research.
Controls
The purpose for BP’s marketing plan is to serve as a guide for
the company to keep them on track with their goals. The
company will frequently monitor: positive brand recognition
with consumers, company revenue both quarterly and annually,
company expenses both quarterly and annually, progress
towards the new low carbon fuel being market ready in 2014,
use of Electric Vehicle Charging Ports at stations, and research
and design in new technology.
Implementation
The marketing plan discusses many important elements to help
the company reach their goals. All of them need to be
implemented in a timely and efficient manner, beginning with
marketing to consumers and installing the Electric Charging
Ports at all stations.
Marketing Organization
Luc Bardin is BP’s Chief Marketing Officer and will be
overseeing the marketing team through the implementation of
this plan.
Contingency Planning
Difficulties and Risks. One of the biggest difficulties that the

company will need to overcome is the negative brand image that
they received from the oil spill. Additionally, the other risks are
that consumers will not be interested in their low carbon
gasoline or other alternative fuels/energy supplies after BP has
invested millions into them.
Worst-Case Risks. Worst case the company may not be able to
fully repair its brand image and will not re-gain all of its
consumers back and that its alternative energy research was a
waste.
References
Balmer, J., Powell, S., & Greyser, S. (2011). Explicating
Ethical Corporate Marketing. Insights from the BP Deepwater
Horizon Catastrophe: The Ethical Brand that Exploded and then
Imploded. Journal of Business Ethics, 102(1), 1-14.
BP. (n.d.). BP Homepage. Retrieved from:
<www.bp.com/>Daley, J. (2010). GREEN
FALLOUT. Entrepreneur, 38(8), 72-75.
Durrani, A. (2010). BP faces up to brand damage. Marketing
(00253650), 1.
Harlow, W., Brantley, B. C., & Harlow, R. (2011). BP initial
image repair strategies after the Deepwater Horizon spill. Public
Relations Review, 37(1), 80-83.
Morrissey, B. (2010). BP Gets Aggressive. Adweek, 51(25), 4.
Nelson, J. (2010). Who are the 22% of Americans who view BP
favorably? Retrieved from: <http://grist.org/article/who-are-the-
22-of-americans-who-view-bp-favorably/>
Reed, S. (2009). BP KEEPS ROLLING THE
DICE. Businessweek, (4146), 46-49.
Why BP's brand can now move on. (2011). Marketing
(00253650), 27.Figure 1
Note. This was data from Rasmussen’s poll on how many people
in the United States still favor BP after the Deepwater Horizon
oil spill. Nelson (2010) reviewed the information to generate
what demographics were associated with the continued support
of BP. Graph was retrieved from: <http://grist.org/article/who-

are-the-22-of-americans-who-view-bp-favorably/>.
Figure 2
The figure shows an estimate for the world’s population
increase in the year 2030 and how much of an increase in the
amount of energy required to sustain the additional people.
Graph was retrieved from:
<http://www.bp.com/assets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_e
nglish/set_branch/STAGING/cocomm_assets/bpin2011/downloa
ds/BP_Annual_Report_and_Form_20F_2011.pdf>
Figure 3
This shows the 2011 yearend financial performance for BP.
Retrieved from:
nglish/set_branch/STAGING/common_assets/bpin2011/downloa
Figure 4
This is the estimate for the operating cash flow for 2014.
Retrieved from:
nglish/set_branch/STAGING/common_assets/bpin2011/downloa
Electronic Marketing Plan
2

The company described is a giant electronics company LG with
a product innovation which desires to reach new markets and
will requires a unique marketing strategy to penetrate new
markets. The new improvements encompass a new type of
screening for electronic devices that are flexible and can easily
be rolled like paper. This system targets the much-needed
convenience for electronic device uses in the changing dynamic
society today.
The first initial steps of reaching a new market with the
improved innovative ideas of the market expansion strategy
would include adequate research. This would enable businesses
to develop their markets sufficiently to achieve specific goals
and compete effectively with the current diverse business outfit.
At the onset of the new marketing development strategy, the
existing company must engage in idea generation, evaluation,
the definition of the specific terms of the idea, strategic
analysis, and the field testing and concept actualization in the
market. (Zahra et al, 2011).
The organization conducts a strategic analysis of the new
market to come up with the actual market demand framework. In
this way, there is a need to define the specific requirements and

customer behavior of the new market such that the improved
status of the product best suits the demands of the general
market. The main goal is to come up with an absolute marketing
strategy that would make the product more appealing to a wider
population within the area involved in the marketing strategy.
The concept is then tested in the market to determine its success
and requirements for improvement. Ideally, this must be done
after the completion of the idea screening phase. According to
(Sassen,2016), it is important to identify the areas within the
vast market where the new strategies would work most effective
to capitalize in the desired areas. Finally, the new market
strategy can be launched and commercialized when all
conditions are met by the design.
References
Sassen, S. (2016). The Global City: Strategic Site, New
Frontier. In Managing Urban Futures (pp. 89-104). Routledge.
Zahra, S. A., Ireland, R. D., & Hitt, M. A. (2011). International
expansion by new venture firms: International diversity, mode
of market entry, technological learning, and performance.

Academy of Management journal, 43(5), 925-950.

Running head BP OIL .docx

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Running head BP OIL .docx

Similar to Running head BP OIL .docx (20)

More from toddr4

More from toddr4 (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Running head BP OIL .docx