Bp Consumer Behavior

The oil and gas market shares are the most expensive and are in highest demand of any consumer product. The demand is sourced not only in the private sector but by the general consumer like you and I. Oil and Gas is unprecedentedly the unchallenged provider of energy resources with natural resourced energy far behind. What we purchase, how we purchase, where and when we purchase and in how much amount we buy depends on our awareness, self-concept, social and cultural background along with many other outstanding factors; the influence of consumer behaviour is meditated through perceived quality (Bryson and Daniels, 2015). The way in which a consumer decides on a product will depend on their outstanding familiarity of that product whether positive or negative; this might be the company’s corporate social responsibility and how well they portray this to their consumer. Furthermore, this will determine their evaluative cues which leads into being a self-brand congruity and social responsibility congruity. The higher level of abstraction from its product a company has made will determine the symbolic view a consumer has of them (Lam et al, 2012: 309). Articulated brand values of BP are ‘progressive, responsible, innovative and performance driven’ (BP.com, 2016). Ordinarily, a consumer’s decision of what gas and oil provider to buy would typically depend on price per garage, conversely productivity relies more on what the organisations ethical stance is, behaviour and environmental impacts. The brand associations a consumer has will define their own social reasoning and identification ultima ting in who to buy oil from ‘Re-refining is an activity with which the major oil companies have not concerned themselves, but feel it is one which, if expanded, would have a significant impact on the market’ (Researchomatic, 2010) connotations of the oil business being the dirtiest is for the continual bad press and catastrophic environmental impacts such as the Deepwater Horizon. For this reason alone, a strong positive relationship between stakeholders is vital in the continuation of their product. In the following it will be outlined the attempt(s) British Petroleum better known as BP a multi-billion ((Stice et al, 2006: 621) pound oil company are making to create a strong brand over a positive reputation and how they dealt with the Gulf of Mexico crisis. BP spends up to ‘$125 million annually on improving their brand positioning through targeted marketing Since their foundation in 1909 they have undergone numerous name changes’ (Beder, 2006: 26) as well as logo modifications to rejuvenate and update their look. …show more content…
Since the devastation of their brand positioning during the Gulf of Mexico crisis BP have worked hard to re-build themselves as well as build back their strong relationship with their consumers. BP was one of the first major transitional corporations to ‘rebrand itself as green by invoking the language of sustainability’ (Kirsch, 2010: 295), some could question as a result of public criticism of its operations and environmental impact. Back in 2000, BP were undergoing a rebrand to rejuvenate themselves (Groucutt 2005:138) and position themselves more sustainable; the new logo resembled a Sunflower, which replaced the BP shield, the company symbol for 70 years. It cost £4.6 million to design and BP Amoco will spend £132 million over two years on rebranding its stationery (L 'Etang and Pieczka, 2006:397) The huge expense was highly criticised by environmental groups such as Greenpeace who encouraged followers to dismember the new ‘greener’ logo which led to images of the logo with oil …show more content…
Since their mishap of dealing with the Deepwater Horizon crisis, BP have taken to social media uncountable amount of times to update and inform people on what is being done. Less press releases and conferences are happening on behalf of BP who are embracing more-is-better ethos of new media. According to Oliver (2007) corporations are increasingly challenged by ethical issues and corporate social responsibility (2007:77) with regards to BP their website outlines where they are held accountable and as a corporation what they are doing about it. Corporate brands and their perceived image by the audience ‘develop through consistent and positive consumer experience over time’ (Abimbola, 2009:219) where BP originally damaged their own brand image by no accountability they’ve retracted statements and are perceiving to be doing justice for the damage they caused as outlined by creating websites and the use of new