Marketing Strategy of British Petroleum

Company Overview

British Petroleum Plc, sometimes called BP, is one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world. The petroleum company has operations that include the exploration and production of natural gas and crude oil such as refining and manufacturing the petroleum products. Part of the operations are the construction or expansion of the facilities that can support the production, mining, and then, transporting the produced crude oil.

British Petroleum adopted some strategies in marketing the refined products, trading gas and power, and marketing liquefied natural gas since it is used in most of the households. The company’s operations has been spread in over six continents and counting more than 100 countries. Their main headquarter is in London, United Kingdom and approximately employs 97,600 people.

The Disaster

On March 23 in the year 2005, a deadly explosion happened at approximately 1:20 p.m. and acquired the national attention of the other oil and gas plants and corporation. Through the assessment and inductive investigations of the professionals and officials of the British Petroleum, the incident occurred due to an ignition of the chemicals. The company’s unit managers and operators admitted that they made some mistake in the process of handling the fluids, in which unexpectedly result in an explosion.

Based on the report, the explosion was the main responsible for the death of the company’s 15 workers and the injury of 170 other personnel and residents of the community. But the company owed themselves in that incident and supported the injured people and provided help for the families who had lost their members (Maresh, 2006). The British Petroleum’s explosion triggered an overnight rally in energy future because traders worried about the loss of gasoline supplies. Oil companies expected that there will be sudden price inflation in global market that is why they decided to charge their products higher due to the refinery explosion.

Marketing Strategy

From the past incident of the British Petroleum, oil companies became more careful in processing their oil refineries. The concerned company pointed out the main problem that caused the explosion. It is not because of the ignition of chemical but in the communication of the managers and workers that caused the ignition.

Without the proper communication inside the organization, the work will not be done or there is a substandard production. Communication is the basic ingredient to make a successful business and in addition of gaining competitive advantage. The unit manager and the operator did not communicate well before processing the chemicals and with that, the drastic explosion hit the company. Communication became an important part of the organization since then, it is easy to describe and yet hard to disseminate.

Gradually, British Petroleum once again raised as one the oil industry leaders. In consideration of the marketing strategy of the company, British Petroleum accepted the offer of the Martek Biosciences Corporation to produce biodiesels made from sugar (Dash, 2009). This striking new idea of finding other usage of oils is another opportunity for both companies to expand their respective businesses overseas. The offer started when the Martek Corporation receives a downturn in their infant formula products.

Under the agreement made by the two giant companies, the British Petroleum will contribute up to $10 million in the initial phase of their collaboration. And the Martek Corporation, which is based in Columbia, shall perform the biotechnological research, assessment, and development as they contribute their scientific expertise in microbial oil production (Dash, 2009). Both companies anticipated that their partnership will be a success and contribute in the global economy as well as environmental wellness.

In addition, British Petroleum’s acceptance and acknowledging their contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. An action to reduce the said emissions from the use of the renewable resources has been promoted with the organizations around the globe to reduce the human impact on climate (Lowe and Harris, 1998).

British Petroleum campaigns and promotes the use of natural resources or renewable, like the solar and hydrogen energy to be use in their oil and gas products. In a broader sense, British Petroleum is looking forward to create a marketing strategy where they can be known as the company that uses the power of the environment and returning the favor by not destroying the nature (Assadourian, 2004).

Analysis

It is true that their strategy in utilizing the solar power is environmentally friendly but the question lies in the economic viability. At first, British Petroleum invites the large expenses in their financial reports through the exploration of the oil and gas fields, experimenting, and purchasing additional machineries and equipments. Their goal is working for a cleanup environment by providing cleaner burning fuels and reducing emissions.

On the other hand, the exploration of renewable business is considered as a smart investment and replaced the old marketing image that also cost them a lot in investing on production of fossil fuels with just a little return. The customer acceptance of the renewable products is the main focus of the British Petroleum. But marketing strategy attracted the attention of the competitor’s by creating pressure in oil industry and the environmentalists that are in favor in this advocacy.

The company’s decision is based on the economists view on climate change that will surely affect the global environmental, economic, and social aspects of every nation and the action of British Petroleum decided to contribute their knowledge in reducing greenhouse emissions. The process of the oil company was supported by the partnerships in all parts of the oil product’s chains.

References:

Assadourian, E., 2004. How Serious Is BP? Erik Assadourian Asks, What Does It Mean When One of the World’s Largest Oil Companies Starts Using the Marketing Slogan “Beyond Petroleum”? World Watch, Vol. 17, No. 3.

Dash, J., 2009. Sales Fall for Martek Biosciences Corp, as Retailers Clear Out Old Infant Formula Stock. Washington Business Journal. [Online] Available at: http://wichita.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/08/31/daily92.html. [Accessed 03 Dec 2009].

Lowe, E., & Harris, R., 1998. Taking Climate Change Seriously: British Petroleum’s Business Strategy. Corporate Environmental Strategy. [Online] Available at: http://www.indigodev.com/BPclim.html. [Accessed 03 Dec 2009]

Maresh, M., 2006. The Aftermath of a Deadly Explosion: A Rhetorical Analysis of Crisis Communication as Employed by British Petroleum and Phillips Petroleum. [Online] Available at: http://dspace.lib.ttu.edu/bitstream/handle/2346/1187/ETDMareshFinal.PDF;jsessionid=1C1DE6D4C86AE8677BD9A272D9DA530C?sequence=1. [Accessed 03 Dec 2009].