Genuine commitment
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Genuine commitment In the year 2000, BP underwent a visionary repositioning and rebranding strategy, making them a central part of the cultural and social debate of that time. However, the recent Deepwater Horizon spill has, in fact, threatened its credibility and may have also shattered the century-old brand into pieces. Increased global awareness of climate change in the late 1990s created an opportunity for BP to transform itself into a socially conscious energy company. Chief Executive Lord John Browne sought the niche for rebranding BP as a "green" global company. His speeches were inspiring and he brought hope to a distrusted industry which was seeking challenges and renovations. Hence the challenge was to find a common purpose that resonated credibility and meaningfulness to multifaceted audiences whilst differentiating their product from its competitors. Ogilvy & Mather and Landor introduced a new integrated brand identity to reflect the new vision: a provider of energy solutions who uses knowledge to create value beyond petroleum. The new positioning statement "Beyond petroleum" championed both vision and promise for the future and demonstrated that the company was actively “exploring new ways to prosper without oil.” The symbol to this idea is the Helios logo: a stylized natural form showing BP’s position as an environmental leader in a world of oil companies represented by shields and initials. BP’s transformation started from the inside out, being the first major oil company to acknowledge a link between energy use and global warming¹, confronting debate frankly, and taking actions that made the vision credible. Brand awareness thus increased by 63% in seven years ². Nonetheless BP’s weak point was the fact that about 98 percent of its revenue still came from oil ³. “BP on the street” and “It’s a start”⁴ campaigns helped to build product differentiation, brand equity and emotional affinity beyond products and services⁵. Users perceived BP as a humble environmentally friendly company, differentiating it from the rest of big energy producers by encouraging dialogue with the people. In 2006, a leak in an Alaska pipeline put BP under harsh scrutiny, which put the company and the credibility of its mission to test. The outstanding strength was BP’s status as the first oil company with the “green” label. Consequently, this gave customers trust and loyalty to the company.
BP faced the charges and dealt with them transparently. The company had the opportunity to act according with its values and was determined to do whatever possible to solve the problems. BP’s advertising had built up enough brand equity and goodwill to regain its prominence as the green leader among oil companies. In spring 2010, the unprecedented in its explicitness oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico showed “Beyond Petroleum” to be a euphemistic branding strategy and made BP lose its voice and credibility in the global community. When handling the disaster, BP made several errors which further affected its credibility and respectability among customers. First, former CEO Tony Hayward initially downplayed the spill and didn't clearly acknowledge BP’s mistake and instead blamed Transocean Ltd. for the accident. Even though BP took responsibility to clean the oil up, it took months to find a solution. As a result, brand perception dropped from a 58.4 recommended score to a -37.4 ⁶. Brand value was destroyed because BP didn’t manage to sustain its mission. In an effort to assure that the mistakes had been resolved, the company named an American to replace the British CEO. “Green” was replaced by “Responsible” ⁷ as one of its core values, emphasizing the idea of commitment. BP also took an aggressive approach to getting its message across online through an outstanding social media strategic campaign which showed how the company was helping the communities of the gulf coast by restoring jobs and livelihoods. Will BP still hold to the claim that it is “beyond petroleum”? Conveying trust is the core function of a brand. Over time, BP will have to show genuine commitment, eradicating any risk of a future spill and making its promise the main goal for the business and its employees.
1. “BP: Coloring Public Opinion?”By Gregory Solman http://www.adweek.com January 14, 2008 2. “Rebranding: Not Beyond Credibility” By Derrick Daye http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com May 21, 2010 3. “Experts: BP Will Get Past Crisis” By Todd Wasserman http://www.adweek.com May 10, 2010 4. “Beyond Propaganda” By John Kenney http://www.nytimes.com August 14, 2006 5. “How BP Fueled "Emotional Affinity" for Gas” By Diane Farsetta http://www.prwatch.org January 14, 2008 6. “Oil Companies Rebound, Except BP” By Adweek's stuff http://www.adweek.com June 4, 2010 7. “What we stand for” http://www.bp.com