Know-How Exchange : Strategy

What have you done to-date? What have you discovered? What insights have you developed? What sources have you tapped?

" Back in July, 2000, British Petroleum launched a high-profile, $200 million public relations ad campaign designed by Ogilvy & Mather to position the company as environmentally-friendly. The company introduced a new slogan, "Beyond Petroleum," and changed its 70 year-old, sheild-style logo to a new, cheerful green and yellow sunburst. To many, the "Beyond Petroleum" campaign has always been ludicrous."

source:
https://www.prwatch.org/node/9038

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I don't know how you can "evaluate" their campaign's segmentation/targeting strategies without having access to their plan, their goals and their metrics.

Perception is reality, and based on my following of this story, the public perception continues to be negative and generally disbelieving. A perception of band-aid PR and financial penalties that are a mere slap on the wrist.

Question: Is BP's board and executive team really that cynical or just that obtuse? I suspect it's a little of both, but less on the obtuse side.

Off my soapbox now.

As an echo to Steve's point, I would like to know if BP have anything remotely like a "Segmentation strategy and targeting strategy." Usually large corporations are so fuzzy-headed that ideas that have catchy titles are rafts for the implementation of movable facts in a dynamic market place.

In other words, nothing.

The biggest problem people face in the West is that they **think** they are doing something when in fact they are avoiding it. BP is as good example as any. They sell commodities in the only way commodities can be sold - on price.

Remember - or learn? - that a tanker sailing from the Persian Gulf bound for Galveston can be radioed as it turns the Cape, and is now bound for Rotterdam because its cargo has been bought by someone else in the meantime. It finally docks at Milford Haven. It is all about saving tenths of pennies to make millions in profit.

The refinery at Iburg near Amsterdam supplies Shell, Esso and whomsoever turns up with a road tanker and the cash. It might not sell all the fuel used, it does supply all companies in the Netherlands without discrimination. They then sell it on.

I'm not suggesting that BP are obtuse or cynical. I am suggesting that their marketing plans are not based on any firm concept of reality. I used to get visits to my website for the search term "What is Vodafone's USP?" - let's get one thing straight here, Vodafone wouldn't recognize a USP if it stood in front of them waving a big red flag with the lettering "Hi, I'm Your USP" written across it. I doubt the poor USP would have any more success if it stood in front of a BP tanker.

The real strategy of any big corporation is to pile it high and sell it cheap. It is the intellectual escape route from the reality of marketing.

Sorry, what was the question again?

Hope this helps, Moriarty xxx

It's your project, for your class, which means, alas, that it's up to you to do the work.

What questions have you asked yourself, of this strategy, and what answers have you come up
with to reinforce your position on the logic behind BP's campaign?

What efforts have you taken to help yourself, and what results have you uncovered?

What material have you already reviewed, and from this material, what conclusions have you come to about BP's efforts, intentions, and its results?

From what you already know about "Beyond Petroleum's" segmentation strategy and targeting strategy, what jumps out at you as having worked, and as having failed, and what strikes you
as having reared up and bitten BP in its ass?

What went wrong? Was the client at fault for having been blinkered about its long term position (did BP think no one would notice their lack of investment here, or their failure to comply with safety there, and their burning oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and their dead workers?) Was the agency blind, stupid, and greedy? Was it the arrogance behind the idea that led to everything turning to crap? Or was the intention BEHIND the whole plan doomed to fail from the beginning because of the risk involved in this highly dangerous—yet oh, so profitable—of niches?

You need informed opinions, you need thought patterns, and you need some idea of a piece of intellectual ground in which to bury your flag and from which you'll deliver your point of view.
Hop to it, time's a wasting and day light's a burning.