Gas Industry of the United Arab Emirates: Brand Value and its Effect on Public Perception - Thesis Example

The term Brand signifies a name, symbol, design, or combination of all of this. The names of the products become brands when they are globally recognized by the people. When these names become brands, they also obtain the responsibility of commitment towards their customers and also the channel partners or intermediaries. A product is not a brand but a brand is something more than a product. Brand value helps in delivering or communicating specific messages to the customers (Parameswaran 3). The message that the brand conveys to its target customers, helps to decide the type of strategies that the firm would form to retain its brand value. Marketing strategies are developed for protecting and further enhancing the brand value of the products.

This suggests that the value of the oil and gas industry as a brand has increased with time.
On the other hand, the recent oil spill incidence of British Petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico had adversely affected the brand image of the oil and gas industry globally. The developing countries around the world had held the company British Petroleum responsible for poor safety and maintenance framework. After this incident, British Petroleum lost about $32 billion in a span of two weeks. Though British Petroleum assured that it would bear all the oil spill cleaning cost and compensate the people who were affected by this oil spill, the loss was massive and it was really difficult for the company to recover its lost brand image and value even if it compensates the people for their losses. Many companies in this sector are facing branding issues due to various factors, such as entry of new labels or brands, fragmentation of the target customers, cutthroat competition, economic condition, and expectations from the financial market or customers’ preferences towards the visible brand names. It has been seen that many strong brands in this sector are losing their value and their financial performance is also getting affected. The major plays in the oil and gas industry around the world, such as Shell, British Petroleum, ExxonMobil, etc are using a narrow approach as a method for branding as it is becoming difficult for companies to maintain their position and their well-established brand value. This also reflects that in this industry, product differentiation is difficult, so companies are concentrating on corporate branding and trying to create their own brand identity in this case. This is a good way to create a strong image and increase the value.

In this thesis study, we have particularly focused on the brand value of the oil and gas industry of the UAE. The economic growth of the UAE depends on the oil and gas industry and the performance of the companies in this sector. The public perception automatically depends on the performance of the company within the industry. UAE has about 10 percent of the total oil reserves of the world. The biggest reserve of oil and gas among the Emirates can be found in Abu Dhabi (Energy Partner of Choice, “The UAE Energy Sector”).