Brand Image and Market of British Petroleum - Research Paper Example

BP market research Introduction Fracking is a unique drilling technique employed in the extraction of natural gas and oil among other natural resources. Also known as hydraulic fracturing, fracking is an extraction process that uses water pumped into the ground at high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks thus releasing the natural gas. Most companies that deal in the extraction of natural gas and petroleum products among many other similar natural resources pride in the environmental friendliness of their operations. Pollution is a major factor that influences the acceptance of such products a feature that influences the extraction techniques that such companies employ. British Petroleum is one such company that prides itself in the production of quality and affordable petroleum products and natural gas. However, the company just as any other must employ efficient extraction techniques in order to improve its reputation thus increases its profitability in the market. Introducing a unique extraction technique that has negative reputation in the market requires effective marketing in order to enable the market to overlook the extraction process thus sustain the company’s profitability of the company as portrayed in the discussion below. The natural gas market in the United Kingdom is elite. This implies that the market can analyze the operations of the company and determine the suitability of its products based on the techniques of both the extraction and processing among many others fundamental process that may affect the suitability of the product. As such, the market criticizes the company based on the trending social and cultural features that are likely to influence the marketability of the profitability. Fracking is one such extraction process that is likely to affect the profitability of the British Petroleum a market leader in the United Kingdom. Fracking, just as discussed earlier is an extraction process that uses water pumped at high pressure to crush the shale rock thus releasing the natural resource. Despite the efficiency of the method of extraction, extraction has numerous disadvantages that are likely to curb the profitability of the company in the country given the conscious nature of the English natural gas market (Calhoun, 2002). Brand image British Petroleum is among the leading companies in the energy sector in the United Kingdom. The company prides in the sale of high quality and diverse energy products in the country. Additionally, the company is often conscious of its operation and carries out extensive cleanup projects in different parts of the world. The company for example invested billions of pounds in an extensive clean process following an extensive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Such investment decisions improved the reputation of the company positioning it as one of the most efficient companies that strive to maintain the fidelity of its operations. With an organizational culture that values the importance of the environment, British Petroleum formulates and implements operational policies that value the environment. Additionally, the company carries out extensive social responsive investing in different parts of the world. In the United Kingdom for example, the company promotes effective use of natural resources with the view of curbing environmental pollution. The company invests in green initiatives that seek to curb the emission of carbon into the atmosphere. Coupled with it numerous clean up initiatives, the company is therefore among the numerous companies in the country that safeguard the environment. For such a company to begin fracking, a process that presents numerous environmental threats to atmosphere, will affect the profitability of the company owing to the enlighten nature of the company’s market in the United Kingdom. Fracking poses numerous dangers of pollution to the environment most of which are likely to affect the profitability of the company. While the process is cheap and efficient, the fact that it results in massive pollution of the atmosphere and contamination of different water sources thus will taint the image of the company thus affect the profitability of the company. Among the environmental implications of the extraction process, include intense air, and water pollution. During the extraction process, the high-pressured water forces dust particles into the air thus leading to the pollution of the air. The fact that the process uses extensively pressured water implies that extractors cannot contain the dust arising from the process. The huge amounts of dust thus pollute the environment a feature that contributes to the rapid climatic changes in the world. Additionally, the water breaks the shale rocks thus exposing the natural gas for extraction. During such process, some of the methane escapes into the environment a feature that makes the extraction process riskier. Methane is a highly corrosive gas that endangers the lives of the people living in the local communities. Additionally, this implies that the large-scale extraction of natural gas results into an equally large-scale emission of both dust and methane into the environment. Additionally, the extraction process requires large amounts of water to sustain the extraction process. The extraction process for example requires 3.5 million gallons of water for the successful extraction of every well. The process mixes the large volume of water with over sixty other harmful chemicals before releasing it at a high pressure to crush the shale rocks. The description above portrays the amount of water that the process requires. This implies that the process is likely to use most of the country’s water sources such as lakes and rivers especially in cases of large-scale extraction of the natural gas as is the case with the British Petroleum. Furthermore, the fact that the process mixes the water with many other harmful chemicals implies that the water is harmful and therefore not usable in any other functional process especially by the societies living around the mining regions. The fact that the natural gases are deep in the earth’s crust requires that the extractors pump the water deep into the earth in order to extract the natural gas. However, the process results in the contamination of the underground water. Often after pumping the water into the earth’s crust and succeeding in breaking the shale rocks, the extractors concentrate on tapping the gas without considering the fate of the wastewater. The water thus easily contaminates the underground water when they mix thus necessitating a pollution of the country’s natural water reserve. Such is a fundamental factor that raises public concern and will most likely affect the profitability of the company that plans to use the extraction process. Contaminating the underground water implies that all the rivers and lakes in the country become naturally contaminated. This compounds the pollution process thus affecting millions of people who use the water from the numerous natural sources such as lakes and rivers in the country. While the above discussion portrays the disadvantages of fracking, it ignores the advantages of the process most of which often compound the profitability of the process. Water for example is readily available and therefore makes the process cheaper than other processes that require a lot of energy. As such, fracking is therefore easier, cheaper and efficient owing to the resources that the technique employs. This implies that the mining process will improve the profitability of the company even though it will present numerous environmental hazards to the country’s population who are the company’s target market. This implies that British Petroleum must employ effective marketing techniques in order to position its brands effectively thus sustaining its profitability. Research objectives The research seeks to develop appropriate marketing strategies that will ensure that British Petroleum uses the efficient extraction process but also enjoy its profitability. The research strives to determine appropriate ways of introducing the brand into the market, positioning it different and safeguard its profitability. Research design With effective understanding of process of extraction, the researchers will therefore understanding the particular features to investigate in the market. In order to achieve this, the researcher infuses numerous research designs owing to the need to obtain extensive information on the effects of the extraction process and the effects of such information on the people who are the company’s market. This way, it becomes possible to identify appropriate features of both the brand and the extraction techniques to portray in the numerous marketing techniques in order to safeguard the company’s profitability. British Petroleum is a large multinational corporation and the industry leader (Cochran, 1977). As such, the company has an effective understanding of both the market and the industry and will therefore implement policies that are likely to safeguard the profitability of its unique brands. Among the research, methods used include survey research, testing of proposal and focus groups. Each of the above research designs enjoys relative strengths but also have numerous disadvantages. Incorporating numerous research methods thus ensure that they complement each other and therefore will safeguard the effectiveness of both the research method and the efficacy of the data collected in the research. Testing different proposal for example refers to a mechanism of assessing the effectiveness of the proposal. During the research process, different groups will give their thoughts. Trying and testing such will help determine the most appropriate marketing strategy to enhance the profitability of the company. Focus group on the other hand refers to the section of the groups of people often affected by the operations of the company and interviews them on the effects of the new extraction method. This provides primary data on the effects of the new mining technique thereby providing the researcher with appropriate data. The researcher will use a sample of fifty people in every research design with the fity people selected through the random sampling technique. With the above research designs, the researchers will use numerous data collection techniques in order to obtain appropriate primary and secondary data all of which are fundamental in ensuring the efficacy of the research process. Among the data collection techniques used in the research include the use of structured questionnaires. Questionnaires are tools used in the collection of information from a target group. Coupled with the positive attributes of random sampling techniques, the researcher will incorporate both questionnaires and interviews in order to obtain appropriate information on the effects of the new extraction process on the market of the company’s brands (Lavender, Edwards & Alfirevic, 2004). Just as was the case with the research designs, the researcher uses numerous data collection techniques owing to the fact that they all complement each other thus enhancing the efficacy of the data collected and used in the decision making process. Personnel involved The research requires effective collection of data from numerous people among whom will include stakeholders of the company and the people from the society. The appropriate people to interview in the company will include the marketing managers who make decisions on the marketing techniques to use in marketing the company’s product. Through such interviews, it becomes possible to determine the market trends they anticipate with the introduction of the new extraction technique and the remedies they have for any of such undesirable effects. The specific individuals from the company will provide appropriate information from the management of the company owing to the fact such individuals influence the operations of the company. They must therefore have a projection into the company’s future, which in this context includes fracking, an undesirable extraction process. The other group of people that the researcher will investigate is a section of the public. Using the random sampling technique, the researchers will select a sizable group of individuals from the public and investigate the possible effects of the new mining technique. The public are the company’s target market. They purchase the company’s products and therefore constitute the company’s market. Additionally, they live in the and therefore suffer from the numerous negative effects of the new mining technique. They therefore constitute the most important group of respondent who will contribute to the research. The researchers will ask different random questions based on the topic using the numerous data collection techniques discussed above thus obtaining the primary data that the researchers will use in making conclusions and successive recommendations for the company. Areas of questioning The areas of questioning will differ depending on the audience. This infuses diversity in the research besides considering the numerous features of the topical issue that require effective consideration and analysis. The section of the public is among the most important population in the research. The researcher will therefore ask numerous questions some of which will investigate their understanding of the unique extraction process. This information is important in evaluating the possible magnitude of any undesirable belief bout the mining process the company is about to employ. The fact that the population is both the company’s target market and the same group affected by the mining process makes their contribution valuable. The researchers will therefore investigate the effects of the mining process and their possible response to the company’s decision to use the extraction technique. The company’s management is an equally important public in the research and obtaining particular information from them will contribute to the efficacy of the research. The researcher will seek particular information including the factors that influence the company’s decision to use the new extraction technique and the ways the company is preparing to counter the negative reputation of the extraction technique, which is likely to affect the company’s profitability. This way, the research becomes holistic with adequate information on the numerous segments of the market (Bottomore, 1998). Services The researchers comprise of numerous individuals who understand the nature of the market besides the research data collection and computation. The group will help carry out the numerous functions thus expediting the research process. The creation of questionnaire and designing research questions is a collective role that the numerous researchers will brainstorm and determine appropriate questions (Haralambos & Holborn, 2004). The appropriateness of the research questions will help obtain essential information that will influence the operations of the company. This way, it becomes possible to make functional recommendations that will safeguard the interests of both the parties involved in the case. Costs The research has a budget of £100,000. The money will facilitate numerous features of the research including the remuneration of the hired personnel. As discussed earlier, the research covers a wide scope that an individual may not investigate exhaustively (SAUNDERS, LEWIS & THORNHILL, 2009). The researcher will therefore contract additional individuals to enhance the activities of the research thus increasing the exhaustively of the research. The outsourced individuals will utilize £ 50,000 both as their remuneration and for other personalized miscellaneous costs. Additionally, the researchers will use £ 25,000 in obtaining transportation services. The large scope of the research validates the large transportation budget since the researchers must travel to different parts of the country and interact with the respondents. The remaining £ 25,000 will help in purchasing other important resources required in the research such as printing materials, smart phones and data computation software used in analyzing the data. Timing The research will run for a period of two months a time within which the researchers will carry out extensive exploration of the country in order to determine the effects of the new exploration techniques and the ways that the company will mitigate the likely negative effects of the exploration process. Within the four months, the researchers will investigate the public thus obtaining some of the most important primary data in the research. In the remaining four months, researchers will question numerous employees of the company especially those in top-level management and marketing and in analyzing the data. Reference Bottomore, T. (1998). A Dictionary of Marxist Thought. Oxford: Blackwell. Calhoun, C. (2002). Classical Sociological Theory. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Callinicos, A. (2010). The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx. Bloomsbury, London: Bookmarks. Chatterjee, S. & Hevner. (2010). A. Design Research in Information Systems: Theory and Practice. Berlin: Springer US. Chilisa, B. (2012). Indigenous research methodologies. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications. Cochran, W. G. (1977). Sampling techniques. New York [u.a.: Wiley. CURRAH, L., & RABINOWITCH, H. D. (2002). Allium crop science: recent advances. Wallingford [u.a.], CABI. Haralambos, M & Holborn, M. (2004). Sociology: themes and perspectives. London: Harper Collins Publishers Ltd. Harper, C. L. (1993). Exploring social change. Engelwood Cliffs: New Jersey. Hobsbawm, E. (2011). How to Change the World: Tales of Marx and Marxism. London: Little, Brown Kerlinger, F. N., (1986). Foundations of behavioral research. (3rd,ed.) New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Lavender, T., Edwards, G. and Alfirevic, Z. (2004). Demystifying Qualitative Research. Salisbury: Quay Books. SAUNDERS, M., LEWIS, P., & THORNHILL, A. (2009). Research methods for business students. New York, Prentice Hall. Schreuder, H. T., Gregoire, T. G., & Wood, G. B. (1993). Sampling methods for multiresource forest inventory. New York: Wiley. Read More