Brand Assassins – Who is Getting Hurt?
Since that fateful day of April 20th, BP has endured a steady stream of protests and attacks on the company, its leaders and the brand. Once revered in branding circles for a brilliant repositioning campaign - BP - Beyond Petroleum, the company now is branded as the "villain." They are no longer in control of their brand. It isn't a brand or be branded sum game anymore. All the media weight that they can muster won't make any difference. The public wants to lash out at BP! Someone has to pay. The easiest way is to attack the brand - it is visible and tangible. Boycotts are the preferred "brand punishment."
Look no further than the 787,126 fans on Boycott BP page on Facebook to see the veracity of hatred toward BP. The hatred is in black and white and growing by the day. Sites like seizeBP.org are emerging with the sole purpose of defacing the BP brand. Protests are spreading to BP branded gas stations which offer easy targets. The question remains, are they the right targets?
What began in the Gulf Coast states has spread to nationwide boycotts of BP gas stations. In the month of May, total sales at BP gas stations declined by 8-10%, according to Jim Smith, president of the Florida Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Stores Association. The problem is these boycotts are hurting the "jobbers" - the independent station owners. Of the 10,000 BP stations west of the Rockies, the overwhelming majority are independent. Many stations are forced to cut prices to drive traffic which means little to no profit in the intensely competitive, razor-thin profit gasoline business. The average profit on a gallon of gas is around 6 cents! Fewer gas customers also mean fewer sales in the attached convenience stores. It is very likely that many of the BP stations face a dire future. That equates to lost jobs and wages for a segment of the working populace that can ill afford it.
As often happens when the groundswell hits among the public to make a corporation pay for its sins, the attack is misguided. The general public is often unaware of the make-up of a corporation and the distributor channels they work with. People believe that they are being socially conscious, but they may in fact be conscious of the wrong thing.
While it is construed as guilt by association, BP station owners are bearing the brunt of the consumer backlash. They face brand assassins day in and day out. Until recently, they were out on an island all alone. Just last week, BP rolled out a series of initiatives aimed at helping its independent dealers. These initiatives allow regional BP gas distributors to offer selected retailers a discount. Co-op monies are being made available to the gas station owners that are the hardest hit. This extends to distributors, who are also hurting. There are 475 BP gasoline distributors that deliver gasoline by tanker to the service stations. They'll get a break on prices.
Boycotts are easy and quick. They can work if they're directed at the right people. If so, then the boycott should be extended to both Amoco and Arco who are owned by BP. I'm sure that very few, if any, of the BP boycotting public is aware of this. That is why it is hard to make a company "pay." The inner workings of channel partners and distributors are often complex and daunting. Yes, it is the yellow and green BP sign outside but who are you really hurting? It's potentially the neighbor who owns the local BP franchise and who lives in your community. I hope that the boycotters would think twice if they knew that.
Keywords: BP; Boycott BP; BP Gas Stations; BP Gasoline Distributors; BP - Beyond Petroleum; BP Brand;
At first I was also angered at BP for this horrible travesty which makes the Exxon-Valdez oil spill look like practically nothing. Recently I've somewhat changed my mind. I do not think that boycotting BP is going to accomplish anything very productive; it will only do worse to our already struggling economy. I would imagine that BP is doing pretty much all they can to clean up the aftermath of this disaster. Wouldn't it be in everyone's interest to chip in and help make it better instead of playing the blame game?
I considered boycotting BP after the spill the first time I passed one of their stations, but then realized that if I did, I am only adding to the problem. In my neck of the woods, we haven't seen any negative activity towards BP and there are always at least a few cars at the pumps filling up.
Really nice and different perspective - dont just get mad at Tony Haywood - there's thousands of people who really need BP to this work. It will be interesting to see how their PR handles things when they need to start having to reject compensation claims. PR careers must have been made and broken this year - Toyota, BP etc, etc
Nice to see their peers have rallied around them [sarcasm].The American Energy Alliance (AEA) has published articles distancing themselves and other oil copmanies from BP's practices. True what htey say - people will kick you when you're down.
Your blog has given me pause and I will continue to think on this subject. I feel strongly that each and every BP, Amoco and Arco gas station is a entity of the larger corporation. To what degree the independant gas stations have the ablity to change suppliers I do not know, but given what BP now represents to me personally, I will no longer purchase from these suppliers.
I feel for the independent owners, but at the same time, you need to read over every detail of the contract (as Obama would say) line-by-line and fully understand what you're getting into. All business deals can go bad.
While the boycotts can be viewed as misguided, the station owners also took the risk. Oil prices could have bottomed, corporate taxes could have gone up, etc. Any number of disasters could have happened that would negatively impact business. This is obviously a horrible and isolated incident, but still falls under the risks of business ownership.
For me, BP as a corporation has acted with disregard for anything but the bottom line. This includes taking care of their independent owners. As a consumer, the only form of protest I have is to refuse to purchase their product.
Unless of course I choose to buy stock...
Because of the deep pockets of many corporations, they can handle boycotting in the short term, which is usually how long boycotts last given people's attention spans. No question that boycotts can financially harm corporations but they can financially devastate retailers.
You don't need a disaster to hurt a brand either. How'd you like to be a Saturn car dealer? The Great Recession knocked the wheels out from under them, not any boycott.
I think it's important to separate the true movers and shakers at BP from the ordinary Joe's who are simply trying to make a living. Three months ago my local Gulf station became a BP (talk about bad timing!). The owners are decent people who have lived in the area all their lives and have helped most of us out with tire blowouts, fender benders, etc. One of them even brought gas to my daughter back when she first started driving and forgot to watch her gas gauge. Do I really want to punish them? Of course not. I view them as yet another victim of BP's reckless behavior. That's why the best form of protest is to continue to push for alternative energy strategies - and bike as much as you can.