BP Probably Needs a Rebrand
Written on May 6th, 2010 by SicolaMartin
Written on May 6th, 2010 by SicolaMartin
British Petroleum
For the past 10 years, BP has positioned themselves as a “green” company — complete with the tagline, authored by Ogilvy, “Beyond Petroleum” — and a friendly-looking green logo, which could be described as a hybrid between a shining sun and a flower. And as today’s Washington Post notes, in the wake of potentially the worst oil spill in US history, they’re now faced with a daunting public relations problem.
Brand expert Lisa Merriam thinks the green sun is dead.
“The much-admired green sun BP brand died this week,” she tells us. “This is a brand that never left the marketing department. No matter what they said the company stood for, they never lived it. Despite all those smug ads about wind farms and being ‘Beyond Petroleum,’ this shows they are just like any other oil company — their green brand is as dead as all of the wildlife washing up on Louisiana shores.”
Could be.
It’s important to remember, however, that other brands have weathered potentially fatal incidents. Johnson & Johnson overcame the “Tylenol scare” in the early ’80s through one of the most aggressive recalls in history and their development of tamper-proof packaging, which transformed the industry (unfortunately, they’re currently facing another high-profile recall).
BP will undoubtedly have to rethink their logo and tagline — and their marketing efforts generally. But whether they can save their brand will depend on how aggressively and proactively they address the accident, and how forthcoming they are in its aftermath.
As such, BP’s chief executive should probably refrain from making any more comments like this.
“This is America — come on. We’re going to have lots of illegitimate claims. We all know that.”
Not off to a good start.
Scott Oliphant wrote: Greenpeace invites redesign of the BP logo
Wednesday, May 26th 2010 at 12:14 pm |