In 2000, the oil giant BP Amoco positioned itself as BP, Beyond Petroleum. The rebranding was part of an effort to portray BP as an energy company, not just an oil company: one that incorporated solar energy in its portfolio and was willing to move away from oil. BP replaced its logo with a vibrant green-white-and-yellow sunburst named after Helios, the ancient Greek sun god. You can read where we actually blogged about it back in 2007 here.
At the time this rebrand won awards, made it in books, and have everyone caulking at their brilliant strategy. The only problem was at the end of the day the were still an oil company. They are not environmentally friendly, and eventually the truth spilled out.
When a brand positions itself in-authentically, despite the short term gains, the truth eventually surfaces.
How will BP ever rebound their reputation from this? Should they rebrand like comcast and eventually change their name? Or let it be and put with propaganda like the poster below? Strategically, what should they do clean up their tarnished brand?
Comcast and BP have a similar problem in my mind in that they both struggle to define their core business and make it the best product possible.
Comcast has horrible customer service, horrible installation wait times, and horrible cable and internet service, while BP (as was indicated in this article) is not a green company, not an alternative energy company, and not focused on the environment.
Until Comcast fixes their core offerings to work as intended and supplement them with good service their new branding is just a name change.
BP should undergo a complete alteration of everything. Starting with owning up to who they are...not who they might want to be."
- austinklee