Like everyone else, we’re watching BP and wondering if the oil spill will ever stop.
It may not. In the event that we’re still having this discussion in July 2011, here are three moves that BP can make right now to minimize loss of brand equity.
1. Cut prices at every one of your service stations by 25% effective immediately.
Why? You’re going to lose tons of business anyway.
For instance, heading out of town this weekend, I filled up on gas. I bypassed your station in Evanston, IL. Better to support the Marathon guy down the road. I made this decision simply because I didn’t want to give you more money than I already had to.
Then, on the Indiana Toll Road, my hands were tied. BP or nothing. Darnit. So I filled up at a BP station.
But there’s more to this, right? I mean, local dealers who sell BP have franchises and buy gas from you and all that stuff I don’t understand.
So it’s these guys that are gonna lose business. And lots of business.
Thus the 25% cut in prices. That will make me think twice. Right?
2. Buy an acre of Louisiana swamp land for every hour that the spill continues.
Pay market prices. Donate the land to the State of Louisiana. Call it a day.
3. Accept any Louisiana fishing claims without batting an eye.
If I have a shrimp boat in Louisiana, and I’m toast, I probably don’t have Environmental Insurance. Business Interruption Insurance. ANY INSURANCE. I’m not saying people can make crazy claims, but if a 40 year-old guy in the Bayou says he makes $75K a year fishing and will lose everything, cut him a check.
4. Know all that “Beyond Petroleum” stuff you have been doing? Do it again. And again. And again.
I want to see wind farms. I want to see soy biodiesel. I want you to revisit all those ads from a few years ago where you talk to people on the streets and they tell you what they want out of an oil company.
I want to see those ads and I want to see them now.
5. Get a YouTube Channel NOW.
See the ad up here? It has 200,000 hits.
Search for “BP” on YouTube and stuff like this comes up.
Not press conferences, updates from your executives, video of your own.
Get a channel and get it NOW.
