Brand Position & Customer Loyalty for Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies

Abstract

A Brand is a "name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. For a brand to have value, it must be valued by the customer. Brand Equity is normally measured by understanding the customer brand knowledge in terms of the position that the brand occupies in the customer’s mind, the level of brand association, brand awareness and brand loyalty. India's oil market has so far been dominated by Public Sector Oil marketing Companies especially in the marketing of petroleum products. One particular customer behavior that has intrigued the marketers and researchers for long has been the indifference exhibited by fuel consumers while making choice amongst these three brands to refuel their vehicles. This research aims to study the brand position and customer loyalty for public sector oil marketing companies. The results point towards an opportunity which the oil marketing companies have to increase the brand position and customer loyalty by devising income wise segmentation strategies for different consumer groups.

Keywords: Brand Position, Brand Loyalty, Brand Equity, PSU (Public Sector Units), OMCs (Oil Marketing Companies), HPCL (Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd), BPCL ( Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd), IOCL (Indian Oil Corporation Ltd)

JEL Classification: C12, C88, M31, M37