Roadside Retail

Location, location, location - the oldest cliché in the book about Retail. Get the right outlet with the right products in the right place and the customers and the profits just roll in! And in the petroleum sector it has to be even truer surely. Right road, right traffic flow, well positioned petrol station - Bingo! Well yes of course location is vital - that's why the real estate costs so much when a site on a busy highway or on a motorway is released or sold. But as every retailer knows the trick is always to maximise the returns - to secure volume and income which exceeds expectations and provides business higher than the "case" assumption (the assumption that underpinned the original investment). This article is about that extra, that bonus level of return that can turn a good site or network into a great one.

In my previous article in this series I argued strongly that the main determinant of a company's reputation was its behaviour not its rhetoric. The ongoing calamity of BP's Deepwater Horizon continues to put corporate reputation as a subject very much in the spotlight and, hardly surprisingly, many commentators contrast BP's past attempts to claim the moral highground on environmental matters with the stark reality of what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico. The idea that corporations should be "socially responsible" whilst fashionable is not new - and it remains an extremely controversial concept. In this article I will try and delve into what Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) really means - and argue that all too often CSR has been just a tool of a company's reputation management/Public Relations activities rather than something that sets strict behavioural norms. In all too many cases CSR reports are selective, partial and glossy window-dressing - leading to charges of "Greenwash" - rather than true reflections of a corporation's actual non-financial (Health, Safety, Environment etc.) performance.

Chances are there is a new dark ‘Hunter Green’ McDonalds near you by now. As a response to negative market research, critical city centre planning authorities, declining sales and fierce competition from the likes of Starbucks, the famous bright red frontage has been replaced by green in order to communicate to customers that McDonalds had changed some of its much publicised unethical ways. McDonalds appears now more of a restaurant than the petrol stations they frequently cohabit. The interiors too are less brash and feature modern art and subtle lighting showing that McDonalds understands the masses have become more discerning and sophisticated.
Delivering on the green promise includes a pledge that delivery vehicles run on recycled chip fat, packaging is recyclable and refrigerators run on non-ozone depleting refrigerants. To quote Jamie Oliver, gastro campaigner and entrepreneur ‘Being commercial and caring can work. Actually it’s the future’. Even Greenpeace have praised McDonalds for moving in the right direction (although it’s doubtful the charge of complicity in making the world obese will ever diminish).

Caltex’s Star Mart was in need of refreshment having warn the same red/turquoise wave identity for at least 14 years. The designers Hulsbosch rightly claim that the new logo shows “Warmth, personality and fun” is which is befitting of an offer which makes no great claim over and above providing speedy refreshment for the motorist. But whether the new ‘Star Man’ identity is truly contemporary as declared by the designers remains a question according to comments posted on the Australian media website mumbrella.

The maintenance of a good corporate reputation in today's febrile multimedia age is no easy task - not least because the needs of a company's various stakeholders are all too often contradictory. Investors may seek cost efficiencies which boost earnings and dividends whilst employees seek job security. The need to boost the resource base, especially for oil and gas companies, will often conflict with the needs of local communities and environmentalists. And in some industries, like tobacco, the very nature of the business activity itself can be hard to defend and virtually incapable of being painted in a positive light. So does that mean that there are no firm guidelines that can be established to help companies manage their reputation - is it all too difficult? This article will argue that the reverse is the case - so long as companies understand that brand management and reputation management are the same thing - and so long as they have an imperative to integrate what they say with what they do - and then tell the truth. And as long as they have the confidence not to have their reputation management decisions taken by lawyers!

Italy
Agip’s part solar PhotoVoltaic (PV) powered petrol station is a particularly attractive green energy proposition since Italy has moderately high solar radiation but also high energy prices where conventional energy source prices and solar energy prices are roughly equal per kW/hour.

Spain
The Repsol car wash outside Madrid airport features flat plate solar thermal panels which preheat the water used for washing cars. Using this relatively low tech, low cost solar thermal energy collecting device, Repsol are able to save the cost of heating the water by conventional means (electric or gas) and therefore also reduce carbon emissions and as a bonus gain a valuable PR advantage. How simple and effective but also quite obvious for a nation famous for its sunny climate.

Spain have also invested heavily in solar PV as illustrated above with a sophisticated solar tracking device on a Galp petrol station.