FORMATION OF CORPORATE IMAGE ON EXAMPLE OF «HELIOS» GAS AND OIL COMPANY»

Nowadays, in highly competitive market environment, commercial success of enterprises is often determined by steady profit-making through selling products (services) and ensuring the customers’ loyalty to a particular brand. However, it should be mentioned that at the very beginning term «Corporate image» was an advertising jargon and almost wasn’t mentioned in such fundamental works of American authors as «The Fundamentals of Marketing» by F. Kotler, «Advertising: Theory and Practice» by C. Sandage, V. Freiburger, C. Rotzola. [1, p.134]; Nevertheless, in current market conditions one of the key factors of attracting and retaining customers is corporative image of the firm. Moreover, having a qualitative corporative identity is one of the cornerstones of enterprise’s competitiveness. [2, P.145-173.]; Thus, it is vitally important for managers to obtain and develop both knowledge and skills of corporative image formation.

So, what does «corporate image» actually mean? According to the en.oxforddictionaries.com, «Image is general impression that a person, organization, or product presents to the public».  According to the www.businessdictionary.com,     «Corporative image is the mental picture that springs up at the mention of a firm's name. [3]; It is a composite psychological impression that continually changes with the firm's circumstances, media coverage, performance, pronouncements, etc. [4, P.168-173.]; Similar to a firm's reputation or goodwill, it is the public perception of the firm rather than a reflection of its actual state or position».

During the research the following qualitative and quantitative methods were used: the survey of customers of oil and gas stations belonging to companies mentioned above in order to collect «field» data, monitoring of changes in the price of shares of competing corporations with a strong image and their correlation with fluctuations in oil prices on the world market and the statistical method to group information and to analyze the different regularities. The survey was conducted among 1500 customers of the three gas stations of «Helios» Gas and Oil Company which are located in the different parts of Nur-Sultan (Astana) city. The survey was conducted between 1^st of February and 30^th of April of 2019. Every customer of those 3 gas stations was asked to complete the survey in exchange for a key chain (souvenir). The survey consisted from only one question «What reason did you chose our gas station for?» and 4 answer options :

a) I trust the «Helios» company;

b) it always provides high quality fuel;

с) this gas station is conveniently located or was the nearest one;

d) any other reason.

The monitoring was aimed at 4 competitor enterprises and its main purpose was to find and observe the correlation in alterations of prices of shares with the crude oil ones. In terms of research, Gazprom was chosen as a company with strong corporative image (according to the www.traidingview.com). [5]; Monitoring of the crude oil prices was conducted based on the data from investing.com during the period from 2015 to 2019.

From the total 1500 people surveyed at the gas stations, 828 respondents noticed that they are clients of the «Helios» Gas and Oil Company because they trust the company. More than a third (524 costumers) answered that they use the services of «Helios» due to high quality fuel that the company always provides, whereas 72 consumers argued that was the nearest gas station for them and 78 stated that they chose that gas station for other reasons.

As one might notice from the results of survey, the majority of those surveyed opted for «Helios» due to the trust to the company, which is basically the trust to its corporate image.

As one might notice from comparison of charts above (crude oil prices and stock prices of Gazprom), there’s no direct correlation, which backs up the statement that company with strong corporate image is less sensitive to price changes in the market and even to unfavorable and unstable situation in the country.

Diagram 1. Results of survey

Diagram 2. Gazprom Gas and Oil Company share prices in RUB between 2014 and 2019 (www.traidingview.com), [5]

Diagram 3. Brent Crude Oil prices in USD between 2014 and 2019 (www.traidingview.com), [6]

In this scientific work I revealed the results of my research on how the corporate image of an oil- and gas-producing company influences attracting and retaining customers, as well as its market competitiveness. Based on this analysis, I made several conclusions, which are stated below. Firstly, strong image of organization leads to a decrease in company's sensitivity to price changes in the market and even to unfavorable and unstable situation in the country, where its headquarters are located. One good example of this is Gazprom, which stocks haven’t been significantly affected by sanctions and falling oil prices within the last half of decade. Secondly, strong image protects organization from the competitors with cutting-edge substitute products. Thirdly, prominence of company makes most of resources, such as financial, informational and human ones, more available, even in highly-competitive market conditions. This scientific work, however, is a subject to several limitations. First of all, the survey was conducted among 1500 customers of the three gas stations of «Helios» Gas and Oil Company. Secondly, the research was conducted between 1^st of February and 30^th of April of 2019. Even though there are plenty of requirements for managers working in gas and oil field, obtaining and developing skills of corporative image formation and promotion are among the most important ones. Without any doubts, in days to come gas and oil industry needs to strengthen its position in order to be able to compete with the fast developing electric vehicles production, as well as companies in field of alternative sources of energy, which are environmentally friendly and often cheaper. Thus, this study has shown how the corporate image correlates with the success of organization.

References:

1. Kotler, P. Marketing Management. 9th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 2000, - p.134.
2. Hague, P. Hague, N. Market Research in Practice: A Guide to the Basics. London: Kogan Page, 2017. - P.145-143.
3. Официальный он-лайн бизнес словарь. URL: www.businessdictionary.com/definition/image.html (дата обращения: 13.08.2010)
4. Balmer, J.M.T. “Corporate identity, corporate branding and corporate marketing: Seeing through the fog”. European Journal of Marketing, 2016. - Vol. 35. - P.168-173.
5. Официальная биржа энергетических и минеральных ресурсов URL: https://ru.tradingview.com/symbols/MOEX-SIBN/ (дата обращения: 28.03.2020)
6. Официальная биржа энергетических и минеральных ресурсов URL: https://ru.tradingview.com/symbols/UKOIL/?exchange=TVC (дата обращения: 28.03.2020)