Marketing Project On Shell

Executive Summary Shell is a superior brand name with more than 100 years history in this region, infact the company is still in possession of a fuel storage tank from 1899. However, the documented history of the Royal Dutch/shell group the Indo-Pak subcontinent dates back to 1903 when a partnership was struck between

the

shell

transporter

and

trading

company and the Royal Dutch petroleum company to supply petroleum products in Asia. With their key indicators of progress already soaring to new heights, Shell is committed to dedicate all its energies, resources and the time to bring

higher

value

and

satisfaction

to

their

customers, employees and shareholders. The graph of Shell is going up every year. The ratio of profit is increasing at good percentage. Shell is serving the people at high level of standard by going according to the wishes of the customers. Assessment of the needs and wants of the

Shell History in Pakistan

customers is an ongoing process at Shell, which helps to continually develop new products and services.

To

continuously

offer

courteous,

professional and advanced business, the team of shell has recently been rejuvenated by going though

History of Shell programs with a

training

focus

on

technology. Shell hasinformation an over 100 year’s presence in the Subcontinent

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The Shell brand name enjoys a 100-year history in this part of the world, dating back to 1899 when Asiatic Petroleum, the far eastern marketing arm of two companies: Shell Transport Company and Royal Dutch Petroleum Company began importing kerosene oil from Azerbaijan into the subcontinent. Even today, the legacy of the past is visible in a storage tank carrying the date - 1898. The documented history of Royal Dutch Shell plc in Indo_Pakistan subcontinent dates back to 1903 when partnership was struck between The Shell Transport & Trading Company and the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company to supply petroleum to Asia. In 1928, to enhance their distribution capabilities, the marketing interest of Royal Dutch Shell plc and the Burmah Oil Company Limited in India were merged and Burmah Shell Oil Storage & Distribution Company of India was born. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, the name was changed to the Burmah Shell Oil Distribution Company of Pakistan. In 1970, when 51% of the shareholding was transferred to Pakistani investors, the name of changed to Pakistan Burmah Shell (PBS) Limited. The Shell and the Burmah Groups retained the remaining 49% in equal propositions. In February of 1993, as economic liberalization began to take root and the Burmah divested from PBS, Shell Petroleum stepped into raise its stake to 51%. The years 2001-2 have seen the Shell Petroleum Company successively increasing its share, with the Group now having a 76% stake in Shell Pakistan Ltd (SPL)- an expression of confidence.

Company’s Slogan “You can be sure of Shell”

Company Objective

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Statement of General Business Principles: Shell Pakistan Limited General Business Principles govern how Shell Pakistan Ltd. conducts its affairs. The objectives of Shell Pakistan Ltd. are to engage efficiently, responsibly and profitably in oil, gas, chemicals and other selected businesses and to participate in the search for and development of other sources of energy to meet evolving customer needs and the world’s growing demand for energy. We believe that oil and gas will be integral to the global energy needs for economic development for many decades to come. Our role is to ensure that we extract and deliver them profitably and in environmentally and socially responsible ways. We seek a high standard of performance, maintaining a strong longterm and growing position in the competitive environments in which we choose to operate. We aim to work closely with our customers, partners and policymakers to advance more efficient and sustainable use of energy and natural resources.

Goal of Shell The goal of the company is to position itself as the preferred oil company in Pakistan, leading the field in its commitment to safety, customer service, quality and environmental protection.

Product and Services Product:

Anything that can be offered to market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. The oil products of shell are given below.

Services:

Services are the form of product that consist of activities, benefits, or satisfaction offered for sale that is essentially intangible and do not result in the ownership of anything. The services that provide shell Pakistan limited are given below.  There is credit card that given to the customer, in presence of these credit card shell provide all types of services without getting charges.  When customer of shell going for pouring oil then also clean the transportation that is coming for being filled the oil.

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Product Mix “Product mix is the set of all the products offered for sale by a company.” The structure of product mix has both breadth and depth. Its breadth is measured by the number of product line carried and its depth by the variety of sizes, colors and models offered within each product line. Thus the two main products which Shell Pak. offers are fuel and lubricants. These have further classifications in various constituents which form the product line.

Product line: Shell has two product lines namely, fuel and lubricants.

Fuel: Shell     

offers a wide range of fuel. These are: Hi-Octane Super Unleaded Super Hi-speed Diesel CNG

Lubricants:

The various lubricants offered by Shell are;  Rimula C  Rimula D  Rimula X  Helix Plus  Helix Super  Helix Standard  Shell Helix(CNG)

Product Life Cycle Product Life Cycle Stages: Product Life Cycle means the changes in the sales volume of the product over the life the product. In market there is always ups and downs are present because this is a dynamic world. Every thing will have to finish after certain time period, by finishing their life, so the life cycle of Shell is. We define a product as anything that is capable of satisfying customer needs. This definition includes both physical products e.g. Cars, Washing machines, DVD players as well as services e.g.

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insurance, banking, private health care. Business should manage their products carefully over time to ensure that they deliver products that continue to meet customer wants. The process of managing groups of brands and product lines is called portfolio planning. The stages through which individual products develop over time are called Product Life Cycle. The classic product life cycle has four stages.

Introduction Stage: At the introduction stage market size and growth is slight. It is possible that substantial research and development cost have been incurred in getting the product to this stage. In addition, marketing costs may be high in order to test the market, undergo launch promotion and set up distribution channels. It is highly unlikely that companies will make profits on products at the introduction stage. Products at this stage have to be carefully monitored to ensure that they start to grow. Otherwise the best option may be to withdraw or end the product.

Growth Stage: The growth stage is characterized by rapid growth in sales and profits. Profits arise due to an increase in output [economies of sales] and possibly better prices. At this stage, it’s cheaper for business to inset in increasing their market share as well as enjoying the overall growth of the market. Accordingly, significant promotional resources are traditionally invested in products that are firmly in the growth stage. Shell Pakistan introduction stage is successfully done because it comes from the international market and enters in Pakistan market. Now company has about 40-45.5% of market share and still growing

Maturity Stage: The maturity stage is perhaps the most common stage; it is in this stage that competition is most intense as companies fight to maintain their market share. Here both marketing and finance becomes key activities. Marketing spend has to be monitored carefully, since any significant moves are likely to be copied by competitors. The maturity stage is the time when most profit is earned by the market as a whole. Shell Pakistan not yet enters in maturity stage.

Decline Stage: In the decline stage the market is shrinking, reducing the overall amount of profit that can be shared amongst the remaining competitors. At thus stage great care has to be taken to manage the product carefully. It may be possible to take out some production cost, to transfer production to cheaper facility, sell the product into other cheaper market. Care should be taken to control the amount of stocks

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of the product. Shell Pakistan is a brand name and company is not in decline stage because their sale increases day by day.

Pricing Price is the amount of money for which a product is offered in the market. The amount of money charged for the product of services of sum of the value that consumer exchange for the consumers exchange for the benefits for having or using the product of services price is only which brings revenue in the market, so it plays a tremendous role in the market.

Strategies of Pricing: There is to types of strategies present in marketing. • Market skimming price • Market penetration price

Market skimming price:

This is high price settings for a new product to skim maximum revenue layer by layer from the segments willing to pa the high price the company makes favor but more profitable sales marketer prefer to this type of price strategies because there is every product that comes in the market will have to go out from the market every product that comes in the market will have to go out from the market every product have its limited life and after spending certain period of time product leave from the market like the computer software program that comes in the market has the time period of 6 or 3 months in the past but now there is soft ware programs that have limited life period of eighteen days, and after eighteen days there strategy because there point of view is that product have to go out from the market then they comes up with high prices to earn profit that minimizes the cost that spends when it was made and finally out of the market.

Market penetration price:

Settings a low price for a new product in order to attract a large number of buyers and large market shares. Companies also adopt this strategy when they enter in the market. Shell Pakistan limited also comes up with the penetration strategy because it is an international market and they just want to enter this market now this company enjoying the high profit and continuums in the product life cycle.

Basic Objectives of Pricing: Survival: 6

Now days companies pursue survival as there major objective of pricing especially when they are plagued by intense competition and changing consumer wants. Shell Pakistan ltd also tends to its lubricants in order to survive the tough competition lubricants industry. The pricing of fuels is not in the bands of Shell Pakistan limited or any other such company. The price of fuels is in the hands of the government.

Maintenance of current profit: The next objective of pricing is the maintenance of current profits. At the moment shell Pakistan ltd is the leader in fuel and lubricants industry and there for tends to maintain its profits through appropriate pricing.

Product quality Leadership: Shell lubricants and fuels have been especially formulated to meet the demanding requirements of a wide range of customers in most sectors of the company.

Selection of Pricing Method: Companies usually select the price of their products in accordance to the following three: customer demand schedule, the cost function and competitors price. However companies adopt various strategies in order to price their products. The strategies adopted by the shell Pakistan ltd are: 1: 2: 3: 4: 5:

Price of competitor’s product Price premium for high quality Price premium for high purity Price premium for better services Is the appropriate price for shell.

Going price rate: “Going price rate means that a company bases the price of its product in accordance to the price offered by its competitors.” In fact shell Pakistan’s competitors are like;

PSO TOTAL ATTOCK CALTEX ADMORE

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Target Market A target market is the market segment which a particular product is marketed to. It is often defined by age, gender socio-economic grouping. Targeting strategies is the selection of the customers u wish to service. Including;  How many segments to targets  Which segment to target  How many product to offer  Which product to offer in which segments There are three steps to targeting:  Market quality  Target choice  Product positioning

Targeting strategy decision is influenced by:     

Market maturity Diversity of buyers need The companies size Strength of the competition The volume of sales requires for profitability

Market Targeting It is the process of evaluating each market segment’s attractiveness and selecting one or more segments to enter. Market targeting depends upon the financial positioning of company. If company is strong financially then he must go for market targeting. Shell in Pakistan produces verities of products. All these products are available urban as well as rural area.

Market Segmentation Market is the processing which dividing a market in to distinct group of buyers on the basis of needs characteristics or behave who might requires separate products or marketing mixing.

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Market consist of buyers and buyers differs in one or more ways they may differing their wants, resources, locations, buying attitude and buying practice. Shell Pakistan ltd. Divide his market in to following segments:  Demographic segmentation  Geographic segmentation  Psychographic segmentation

Demographic Segmentation: Demographic segmentation is dividing the market in to groups based on demographic variables such as:  Age  Gender Education  Income  Family size  Occupation  Social class Shell introduces their product for upper class, upper middle class and middle class. In other words shell produces its products for everyone who have automobile.

Geographic segmentation: Geographic segmentation is dividing the market in to different geographical units such as.  Region  Density  Cities This is all about the segmentation of shell. Shell provides facilities of petroleum to urban as well as rural areas. Segmentation basically depends upon  Population of that area  Living standards of people

Levels of Market Segmentation There are three levels of market segmentations  Mass marketing  Segment marketing  Niche marketing

Mass Marketing: 9

Shell Pakistan limited go for the mass marketing because its distribution is very extensive. Internationally its products are goes into international market.

Positioning: The process of arranging of product to occupy clear distinct and desirable place related to competing products in the minds of target consumer. Shell Pakistan companies lies its growth stage in the market and enjoys 65% shares. Now gradually with the increase of growth rate is expands its products line and also its distributions.

Marketing Channel “Marketing channels are set of interdependent organizations involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption” The entities involved in the distribution of Shell products in Pakistan are:     

Supply Chain Department Shell Depots Distributors Fuel Stations Consumer

The Market Share of Shell At the moment Shell Pak. has a market share of about 40% to 45% in Pakistan. It is trying hard to become the market leader in Pakistan. For this purpose it is taking the following steps.

Qualities of a good Market Leader Customer Knowledge:

Shell Pakistan is fully committed to achieve excellence in customer services and product quality. This can only be done by having complete knowledge of the needs and wants of their customers. It is due to this reason that Shell Pakistan has established a special customer service centre by the name of “Shell Edge.”

Long Term Planning:

Shell enjoys a 100-years history in the sub-continent. Shell’s long term commitment towards developing the petroleum industry in Pakistan is reflected by a capital investment of Rs.703 million in 2006.

Line Extension:

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“Line extension means including new products in the product line.” Shell has recently extended the product line of its lubricants by producing CNG lubricants by the name of “Shell CNG Engine Oil.”

Heavy Advertising:

Another feature of a good market leader is to heavily advertise in order to compete with the competitors and to create more awareness amongst already existing and new customers. Shell also adopts the same strategy. It advertises both on electronic and print media to keep its customers well informed. The company has also started a magazine named “Spirit” to promote its products.

Effective Placement of Products: Shell has established a special council called “Product Placement Council.” Its sole function is to keep an eye on proper placement of the various products offered by the company. The council makes contracts with dealers and retailers regarding the placement of the products and also keeps checks in order to see that there is no violation of the contracts.

Price discounts and Allowances: Shell Pakistan Ltd. offers different kinds of discounts to its customers. Cash Discount: “A cash discount is a price reduction offered to buyers to pay their bills promptly.” Shell offers such discounts to its distributors. The distributors take the products from the depots and have to pay in a certain time period.

Schedule of Cash Discounts Offered by Shell

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Discount 2/10 net 30 4/10 net 40 6/15 net 50 8/20 net 60 10/25 net 70

Description It means that the distributor can get 2% discount, if he makes the payment within 10 days which is due in 30 days. Distributor can get 4% discount, if he makes the payment within 10 days which is due in 40 days. Distributor can get 6% discount, if he makes the payment within 15 days which is due in 50 days. Distributor can get 8% discount, if he makes the payment within 20 days which is due in 60 days. Distributor can get 10% discount, if he makes the payment within 25 days which is due in 70 days.

Quantity Discounts: “A quantity discount is a reduction in price on the basis of quantity purchased or consumed.” There is no set pattern according to which Shell offers quantity discounts, however it keeps on introducing certain schemes in order to keep its customers and consumers satisfied and intact. Examples of Quantity Discounts:  Offering 1 or 2 liter of fuel free for the purchase of 10 or 20 liters of fuel from a Shell Fuel Station.  Shell distributors offering a free bottle of Shell Advance S4 (0.7 ltr) for every purchase of Shell Oil carton.

Promotion Advertising:

“Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor.” Kinds of Advertisement: There are different kinds of advertisements which a company may adopt during the PLC. Shell also requires advertising its products in order to create awareness about the new or already existing products. 12

The types of advertisements which Shell Pakistan Ltd. Has adopted are as follows: Informative Advertisement: “The type of advertising which is done during the introduction stage of a product is known as informative advertising.” Shell adopted this strategy when it launched its Shell Helix CNG Oil. It adopted all kinds of media to inform the public about the new product. Shell advertised through Television, News Papers, billboards, etc.to build a good product image in the minds of the customers. Persuasive Advertising: “The advertising done to compete with the competitors and to create more demand of the product in comparison to the competitor’s products, is known as persuasive advertisement.” Shell Pak Ltd. also adopts such strategy to compete with its competitors. You must have seen various adds of Shell featuring celebrities like Michael Schumacher in order to make them attractive and also adds in which comparison is made among Shell and competitor’s products. Comparison features include purity, viscosity, efficiency and performance.

Kinds of Media to be Used for Advertising “Media is basically a carrier which carries a message or any kind of information from the sender to the receiver.” The different kinds of media used by Shell Pak .Ltd. are: • Television • Radio(Especially FM stations) • • • • •

Internet Telephone Service (This function is performed by “Shell Edge” customer services centers. Their toll free number is 0800-22737) Newspapers Magazines (Shell has its own magazine “Spirit”) Billboards

The BCG Matrix The business portfolio is the collection of business and products that make up a company. The best portfolio is the one that fits the company’s strengths and helps to exploit the most attractive opportunities. The company must:

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• •

Analyze its current business portfolios and decide which should need more or less investment. Develop growth strategies for adding new products and businesses to the portfolio while, at the same time, deciding which products and businesses should no longer be retained. An SBU is a unit of the company that has a separate mission statement and objectives and that can be planned independently from the other businesses. An SBU can be a company division, a product line or individual brands.

Stars: Stars are high growth businesses competing in the market. Often they need heavy investment to sustain their growth.

Cash Cows:

Cash cows are low growth businesses with relatively high market share. These are mature successful businesses with relatively little need for investment.

Question Marks: These are the SBUs with low market share but which operate in higher growth market.

Dogs: Dogs refer to businesses that have relatively low share in unattractive low growth markets. Organizations prefer to divest from dogs.

Shell in BCG Matrix We put Shell in Stars in the BCG Matrix because shell has a good market share and it has the opportunities to grow more.

The SWOT Analysis SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities &Threats. In which, Strengths and weaknesses are related with internal environment of the organization and opportunities and threats are related with external environment of the organization.

Strengths: Shell strengths mean what are the positive points of the organization. The strengths of shell Pakistan Ltd are:  The managers regard their sub ordinates.  Main focus of the organization to increase their customers. 14

         

Managers use participative approach. Their employees are highly motivated. They hire local employees. No clash with GOVT. or any agency. They care about the hygienic factor. Shell is using effective means for the promotion of its products. Shell provides in time deliver to their petrol pumps. Incentive based policies for motivating employees. Shell has international Standard petrol pumps. Mobile training units keep the staff up-to-date.

Weaknesses:  They are not offering any package to their regular customers.  They are not offering any bonus package scheme.  Shell has eight regional retail managers. They are insufficient to handle the problems.  They have no proper shades and sitting arrangement at the filling stations.  There is no proper drainage system at filling station.

Opportunities:  Shell is an international company so it should introduce packages.  Company has an opportunity to give special packages to its employees.  Company has opportunity to install more CNG as well as petrol pumps in rural areas of Pakistan.

Threats: Threats are actually competitors.  PSO and CALTEX improvement.  Installation of stations by TOTAL.  The smuggling of petrol in Balouchistan from Iran.  Entry of new companies in the refinery sector.

Environmental Analysis External Environment: For the analysis of external environment following are important factors (PEST).

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   

Political forces Economic forces Socio cultural forces Technological forces

Political forces: In Pakistan there are rapid changes of Government since poison. Each government that came in power condemned the planning work done by the precious government. The slow development due to political instability but now the preset government is very stable to grow because govt. is providing incentives to different industries.

Economic forces: In Pakistan GNP is 5.41 and inflation rate is very high which is 12.7. The balance of payment position in Pakistan is -3.5%. The employment rate is 34.94 million.

Socio-cultural forces: In Pakistan population is increasing and social values are also changing so the demand of fuel consumption is also increasing. People are coming from rural areas to cities and their motor cycle for traveling. Pakistan’s attempt to raise the living standards of its citizens has meant that economic development has largely taken precedence over environmental issues.

Technological forces: Pakistan environment regarding the technology is not very advance due to the lack of resources. Natural gas, because of its environmental qualities, efficiency, and technological advances are going to play an increasingly important role in meeting demand for clean energy.

Internal Environment:    

Customer Supplier Labor component Competitors

Customer:

Our customer is high class, low class and also middle class, because every class is used petrol for consumption.

Supplier: 16

Our suppliers are Pakistan refinery, National refinery and Attock refinery and Dhodak refinery.

Labor component: Labor is frequently available in Pakistan because of high unemployment rate. Skilled and unskilled persons are available at lower wages.

Competitors: Major competitors of Shell are PSO with petrol pumps and Caltex with petrol pumps. But shell Pakistan limited operates in the petroleum refinery sector. Shell Pakistan limited also competes with three other petroleum refiners in Asia

Organizational Resources Shell has established 1404 petrol filing station in different areas of Pakistan. But now the company is trying to reduce the number of petrol filing station because they do not need that filing station, whose monthly sales are less then 500000 liters. Up till now about 50 pumps are renovated in different cities of Pakistan. Number of Depots in Pakistan: Shell has got 14 depots in different areas of Pakistan.

Types of Resources: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)

Marketing Financial Research and Development Human Resource Operation Information System

Marketing: Shell has strong distribution channels. Their market size is very large. Therefore, marketing staff is very efficient and their main objective is satisfying the customer and people have the brand loyalty. Market leadership due to innovation: Shell is considered to be the market leader in innovation. It was the first company to get legal approval to operate mini-market. It was the first among its competitors to introduce (rainbow) jet wash and

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(prosper) branded oil change facility. It provides suggestive literatures to its customers while launching a new product such as Helix super and Helix Lubricant etc. It was also the first company to introduce the concept of Mobile Training Unit (MTU) for the purpose of training the workers and workers and introducing quality and quantity control units, which check the quality and quantity of major gasoline at various filing stations. Innovation the key to opportunity: Innovation use of technology is the key to other possible opportunities related to remote gas reserves that remain stranded due to the prohibitive cost of development.

Research and Development: Research and development strategy deals with product and process innovation and improvement. Shell spends on research and development more than most in the other companies to differentiate the performance of its products to its competitors.

Human Resources: Shell provides the training facilities to their labor and management to create the good relation to their employees. Shell Company also motives its employees and provides different incentive on their good performance.

Operation: Operation of the company is based on continues improvement is the acknowledgement that workers experience and knowledge can help to shoe production problem and contribute towards tightening variances and reducing error.

Information System: Shell design and manage high-class information system that improves the productivity and decision-making. In organization information may be collected, stored and synthesized in such manner that answers important operational and strategic questions. Information system is one of the strength of the organization. It provide aid in environmental scanning and in controlling activities, it can also used as a weapon in gaining competitive advantage.

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Financial Performance: Sales Analysis: Shell Pakistan Limited reported sales of 63.63 billion Pakistan rupees for the fiscal year ending June of 2001. This represents an increase of 76.2%, versus 2000.When the company’s sales were 36.12 billion Pakistan rupees. During 2001, the company’s sales increased at a faster rate than all three comparable companies. While shell Pakistan limited enjoyed a sales increase of 76.2% the other companies saw smaller increases; Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited sales were up 29.1%, National Refinery Limited increased 15.9%, and Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemical Limited experienced a sales decline of 6.3%. Shell Pakistan Limited currently has 608 employees with sales of 63.63 billion Pakistan Rupees.

Stock Performance: In recent years, this stock has performed terribly. In fiscal year 2000 the stock traded as high as 367.50 Pakistan rupees. During the past 13 weeks the stock has fallen 803%. During the 12 months ending 30/06/01, earnings per share totaled 30.12 Pakistan rupees per share. Thus, the price/Earning ratio is 5.48. Earning per share fell 18.7% in 2001 from 2000.The Company’s price to book ratio is higher than that of all three comparable companies, which are trading between 0.25 and 0.97 times book value.

Profitability Analysis: On the 63.63 billion Pakistan rupees in sales reported by the company in 2001, the cost of goods sold totaled 44.75 billion Pakistan rupees, or 70.3% of sales. This gross profit margin is significantly better then the company achieved in 2005, when cost of goods sold totaled 91.1% of sales. Shell Pakistan Ltd’s 2001 gross profit margin of 29.7% was better than all three companies.

Competitor Analysis 19

Shell Pakistan Limited Operates in the Petroleum refining sector. This Analysis compares shell Pakistan Limited with three other petroleum refiners in Asia.

Pakistan State Oil: The past of PSO dates back to mid-70s when the Government of Pakistan amalgamated three “Oil Marketing Companies”: Esso Eastern, Pakistan National Oil (PNO) and Dawood Petroleum as part of its “Nationalization Plan”. The company is the only public sector entity in Pakistan that has been competing effectively with three multinationals (Shell, Caltex and Total). PSO is currently enjoying over 73% share of Black Oil market and 59% share of White Oil market. It is engaged in import, storage, distribution and marketing of various petroleum products including mogas, high speed diesel (HSD), fuel oil, jet fuel, kerosene, liquified petroleum gas (LPG), compressed natural gas (CNG) and petrochemicals. PSO also enjoys around 35% market participation in lubricants and is blending/marketing Castrol brands, in addition to a wide array of its own. It is considered as one of the most successful mergers in the history of Pakistan. The company has retail coverage of over 3,800 outlets, representing 80% participation in total industry network. The company has been the winner of Karachi Stock Exchange Top Companies Award for many years and is a member of World Economic Forum. PSO serves a wide range of customers throughout Pakistan including retail, industrial, aviation, marine and government/defence sectors. PSO has been meeting the country’s fuel needs by merging sound business sense with national obligation. The Government of Pakistan(GOP) holds approximately 54% stake in Pakistan State Oil Company Limited (“PSO”), including both direct holdings of the Federal Government and indirect holdings through GOP owned institutions. The GOP is in the advanced stages of divesting 51% of the in PSO to a strategic investor.

Current Marketing Strategy of Shell Pakistan Ltd The current strategy of shell is concentrate on its business and selected market areas. By using this strategy company expands its business by upgrading petrol pumps in the country. Especially they are concentrating in the following three areas:  Customer Services 20

 Brand Image  Quality and quantity

Customer Services:

Shell Pakistan Ltd is working for customer satisfaction because customers play a very vital role in the prosperity or failure of a particular company. That is the reason that shell is operating with the basic aim to satisfy its customers and provide better and better service to its customer. In brief it can be said that shell gives a strong emphasis on customer services.

Seven Steps for better Customer Services:

Every shell operation site follows the seven-point formula for providing customer service to its customer is stated below: 1. As customer drive in, guide him to a vacant filing unit by a neatly uniformed attendant of the petrol pump. 2. Then the attendant well comes to that customer from the driver side. 3. Attendant takes the keys from the customer. After that the attendant asks to the customer about the quantities of fuel. 4. The attendant shows meter reading before filing the fuel to the customer. 5. After filling the tank attendant tells the customer to see the meter reading and amount of liters, hands over the keys and takes amount from customer. 6. Attendant asks to the customer that he would like to purchase an international high quality of Rimula X. 7. Then the attendant cleans windscreen of the vehicle and say good-bye with smile. By this procedure customer feels that he is being given proper attention and he will come again to the filling station to fill the tank of his vehicle.

Brand Image:

The Second strategy of shell is creating a strong Brand image of the company in the customer mind. In Visual terms, the installation of Shell’s Retail Visual Identity (RVI) makes a striking and immediate difference between shell’s gasoline stations and those of its competitors, Pakistan state Oil (PSO) and Caltex. The RVI programmed is massive, for the 1200 or so sites which shell inherited through the take over, around two thirds are scheduled to be developed as RVI sites, many of them being completely redesigned from the underground storage tanks up. In addition, new sites are being acquired in strategic locations.

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Quality and Quantity: The third strategy of the company is to set standards for reliability and honest dealing because it is fundamental to the company’s reputation. For the improvement of quality and quantity following points are important.  Mobile Training units  Quality and Quantity Control Units

Mobile Training units: Mobile Training Units Visit sites keeping staff up to date on a whole range of topics including most importantly, issues of health, safety and environment. Mobile training units train the workers in different filling stations.

Quality and Quantity Control Units: Another mobile innovation cover fuels quality assurance, an area where cynical disregard of standards, manifested by dilution of premium grades with low-cost gasoline has become so common that customers have given up complaining about it. Recognizing the importance to the company’s reputation for delivering the right quality of fuel, shell has introduced random gasoline testing forecast. Technicians operate what are, effectively, mobile field laboratories, testing fuels quality using an octane meter. According to shell, “ Fuel Quality is fundamental to our reputation for honest dealing” Quantity control units check that whether the retailers are giving the right quantity or less quantity of fuel to the customers. The quantity is checked through various instruments. The quantity control units also check the digital pump.

Recommendations

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 There should be proper shades and proper sitting arrangements at the filling stations.  Lubricants should be disposed in a proper way to protect the environment from being polluted.  Shell should provide small incentive to its customers.  Schemes like “buy 50 liters of super and get a cola drink free”, should be kept introducing time to time.  Shell should make company operation site in every city to capture the new market.  There is only one thing that is constant that is change; shell should invest on research& development to cope with dynamic environment.  Company should establish new regional office to control the activities of company operations.  The company should provide the facility of free oil change on all its outlets.  Shell should develop modern retail outlets. These outlets should have all possible facilities for customers because one of the reasons behind decrease market share is modernization of competitors.  Shell should develop effective marketing programs that help the company to increase sales that will lead to increase the market share. In these market programs emphasis should be given to advertising, which is the most effective and efficient tools of promotion for such type of business.

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