Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) Marketing Strategy & Marketing Mix (4Ps)

Published in Services category by MBA Skool Team

Marketing Strategy of Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) analyzes the brand with the marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). These business strategies, based on Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) marketing mix, help the brand succeed in the market. Let us start the Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) Marketing Strategy & Mix to understand its product, pricing, advertising & distribution strategies:

Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) Product Strategy:

The product strategy and mix in Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) marketing strategy can be explained as follows:

Indian Oil Corporation is one the leading oil and gas companies in the world based out of India. IOCL is present across the hydrocarbon value chain and nearly accounts for half of India’s petroleum products market. Indian Oil Corporation’s product portfolio in its marketing mix includes: Indane gas, Auto gas, Natural gas, petrol, diesel, jet fuel, lubricants & greases, kerosene, industrial fuels, Bitumen, petrochemicals, crude oil and some other special products. IOCL is a leading player in petroleum and LPG with the brands like- Indane LPG, SERVO Lubricants, Autogas LPG, XtraPremium Petrol, XtraMile Diesel and PROPEL petrochemicals.

All these brands enjoy a good customer awareness and considered as super brands. Indian Oil Corporation’s other business includes refineries, pipeline transportation, distribution & marketing and Research & Development.


Image: Wikimedia


Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) Price/Pricing Strategy:

Below is the pricing strategy in Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) marketing strategy:

As Indian Oil Corporation is a government owned company some of the pricing decisions are taken by the central government after taking into consideration of all the taxes and subsidies made available in its initiatives and other prices are decided by the company itself. The prices set by Indian Oil Corporation are different at different places in India.

So we can say a geographical pricing mechanism is followed in its marketing mix. The prices are segmented into geographic locations like – metro cities, State capitals, National Capital Region (NCR). These prices are available in the company’s website as the price changes happens more often than not. Now let us see some of the prices in each product category: petrol price is varying between Rs.66 to 77 per litre; Diesel price is between Rs.56 to 64 per litre; Autogas at nearly Rs.35 - 40; ATF is at Rs.54000 to 58000 per KL for domestic airlines and $557 -602 per KL for international airlines. Indane Gas is priced at nearly Rs.434- 467 for the subsidised and non-subsidised prices are between Rs.651-672 per 14.2 Kg Cylinder. Indian Oil Corporation prices are also driven by crude oil prices in the world.

Read more about Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL)

Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) Place & Distribution Strategy:

Following is the distribution strategy in the Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) marketing mix:

Indian Oil Corporation has got a wide geographic presence. As far as the availability is concerned IOCL is omnipresent with its reach much higher than any other nearest competitor. Indian Oil Corporation controls 10 refineries across the country, over 10,900 Km of pipeline connecting to high demand places, 132 Km of gas pipeline and nearly 37000 plus customer touch points. Of these 3700 touch points – 20575 are the retail outlets, IOCL have an outlet in the world’s highest point. Nearly 6000 LPG distribution stations, 6,218 bulk consumer pumps and nearly 100 aviation fuel stations.

IOCL is present internationally also with subsidiaries in Sri Lanka, Mauritius and UAE.


Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) Promotion & Advertising Strategy:

The promotional and advertising strategy in the Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) marketing strategy is as follows:

Indian Oil Corporation is a Maharatna company and is actively involved in advertising. Being a public sector company and not in a heavy competitive environment the promotions done by IOCL are not aggressive or heavily mass media targeted. But it does promotional activities. These include collaborating with other companies and promoting IOCL in their campaigns, like once IOCL associated with Honda Motors and did some sales promotion campaigns in selected outlets. This is done to promote servo 4T oil. In this promotion winners have received vehicles from Honda. Indian Oil Corporation also has loyalty programs like fleet cards and customers can earn points and during festive seasons some gifts would be given to consumers through a lucky draw. Indian Oil Corporation does print advertisements and uses hoardings at its retail outlets.


Since this is a service marketing brand, here are the other three Ps to make it the 7Ps marketing mix of Indian Oil Corporation.


People:

Indian Oil corporation has a strong workforce of 33,000 employees working in its various business process. Most of the recruitments are done through advertisements in newspapers and company’s website. Building and developing human resources competence and motivated employees is a biggest strength IOCL can be proud of. It invests in training and development of its employees to develop their capabilities and facilitate Career progression. Its promotion policy and dealings with employees are fair and transparent. Indian Oil Corporation’s employees also hold equity in the company of nearly 65 lakh shares which is very high compared to any other organization.


Process:

Indian Oil Corporation has many business, distribution and people processes in place to serve customers and corporate clients. To remain profitable in a business the processes used to run should be working in an optimal rate. IOCL has taken every measure to improve the operational efficiency. For maximizing the LPG extracts for refinery it uses the INDMAX technology. In marine oils it developed OEM approved marine technology one of the few companies to do that in the world. In Needle Coke it has the best technology to make the needle coke of highest value. It uses DHDT and light naphtha isomers units to produce BS IV compliant fuel.


Physical Evidence:

Indian Oil Corporation has its physical presence felt form its geography wide presence on petrol pumps and gas stations. IOCL logo is a saffron circle with blue colour outer ring and a blue colour band in the middle of circle with ‘Indian Oil’ written in Devanagari script. Here saffron represents life and future while blue ring and band represents technology for creating energy. Indian Oil Corporation also has a tagline ‘The Energy of India’ representing it is a provider of energy resources to India. It releases financial statements every year for the information to investors which includes its future plans and development objectives. IOCL has its registered office in Mumbai and corporate office in Delhi. Hence, this completes the marketing mix of IOCL (Indian Oil Corporation Limited).


About IOCL (Indian Oil Corporation Ltd):

Indian Oil Corporation founded in 1959 is now the largest commercial enterprise in India. It also the leading Indian company in Forbes ‘Global 500’. Indian Oil Corporation sales turnover for the year 2015-16 is US $ 61 Billion and profit alone accounts to $ 1,589 million. IOCL is the India’s flagship oil company having a huge responsibility to meet the energy needs of world’s second largest country in terms of population. It is a public sector owned and Maharatna statured company. Indian Oil Corporation’s business include exploration, production of crude oil, natural gas and petrochemicals. Not only just exploration but also refining, pipeline transportation and marketing of these products making IOCL present across the spectrum of hydrocarbons. Indian Oil Corporation is now being led by Mr. B.

Ashok as its chairman till May 2017 and then the baton goes to Mr. Sanjiv Singh.

This article has been researched & authored by the Content & Research Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

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