• Brandweek, Monday, May 10, 2010 10:47 AM

BP has a PR challenge of a different magnitude to deal with as oil continues to gush out of a malfunctioning well 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, threatening vast swaths of the ecosystem. The company has been promoting itself as "Beyond Petroleum" since 2000, and branding experts are of two thoughts about whether that positioning has built up enough good will to enable it to weather the current disaster, Todd Wasserman reports.

BP had been No. 1 on Brand Keys' Customer Engagement Loyalty Index for the gasoline category since it launched the "Beyond Petroleum" campaign, but it has dropped to dead last following the spill. Thirty percent of consumers will go out of their way not to buy from BP now, according to Brand Keys president Robert Passikoff. He says that BP has been hoisted on its own green petard: "If you talk the talk, you can't blow up an oil rig."

Ted Marzilli, svp and global managing director for YouGov's BrandIndex, doesn't think too many consumers are going to consciously drive past BP pumps to gas up elsewhere, on the other hand. Consumers' general impression of BP is still positive, according to BrandIndex's data, he says. And Andrea Katz, chief "ideonista" for Ideon, says that the "Beyond Petroleum" campaign "has built up an equity they can now use."

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