Introduction
Brands have existed since the dawn of commerce. The first person to ever create a sign above their shop and outfit it with a personal symbol or signature created the very first brand in the world. However, the true emergence of brands as powerful tools of business and marketing emerged in the last hundred years, with the emergence of super corporations and the expansion of globalization. The 21st century, dubbed the Age of Information, gave corporate brand identity even more importance – if a business hopes to grow big and expand to various markets both inside and outside the country, having a recognizable brand is necessary.
So what exactly is brand identity? A wide definition of brand identity involves all of the components related to a particular product or a service. Aside from the name, logotype, company colors, tone, tagline, and slogan, it also includes traditions of customer service, quality of products, innovations, and various other aspects of the business. Many companies strive for their brands to be associated with some of the qualities valued by customers, be it high quality and performance, affordability, resilience, excellent customer care, etc. Depending on the nature of the business, some of these qualities may be more important than others.
Brand and package visualization are considered the most important to products and services that are often seen. Coca-Cola, Apple, Ikea, and other products that we use in our daily lives all have their names engraved into the minds of the customers (Grant 19). With oil products, however, the situation is different, as these products, while vital, are less flashy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the corporate brand identity of Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC), analyze its brand identity items, and provide recommendations and commentary based on the available information.
Company Background
Emirates National Oil Company is a large middle-eastern provider of oil, petroleum, gasoline, and natural gas operating and supplying its products and resources worldwide. It is an entity wholly owned by the government of Dubai, UAE. As such, it has a leading monopoly within its own country and retains one of the leading positions within the world’s combustible material supply chain. Its total assets, as of 2015, are valued at 18.2 billion dollars, and its yearly revenue varies from 14 to 15 billion (“About Us”).
ENOC was established in 1993 as part of the government effort to promote joint ventures, treating national oil reserves as strategic resources. The company provides all kinds of fuels, ranging from unrefined oil to petroleum and aviation fuel. Its products find use in over 60 markets worldwide, and its total number of employees counts at 9000 as of 2016 (“About Us”). Its strategy of entering foreign markets involves purchasing local gas and oil providers and creating offshore branch companies. However, the majority of the oil is still produced within Dubai. The purchase of Dragon Oil, another company operating within the UAE, which happened between 2011 and 2016, being finalized in 2017, helped double the company’s oil extraction and production values. ENOC has shown steady growth in assets and revenue since 2005, which began to decline only in 2015, due to the ongoing oil price crisis, various military and political conflicts in the GCC, and the agreement to reduce oil extraction outputs to normalize oil prices across the globe (“About Us”). In this situation, branding and corporate identity politics are important means of maintaining customer favor and recognition.
ENOC Corporate Colors
The company’s two primary corporate colors are dark red and Caribbean green. These colors are used to give the logo it’s own, separate identity when compared too other competitors in the market. In terms of color variation, ENOC follows the general trend of including red color into its logo. A comparative analysis shows that over 88% of companies operating in fuel and oil have red, yellow, or orange color in their logo. In marketing, these colors are associated with strength, warmth, and energy (Babolhavaeji 10). However, this aspect of brand identity is not as defined in ENOC corporate colors as it is in western companies, such as Shell, Castrol, or Mobil, as the chosen color has a darker hue. The color red is supposed to represent fire and is associated with oil and fuel-burning within the engine.
The second color used in ENOC’s logo is Caribbean green. It is supposed to symbolize gas production. Many companies specializing in both oil and gas follow a two-color scheme. The most famous representatives of such are Chevron (Bright Red and Blue), Clark (Red and Navy Blue), Mobil (Dark Red and Navy Blue), SuperAmerica (Red and Blue), among others (ENOC). In Brazilian petrol suppliers, as well as in some companies in the Middle East, gas is associated with the color green. This trend is represented by PetroBras and Iraq Oil, both of which use green colors to illustrate that one of their primary products is natural gas. Thus, in terms of coloring, ENOC follows a rather conservative pattern that falls well into trends and stereotypes regarding oil companies operating in the region. Their guide shows an emphasis on retaining corporate colors whenever possible, with variations acceptable only for black and white document printing, engravings, and watermarks.
ENOC Logo
When designing a logo for a company, there are several governing guidelines that are established to ensure its memorability and potential exploitation when importing on various surfaces (Adir 140). As a general rule, a logo must be simple, easy to scale down, demonstrate what the company is about, and be memorable enough for the customer to recognize it after being exposed to the brand several times through various means and channels. Being recognized by the customer is what branding is all about. It is especially important when trying to attract new customers. When shopping for the first time, faced with a multitude of similar choices, the customer is most likely to go with a brand he has at least some familiarity with, which is also true for the petroleum and oil industry. Modern standards for fuel and gasoline regulate its chemical composition, meaning that factually, there is little difference between ENOC products and any other products on the market (Grant 154). Retaining a loyal customer base through branding strategy, thus, is important.
ENOC has several variations of its logo to accommodate a variety of surfaces that the logo may be printed on, ranging from uniforms, T-shirts, pens, and other small corporate items and ending with logos placed on large oil cisterns, trucks, planes, and cargo ships (ENOC). Its pattern is that of a circle separated in two halves of different colors. Red is to the right, Caribbean green – to the left. In the middle, there is a spiraling figure, which is supposed to represent a flame. The company’s name is spelled in both English and Arabic, underneath. The choice of colors and the flame in the middle instinctively give the customer knowledge of what products does the company provides through the use of classic symbols associated with the oil industry.
Typography
Contrary to popular belief that nobody reads signs to put in logos, typography matters a lot. A successful choice of font coupled with memorable images and an intelligent advertising strategy can make or break a brand. The example of the successful use of typography as a tool of brand recognition is Coca-Cola, which does not have a symbol of its own to represent itself (Grant 78). In terms of design, their logo is practically nonexistent – it is just the name of the company written in white over a red circle. The font is what makes that design recognizable. If typography is included in the logo, it has to follow several roles: be short, succinct, recognizable, original, and scale well.
While ENOC realizes that font is important, as illustrated by the official guidelines they have published, the main purpose of the typography is to make the customer associate the name of the company with the logo above it (ENOC). To make the sign short and succinct, ENOC uses an acronym for itself, instead of typing out its full name: Emirates National Oil Company, as that name is long and cumbersome to fit on smaller surfaces such as pens, badges, visit cards, etc. To stand apart from other companies, ENOC chose two relatively unique fonts – Frutiger Arabic font for Arab letters and Futura font for Latin letters. The lines in both styles are thick, meaning that letters scale well and are readable even when utilized on small surfaces. However, while the style is readable and unique, ENOC does not aim for the same effect with their font as Coca-Cola does, as the main attraction and recognition of the brand come from the logo. In that, ENOC is different from the majority of its competitors, whose logos contain large, scaled signs.
Uniforms
Uniforms are an important part of any large company’s branding strategy. First and foremost, uniforms allow propagating the company’s colors and image, as its employees would interact with customers while wearing them (Babolhavaeji 14). Second, it allows for an opportunity to have customers associate the colors with the company’s products and services. Every successful company makes sure to include the company’s logo and name on their official uniforms. When designing company uniforms, a company must keep several guidelines in mind: logos and colors must be chosen tastefully and appropriate to the position of the wearer, signs must be visible and readable, with minimal distortions, and there should not be too many of them (Adir 143). Nobody likes a walking billboard, and the overabundance of signs and logos blurs the perception of the customer rather than enhances it.
ENOC features three types of uniforms. The first type of uniform is for gas station attendance. It is dark red, with the logos of the company placed on the front, sleeves, and back. The third type is for employees working on the fuel and gas extractors and refineries. Their color is dark blue, with the company logo located on the front and back of the uniform. Lastly, there is the uniform for office workers and official representatives, or rather a lack thereof. There is no official standard for office workers, and the top managers of the company are typically wearing traditional Arabic clothes with an identity card around their necks (ENOC).
Slogan
Having a slogan plays an important role in the overall branding strategy of a company. Although the necessity for a short and catchy phrase is not as pressing as it was in the 20th century, which was the age of radio and short TV commercials, it is still an important tool to help potential customers associate a particular product or service with the company. Some of the famous examples of slogans being successful are McDonald’s “I’m lovin’ it,” “Save Money – Live Better” (Walmart), and “Just Do It” (Nike) (Grant 39). The use of a slogan enables effective advertising through radio, which remains the primary source of entertainment and information for automobile drivers, who have their eyes and hands otherwise engaged driving the vehicle.
As it stands, ENOC does not have a defined slogan for its company. It is not displayed on their official page nor used in any of their brand promotion outlets, such as symbols, logos, and other media. However, as of 2015, the company has engaged in a campaign to promote green products, as a part of Dubai’s effort to increase its ecological sustainability (ENOC). One of the slogans adopted with its green products is “Take the Green Route,” which is featured in advertisements of green petrol, diesel fuel, air-fuel, and car oil. However, it is not the company’s official slogan as of yet, as the company’s alleged dedication to ecology is contradicted by its expansion of refinery stations and oilfields both inside and outside of the UAE.
Site Name and URL
Although considered a relatively minor factor by the customers, ENOC puts emphasis on the proper use of the company site’s URL on all brand outlets (ENOC). The information about the proper appearance of the company’s site is included in its official branding guidelines. Nowadays, URLs tend to be clotted with useless information that has very little to do with actual brands and only obfuscates the experience for the end-user. HTTPS stands for hypertext transfer protocol, which is a protocol used to conduct safe transactions with the site in question. WWW stands for World Wide Web, an acronym used for the Internet. Although adding these acronyms was supposedly important back in the days when they were conceived, nowadays their presence is largely useless – HTTPS has become the golden standard of safe internet surfing, and since the World Wide Web is a collective entity, there is no purpose in identifying what web the user is currently in. However, a short and snappy acronym like the ENOC would be lost when settled next to two more acronyms like the HTTPS and the WWW, which is why the company instructs all of its brand managers to dispose of both, and present the address of the corporate site as ENOC.com. That way it is much easier for the end-users to memorize.
Vision and Mission
Vision and mission are some of the “silent factors” of corporate branding identity. Few customers bother to research the company they purchase oil and petrol from, enough to visit their site and read their vision and mission statements. However, to be seen by the customers is not the primary purpose of vision and mission statements. The primary goal of these branding factors is to guide and enhance the understanding of corporate goals by the employees and improve their dedication as a result. These tie in with productivity, quality service, and control. Thus, indirectly, vision and mission statements support the brand name by making the company more dedicated to its purpose and efficient at what it is doing. At the same time, corporate vision and mission statements come into play when facing mass media, and can make or break a brand as well. The most famous example of a vision statement lending fame and success to a company is Steve Jobs’ affirmation that Apple’s purpose is “To contribute to the world by making tools for the mind that advance humankind.”
ENOC’s vision and mission statements are as follow (“About Us”):
- Mission Statement: “To deliver world-class sustainable and integrated energy solutions. We do so by striving for excellence in operations, innovation, and happiness for our employees, customers, and partners.”
- Mission Statement: “To be an innovative energy partner, delivering sustainable value and industry-leading performance.”
In terms of originality, ENOC’s mission and vision statements are typical to those of other companies within the industry. A quick search indicated that these statements are largely similar to those of other oil and gas companies, such as Shell, BP, PetroBras, PetroChina, and others. They are product-oriented, with a focus on performance, excellence, and (since ecological safety has become a trend) concern for the environment.
Vehicle Livery
Vehicle livery is very important for gas and oil producers. With numerous trucks and cisterns circulating across the roads of many countries, it is never a good idea to ignore such a cheap and effective way to gain brand exposure (Babolhavaeji 14). Vehicle livery is especially effective for petrol companies, as emblems and logos put on transports are largely seen by drivers, who are the prime target audience and major consumers of petrol, oil, gas, and other related goods. Thus, oil and petrol companies make certain their logos are placed on each side of their vehicles to ensure maximum exposure when cars are passing left, right, or follow behind the truck.
ENOC is no different in that regard. They utilize large empty spaces on gas and oil cisterns to advertise themselves. They use the standard logo and color scheme for these purposes. The only difference is that, while on the standard logo the sign is placed under the imagery, on a truck logo it is placed to the right and is written in a larger font, to cover more space and make the name of the company more visible (ENOC). However, decorating trucks with brand symbols is not the only means of vehicle livery utilized by ENOC. Their corporate transport shares the color scheme of the logo in the form of stripes, with the company logo placed on the doors to the left and the right. Large transports, such as planes or ships, usually follow the same pattern, with the logo being placed on large and symmetrical spaces, whereas company colors would decorate elongated spaces such as the wings or sides.
Brand Media Outlets and Image
The 21st century is dubbed as the “Age of Information” due to the appearance of numerous information channels and their wide availability to the population. While the press, the radio, and the TV were the primary sources of commercial brand promotion in the past century, the internet managed to replace it as one of the primary means of visual, textual, and audio information. However, the standard information channels retain their significance and continue to do so for at least 20 years (Tuten and Solomon 32).
ENOC utilizes all available media channels to promote its brand name and its products. These include TV advertisements, visual advertisements on billboards, and radio shout-outs. The company as a large presence on the internet, possessing its own Facebook group, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Youtube channels. Also, it has an official website with all the necessary company, product, and financial information available in open use. ENOC makes use of corporate colors in all of their media outlets, as part of their corporate branding strategy, to further familiarize the customers with their colors and symbolic, and achieve a positive disposition towards the brand name through familiarity.
Having a positive brand media image is crucial for company success (Tuten and Solomon 15). Despite branding being the main strategy in modern marketing, it is a double-edged sword. While positive feedback and reputation can improve corporate image and increase sales and market share, it can backfire just as easily. Any major failure or malpractice made public by the independent media or competitors is likely to cause great harm, as people would be associating the company with publicized negative events. One of the prime examples connected to the oil industry is the story of BP (British Petroleum), as their name is now associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010, which is considered to be one of the largest environmental disasters up to date.
ENOC, while not connected to the Deepwater Horizon incident in any way, shared some of the backlashes through the virtue of being an oil-drilling company. Ever since 2010, the company took a course of promoting itself as an environmentally friendly company. As it has strong ties to the government, it utilizes important media outlets such as the Gulf News and Khaleej Times to project the image of a company that cares about green energy (“About Us”). A new line of environmentally friendly oils and petroleum products and the adoption of the slogan “Take the Green Route!” is aimed to further enhance that image.
Photography
Photography is an important part of any branding strategy. It allows us to connect the sometimes abstract and ephemeral concepts of logo and slogan with reality and is useful for demonstrating the people, efforts, and processes behind the creation of particular products and services. Photography can be used in many ways to make the brand memorable, either by publishing photos of celebrities and various social figures endorsing a particular service or product, or providing exposure of the brand’s best employees as means of public appreciation. Photography is often used to decorate packages and billboards.
ENOC has several policies regarding the use of photography. The key policy is not to use photography as part of the background of the company logo. The reasons for that are simple – the logo will distort the image and the message of the photograph, whereas the photograph is an uneven background in terms of color, therefore is improper for a logo to be placed on. According to the guidelines, logos can only be placed on a solid-color background. When it comes to promotional materials, ENOC utilizes photos of cars, workers working on oil plants, gas stations, and leaders attending various conferences. The product itself, as in oil or gas, is rarely used as a motif for promotional materials due to its heavily loaded meaning – photos of open oil wells are associated with ecologically unfriendly drilling practices and pollution. Photos utilized by ENOC are pristine and made by professional photographers. All photos use watermarks to protect the company’s copyright claims (ENOC).
Conclusions and Recommendations
As it was presented in this paper, ENOC has done great work in establishing a well-recognized and respected corporate brand. They utilize all the available brand promotion outlets with a great degree of efficiency, which, along with government support and good media image, helps the company promote its name across the Middle East and in the countries of the GCC. Based on the information presented above, I managed to analyze ENOC’s brand promotion practices and come up with several recommendations to enhance them. These recommendations would be useful in establishing the company in the new markets, where ENOC, no doubt, plans to expand shortly.
The first thing that I would suggest for them to change to promote their brand in European countries is the choice of wardrobe for their primary executives attending meetings and press conferences. Their current wardrobe is very eastern, which does not correlate with the western business etiquette and branding traditions. To fit in, the corporate branches in Europe must adopt a more westernized style, with a small corporate badge placed tastefully on the chest. Employee uniforms could be changed to represent the company’s products better, using the combination of green and dark-red rather than simple red or blue (Grant 54).
The adoption of a slogan is critically important to make the company’s brand more memorable. While there is some movement in that direction, ENOC does not currently possess an official slogan or a motto. Devising a slogan that would represent the company’s products and ideals in a swift and catchy manner would make its advertising efforts more successful and attract more potential customers (Adir et al. 144).
Lastly, the company’s vision and mission should be revised. As it stands, ENOC does not have anything in its vision and mission statement that would set it apart from its direct competitors. While the statements themselves are relatively on point, they lack greater wisdom and a greater vision for the company, the industry, and humankind in general (Grant 140). The introduction of a new vision statement could be coupled with the presentation of a new, groundbreaking product, and may earn ENOC fame in the same manner Steve Jobs did. Apple, for all of its successes, produces a commodity that humanity can do without if need be. Oil, on the other hand, makes the world go around.
Works Cited
“About Us.” ENOC. Web.
Adir, Victor, et al. “How to Design a Logo.” Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 122, 2014, pp. 140-144.
Babolhavaeji, Milad, et al. “The Role of Product Color in Consumer Behavior.” Advanced Social Humanities and Management, vol. 2, no. 1, 2015, pp. 9-15.
ENOC. Brand Guidelines. 2017. Web.
Grant, Robert. Contemporary Strategy Analysis: Text and Cases. 9th ed., Wiley, 2016.
Tuten, Tracy, and Michael Solomon. Social Media Marketing. Sage, 2017.