Influential factors in Gauteng consumers' choice of petrol stations

According to the results obtained above, a lot of people are influenced by the convenience factor of amalgamated shops, the friendliness of the staff, as well as their safety, are taken into consideration before heading to a particular petrol station. Other factors posed as questions on the survey received vague answers, which in turn did not qualify to be considered as part of the statistical results obtained. However, a minority of people are totally not influenced by the factors most commonly considered.

Shell was founded in 1907 by Marcus Samuel. Its headquarters are in the Netherlands. Shell was formerly known as Royal Dutch Shell plc because it was a British-Dutch oil and gas company. Shell operates all over the world, providing products such as petroleum, lubricants, natural gas, and petrochemicals.

British Petroleum formerly known as bp was founded by William Knox D Array on 14th April 1990. BP's headquarters are in London, England.

Bp has franchises all around the world. It originates from the founding of Anglo Persian Oil Company in1908, which was a peripheral of Burmah Oil Company to exploit oil discoveries in Iran.

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The Anglo Persian Oil Company then became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1935, later becoming British Petroleum in 1954.

Bp was the first company to ever discover oil in the epeiric sea on the European Continental Shelf 'the North Sea'. It was privatized by the British government between 1979 and 1987. Bp then amalgamated with Amoco in 1998, becoming BP Amoco plc and obtained ARCO and Burmah Castro in 2000, becoming Bp plc in 2001.

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Bp experienced a Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010 which was the largest accidental release of oil into the marine waters which had ripple negative effects.

Bp had to take accountability by pleading guilty to 11 counts of felony, manslaughter, two misdemeanors and they had to pay about $45 billion in fines and penalties, this was one of the largest criminal resolutions in the history of the United States of America.

Today Bp operates in many areas of the oil and gas industry, including providing petroleum, natural gas, motor fuels and aviation fuels. It is the company with the world's 12th largest revenue turnover and is the 6th largest oil and gas company according to the market capitalization (stock market).

Formerly known as the California Texas Oil Company, Caltex began in 1936. It was a joint venture between the Texas Company, later named Texaco and Standard Oil Company of California later named Chevron Corporation, to market oil from newly established businesses in Saudi Arabia which needed adjustments. It was renamed Caltex Petroleum Corporation in 1968.

The two umbrella head companies amalgamated in 2001 to form Chevron Texaco formerly known as Chevron in 2005 and Caltex remains as one of it.

Sasol is formerly known as South Africa Synthetic Oil Liquid.

Sasol Limited is a company that was formed in 1950 in South Africa to hold the countries assets of coal, oil and gas as well as its appendages, protected by the government during the apartheid era.

Introduction

This research task will be unraveling and dissecting what consumers are thinking before making a choice to head to a particular petrol station. It will be evaluating factors that influence their choices of either Bp, Caltex, Engen, Shell or Sasol, across the whole spectrum of the Gauteng area. The researcher will use different methods and tools to gather facts as well as present information on findings.

Engen formerly known as Engen Petroleum was founded in 1881 in South Africa, its headquarters are in Cape Town.

Engen serves its services all around Africa, as well as the Indian ocean islands. Engen focuses on refined petroleum products, crude oil and the provision of extensive retail networks, operating its own logistic fleet.

Strategies

In order to keep consumers returning on a regular basis, petrol station owners need to ensure that they hire staff members that are good with people and have good communication skills.

Petrol station owners need to ensure that they place managers with adequate managerial skills because having incompetent managers may have a negative effect on the business e.g. a consumer may request petrol for R500 but the petrol attendant mistakenly lets he's guard down off the petrol pump, and it exceeds to R510 and the client refuses to pay the extra R10 because it was due to the negligance of the petrol attendant. The manager with adequate skills would step in and acknowledge that the customer is 'right' and let them go, and remain encouraging the petrol attendant that mistakes happen and that sort of mistake should never happen again, in contrast with a incompetent manager is likely to deduct the R10 from the petrol attendants salary without acknowledging that it was a mistake and that could potentially cause the petrol attendant who is an employee to be unhappy and that will affect his/her mood when addressing the next customer.

Petrol station owners can keep consumers returning on a regular basis by ensuring that they incorporate convenient shops that they look for at malls but can also easily access at the petrol station e.g. ATMs, car wash, coffee shops, bakery or even one or two fast food joints. The Engen garage in Parktown on Umpire road has a Wimpy incorporated on the petrol station premises as well as a car wash, makes it difficult for people that head out to the wimpy or car wash to forget that they need to pour petrol.

Petrol station owners need to keep their amalgamated shops open 24/7 so that those stranded after 12am don't have to worry. E.g. Your car gets stuck on the road after 12am due to you forgetting that you needed to pour petrol, and it also happens that you are hungry during this whole ordeal. You can request an uber to the nearest petrol station in the area and when you get there, you can buy your petrol in a bottle, while waiting for it to be fully pumped, you can easily walk into your desired stall in the shop and buy your desired food.

In order to keep consumers returning on a regular basis, petrol station owners can incorporate charging stalls for cars that operate with electricity, so that they can be seen as being inclusive of all types of the consumers' needs when it comes to cars. This will be giving the petrol station a competitive advantage because there aren't any charging ports in petrol stations around the Gauteng area as well as around the country in general as opposed to other countries such as America, who have charging ports at their petrol stations.

Ensuring that there is petrol in all petrol stalls at all times is something petrol station owners need to be aware of because for example, if a customer were to drive into a petrol station, and their car is already running on low close to 0, only for them to find out that there is no petrol at that petrol station, this leaves the customer feeling stranded and it gives off an impression that the petrol station is inconvenient and unreliable.

Deliveries of petrol supplies for petrol stations should be done at night or in the evening when the sun has set to avoid petrol from evaporating.Methodology

This research task and the results provided will be obtained through primary research conducted and gathered through the use of a questionnaire and interview.

Interview:

  • A manager from Caltex was interviewed through a face to face discussion.
  • A request was made by the researcher to have a meeting with the manager from the prescribed petrol station above.
  • Questions relevant to the topic were asked and answered.
  • To access the questionnaire below open the following link:

Questionnaire Questions

  • Do you have a specific petrol station you use? Which one?
  • Why do you prefer using the proposed petrol station above?
  • When do you use your personally prescribed go-to petrol station? How often do you use it?
  • Are there any amalgamated shops that draw you to a petrol station? If yes, please specify
  • How do you as a consumer always leave a petrol station feeling like?
  • Do you have any major concerns before heading to a petrol station? Why?
  • Would you consider opening your own Petrol Station Franchise?

Appendix

Manager interview questions

  • As a manager of a petrol station, what are the challenges you are most faced with?
  • How do you deal with the problems faced?
  • Can a petrol station function without your presence?
  • What draws consumers to your petrol station?
  • What do you love the most about your job?

How do you handle unhappy customers?

  • How do you deal with conflict that may arise between the consumer and petrol attendant?
  • Is having amalgamated shops incorporated into the petrol station a good thing? Why?
  • What does your petrol station do to ensure customers return on a regular basis?
  • What makes your petrol station unique from its competitors? Does this give you a competitive advantage?

Manager Interview Answers

There are many challenges faced. E.g. Goods that are portable, such as chocolates, bubble gum, etc. are stolen because they are easily attainable on the shelves.

- People run away without paying for petrol. They are often not caught because of the fake registrations they put on their cars as number plates.

- Some customers pour petrol and then turn around and say they left their monies somewhere. E.g. Customer arrives at the petrol station to pour petrol, they wait until the petrol has been poured into the car and then turn around and say they do not have the money/they forgot it somewhere. They then leave fake ID's as bait, telling the petrol station manager, they'll be back.

- Challenges that we face that are stated above are often reported to the police but cases are never solved because there is not enough evidence and the culprits are often hard to find due to the fake registrations and fake identification.

- For things such as chocolates that are stolen and the culprit is caught, the petrol station manager often lets it go because they are tired of reporting minor cases that waste time, so they either give the culprit an option to pay for the item/items that have been shoplifted or leave the petrol station shop.

Yes, the petrol station can run without the manager around because when the manager isn't around, lower management is in charge.

Caltex Gauteng

When there's no petrol at the petrol station, the customer blames the manger for the problem.

When a truck delivers during the day, the petrol evaporates because of the sun and in most cases, petrol arrives shorter than what was prescribed. E.g. The Caltex garage orders 10 L of petrol, then the petrol is loaded on the truck in tanks from the deport to Gauteng, along the way, the sun is blazing hot, the petrol evaporates, by the time it arrives at the destination, there's 9.98L of petrol in the tanks.

Context And Discussion

Total Petrol Station is a French multinational integrated oil and gas company founded in 1924 and one of the seven 'Supermajor' oil companies in the world.

Total operates in the Oil and Gas industry. It was known as the French Petroleum Company". It had taken over Petrofina of Belgium in 1999, it was formerly known as Total Fina then. It then also acquired Elf Aquitaine first named TotalFinaElf after the merger in 2002, it became renamed back to Total in 2003. Total operates in a lot of countries all around the world.

Reference List

  • Total S.A. Wikipedia.com. Accessed 28 February 2019
  • Engen Garage Engen.com. Accessed 29 February 2019
  • BP Garage BP.com. Accessed 1 March 2019
  • Caltex S.A Wikipedia.com. Accessed 2 March 2019
  • Shell Garage Wikipedia.com. Accessed 3 March 2019
  • Survey Link Surveymonkey.com.

 

Updated: May 03, 2023

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Influential factors in Gauteng consumers' choice of petrol stations. (2019, Dec 11). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/thato-mackade-business-assignment-example-essay

Influential factors in Gauteng consumers' choice of petrol stations essay
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