A Study on Marketing Strategies of BPCL (Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd)’s Beyond LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) in India – at Hubli-Dharwad Region, Karnataka

The main challenging task for any business to survive in the present market is to retain its existing customers and to form a new bond with the upcoming customers. The relationship should be such that it should yield fruitful results to both company and its customers. Keeping this in mind, the company BPCL came up with an innovative concept known as “BEYOND LPG”. Beyond LPG is an innovative concept of value added service which was introduced in October 2003 by the company BPCL with a view to serve its customers at their door steps through its network of distributors. According to the concept, not only LPG cylinder is delivered, along with it the products as per the customers’ preferences are delivered at their door steps. The products includes home appliances, geysers, water purifiers, kitchenwares, kitchen utensils, groceries (tea powder, sugar, cooking oil, food grains), soaps, detergents, gas stove, etc. are delivered to the customers. As the time passed, beyond LPG was not yielding enough results as it was supposed to. This was due to the presence of bottlenecks in the business. In this study an attempt is made to know the problems that are actually obstructing the profitability of the business. Beyond LPG was started by the company through their distributors who are having wide network of customers. So it is very much necessary to know from where the problem is arising whether from the company or from the distributor or from the customers. Hence in the study an attempt is made to know from where the problem is occurring.