GALP

: powering the low-cost market? The launch of Galp base

Abstract

After 11 years of a stable strategy focused on providing quality fuel and convenient service, Galp Energia made the headlines in September 2010 with the surprising launch of Galp Base, a pilot project that paved its way into the low-­‐cost market. The hard economic scenario lived in Portugal, the more and more price sensitive consumers and the low-­‐cost alternatives’ growth, were the main drivers to the decision to launch Galp Base. In this thesis Galp Base’s launch will be discussed, different alternatives to respond to new market conditions and alternatives of branding will be analyzed and key success factors of Galp Base will be identified. This thesis comprises a Case Study and a Literature Review to support the analysis presented in the Teaching Note section. Although there is no such thing as a single right answer when it comes to corporate strategy, this thesis aims to provide some generic principles on how to handle such challenges. Key conclusions can be summed up as that it is essential for senior managers to keep aware of evolving market conditions, to understand when and to what extent to react to them, and finally to do so in a way that produces the best possible outcome while limiting the downside of a poor market acceptance of the new products/services launched to respond to competitors.

Date of Award	2012
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Nuno Magalhães Guedes (Supervisor)