Abstract
The company was born in 1924 after Raymond Poincarré, the French president, asked Ernest Mercier to create a French oil company. In 1973, the significant growth of the activity enabled the French company to be present all around the world in the Middle East, North America, Oceania, Europe and Africa. Thanks to this strategy, Total is listed on the London Stock Exchange and on the Paris Stock Exchange as well. In 1980, after having seen some important growth, the group decided to grow through the acquisition of several petrochemical companies. Building from its success, Total merged in 1999 with PetroFina, becoming TotalFina, and in 2000 with Elf Aquitaine to create TotalFinaElf. Thanks to that strategy, the group is, now the world's fourth-biggest oil company beside Exxon Mobile, Shell and BP. Nowadays, TotalFinaElf has chosen to be Total SA and is run by its managing director (Christophe de Margerie) and the president of the board of directors (Thierry Desmaret). The group has more than 96000 employees. Financially, Total has a capitalization of 117 billion, for a turnover of 158 billion and a net result of 12 billion. This report could not treat the whole study of the market, and we will focus on the B to C relationship with the petrol distribution and more precisely on the service stations. The goal is to understand how Total managed and is managing its brand development strategy. To be aware of it, we will try to understand the relationship between the company and the consumers.
