Shell Attempts to Retu

rn to Premiere Status

The Shell Oil Company, which began about 1912, had been for decades a household name as a quality oil

company in the United States. However, by the late 1970s much of its prestige as a premiere company had

disappeared. How could Shell regain its high status?

In the 1990s, Shell undertook an extensive research effort to find out what it needed to do to improve its image. As

a first step, Shell hired Responsive Research and the Opinion Research Corporation to conduct a series of focus

groups and personal interviews among various segments of the population. Included in these were youths,

minorities, residents in neighborhoods near Shell plants, legislators, academics, and present and past employees

of Shell. The researchers learned that people believe that top companies are integral parts of the communities in

which the companies are located rather than separate entities. These studies and others led to the development of

materials that Shell used to explain their core values to the general public.

Next, PERT Survey Research ran a large quantitative study to determine which values were best received by the

target audience. Social issues emerged as the theme with the most support. During the next few months, the

advertising agency of Ogilvy & Mather, hired by Shell, developed several campaigns with social themes. Two

market research companies were hired to evaluate the receptiveness of the various campaigns. The result was the

Count on Shell campaign, which featured safety messages with useful information about what to do in various

dangerous situations.

A public Count on Shell campaign was launched in February 1998 and met with considerable success: the ability

to recall Shell advertising jumped from 20% to 32% among opinion influencers, and more than 1 million copies of

Shell's free safety brochures were distributed. By promoting itself as a reliable company that cares, Shell seems to

be regaining its premiere status.

Today, Shell initiates and supports several programs in which the company and employees are involved in

community and civic activities. These programs range from local improvement projects to fundraising events for

regional nonprofit organizations. According to company sources, every year, more than 1,500 Shell employees,

retirees and their family members contribute, on average, more than 40,000 hours for company-sponsored

volunteer initiatives nationwide in the United States. Some of these include America's WETLAND Campaign,

Shell's Workforce Development Initiative, and United Way campaigns. Shell U.S. has been a strong supporter of

the Points of Light Foundation; and each fall, Shell volunteers participate in the cleaning of beaches in Texas,

Louisiana, and California. In addition, Shell sponsors the Shell Houston Open PGA golf tournament, which has

raised $50 million since 1974 for various children's charity organizations.

DISCUSSION

7.1

Suppose you were asked to develop a sampling plan to determine what a premiere company is to the

general public. What sampling plan would you use? What is the target population? What would you use

for a frame? Which of the four types of random sampling discussed in this chapter would you use? Could

you use a combination of two or more of the types (two-stage sampling)? If so, how?

7.2

It appears that at least one of the research companies hired by Shell used some stratification in their

sampling. What are some of the variables on which they are stratified? If you were truly interested in

ascertaining opinions from a variety of segments of the population with regard to opinions on premiere

companies or about Shell, what strata might make sense? Name at least five and justify why you would

include them.

7.3

Suppose that in 1979 only 12% of the general adult U.S. public believed that Shell was a premiere

company. Suppose further that you randomly selected 350 people from the general adult U.S. public this

year and 25% said that Shell was a premiere company. If only 12% of the general adult U.S. public still

Sampling and Sampling Distributions

http://edugen.wile

yplus.com/edugen/courses/crs7482/ebook/c07/YmxhY...

1 of 2

3/27/2015 11:12 AM

believes that Shell is a premiere company, how likely is it that the 25% figure is a chance result in

sampling 350 people?

Hint:

Use the techniques in this chapter to determine the probability of the 25% figure occurring by

chance.

7.4

PERT Survey Research conducted quantitative surveys in an effort to measure the effectiveness of

various campaigns. Suppose on their survey instrument, they used a continuous scale of from 0 to 10

where 0 denotes that the campaign is not effective at all, 10 denotes that the campaign is extremely

effective, and other values fall in between to measure the effectiveness. Suppose also that a particular

campaign received an average of 3.6 on the scale with a standard deviation of 1.4 early in the tests. Later,

after the campaign had been critiqued and improved, a survey of 35 people was taken and a sample

mean of 4.0 was recorded. What is the probability of this sample mean or one greater occurring if the

actual population mean is still just 3.6? Based on this probability, do you think that a sample mean of 4.0

is just a chance fluctuation on the 3.6 population mean, or do you think that perhaps it indicates the

population mean is now greater than 3.6? Support your conclusion. Suppose a sample mean of 5.0 is

attained. What is the likelihood of this result occurring by chance when the population mean is 3.6?

Suppose this higher mean value actually occurs after the campaign has been improved. What does it

indicate?