Iberdrola: building a brand name in the Energy sector

Academics

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April 2008 | By Ramon Diaz Bernardo, Professor of Marketing at IE Business School

For years now, the energy sector has spurned marketing, but changes in legislation and share structures have brought about a shift in attitudes. Iberdrola is a prime example.

Marketing in energy enterprises, especially electricity companies, is a relatively new phenomenon. Indeed, until a short time ago, many of these companies did not even have a marketing department. The nearest they had was the public relations function or relations with the media, but not much more.

However, for a few years now, electricity companies have been discovering the world of marketing and the question is: why? What has led these companies to invest in marketing? Like almost everything in this sector, the answer has to do with changes to sector legislation and changes to the companies´ capital ownership structures. Yet, in my opinion, until the domestic consumer has the real capacity for choosing his electricity supplier, there will be no real competition. The introduction of a certain level of competition among electricity companies has led them to start investing in their corporate image and it has given rise to a concern for building a differentiated position. In addition, the electricity companies have invested heavily in marketing aimed in some cases at attracting investors (in the case of public invitations to bid) and in others at defending their “independence” (in the case of public takeover bids, especially if they are hostile).

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Teams comprising students from IE Business Schools Master in Financial Management have received the 2nd and 3rd prizes in the third edition of CFA Spainâ??s Financial Analysis Competition, run in collaboration with Bolsas y Mercados Españoles, Sol Meliá and Spanish daily El Economista. The 2nd prize went to the team formed by Ahmed Al Balooshi…

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Online Education in Era of 'Social Web'

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Prof. Enrique DansOnline education has a long and winding history. Initially regarded by many institutes as a very interesting option to lower costs and offer students a way to learn with interactive materials, it evolved into something that could be described as “education on steroids” â?? in a regular classroom, time with the professor is limited.

Once a student raises ones hand, the professor can either notice or not. In many cases, the number of people raising their hands can be quite high and itâ??s just impossible to allocate time for all of them. The student can ask a question or talk for only two to three minutes as the classmates may start to get nervous.

The professor has a split second to think about the question, and is forced to reply immediately â?? no real time connection from the brain to the Web has been invented yet. Finally, when it comes to grading, the professor may or may not recall that brilliant intervention from the student, and may or may not introduce it in the grade.

Now compare that to online education. At IE Business School a student sends a message to the online forum. The professor can either reply right away or send the question back to the forum for other students to build on it.

The dialogue can be much richer, diverse, involve more participants and one can build more knowledge and perhaps generate questions or lessons that could create new threads. In the end, when it comes to grading, everything is there, in the forum or digital drop box, waiting to be evaluated. The difference, is the richness of the digital medium â?? something that can really make a difference given the special characteristics of executive education, where students generally donâ??t have to memorize formulas or equations.

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