Marketing Biodiesel

The Marketing Of Renewable Energy

Peter Brown
European Marketing Tools

The next big revolution will come when we all realize that there is not enough energy available to ensure that we can all access our fair share.
The definition of fair share varies from country to country and even within countries, it varies widely depending on who is in charge, who is on top and who is most needy. In the United States, there is no restriction on buying gas, electricity and water. There is, according to the equation, enough for all. There is enough so that we can indulge in conspicuous consumption with blatantly oversized vehicles, houses and toys.

The problem is that for every gallon of gas or pound of coal, someone will be going without. Quite simply, there is no longer enough for all to have as much as they want.
Enter the economy of alternate energy sources, enter the radical idea that what one person can save is not for his own benefit but to add to the dwindling pool. There is no equivalent in our society that explains the concept of finding sources energy to ensure that the greedy can remain gluttonous.

Solar power is a rather fragmented example of this idea. Putting extremely expensive technology on the roof that will convert the rays of sun into electricity is easy to understand. But the payback on the investment is almost staggeringly slow, supported by generous and not so generous subsidies and tax breaks, the homeowner may one day pay back the cost of his installation in reduced electricity bills. The catch of the meter running backwards is that most of the time the meter runs forward, and revs up at night.
So why do it? We do it because the cost of not doing “it” is even higher. Solar power on the roof is a bold statement that the owner will become a contributor, not a consumer. The act of buying gas is a simple necessity; the act of making biodiesel fuel and running the car on it is an entirely different statement of non-cooperation.

Face it; hybrids are no-brain substitutes for existing cars. There is no pain in driving a Prius, which gets marginally better mileage than a raft of classic cars from the past; remember that the 1996 Geo Metro gets better mileage than the Prius, the Mini 850 was a fuel sipper. So the point of the Prius is that the owner continues to consume, and will add a stupendous pollution bill to the last owner of his car, fifteen years down the line when the batteries run down forever. But for the time being, he is riding in his unique statement. The challenge of biodiesel is to channel his attitude into buying a diesel powered car and insisting on biofuels. The challenge is huge

The business of renewable energy lies in ensuring that consumption of any form of energy is replaced by a like amount of available energy from a renewable source. Petroleum products are wrenched from the ground at ever increasing depths. The oil wells in Kuwait stretched into Iraq, which started the first oil war. What is pumped from the ground is not replaced; it is shipped, refined and burned. The result is mobility, pollution and less available energy.

A solar panel just sits there; every photon that hits the silicon cell generates a tiny pulse of energy. Although the sun is not an inexhaustible source of energy, by the time it runs out, we will have other, bigger problems to contend with. A river, well-managed and producing electricity through pelton turbines is fed by a renewable cycle of water to rain and back again. It too is a pure form of renewable energy, although we are going to heroic lengths to keep the electrons flowing from such remote areas as the James Bay, or the Chinese Gorges.

In the PR world, we have several ways to describe actions that lead to sales. There is the direct approach, which is an invitation to consume, and the indirect approach, which drives the consumer to want to consume. The alternate energy scene is right now mired in the first approach because the learning curve in America for biofuels has barely been touched. There is a fear of embracing what appear to be radical problems. Biodiesel is a clear case in point; will it damage my car? (no) Is it more expensive? (Not really), Do I need to make costly conversions? (no) and so on. On the other hand buying a hybrid is so much easier, I just pump gas and drive off, right?

So the first step is to educate the consumer, because we are a free society and we cannot just impose our decision on him. But our average consumer is not well educated in energy matters, why should he be? For years he has spent very little per mile for his transportation, very little for all his energy needs in general. Now the equation is changing, now he needs to think about things that Europeans have been debating since before WW II. A Belgian knows to the liter how much gas his car uses. He instinctively knows when it makes sense to take the train, or the car.

But Europeans have clear alternatives, trains that run on time, and can drop a passenger in the heart of the city in many ways faster than the airplane can. In the US there was a clear choice to eliminate that form of public transport to the advantage of the automobile economy. They also have very expensive petroleum products.

With our restricted infrastructure, the only real alternative to the car is… the car. So we are compelled to seek alternate energy sources to keep the individual automobile on the road. At the same time we can expand the use of biofuels into energy production like running generators, heating in home furnaces and other non-transportation situations.
Enter biodiesel, a simple solution to a complex problem. Take available organic materials and convert them to fuel.

Our industry is in transition because our consumers are buying our fuel for the same reasons that they would buy a Prius. The novelty of actually doing something that is not mainstream to enhance his image. Education is a hard road to go down, it entails removing the mystique of the alternate fuel label to appeal to a much greater public, and an increasingly ignorant buyer.

The present campaigns to sell the concept of biodiesel may actually be harming the sale of the product. We have enough buyers to meet our output, but unless we overcome the “special status” effect of our campaigns and our products we may not be able to go to the next level. The ethanol producers are doing a great job in getting the point across that their alternate fuel is the wave of the future. They have become accepted and mainstream, and they have not discussed the pros and cons of the product except to say that it is clean, available and cheap. They have no controversies, no possible negatives. The consumer is buying the argument and the fuel. Plants are being built all over the Midwest and the large petroleum companies are starting to take notice.

In a sense even a Prius owner will not question if his gas comes from Venezuela, Iraq or Nigeria. When Biodiesel reaches the stage when he does not even care what brand of biofuels is going into his tank, that’s when biodiesel will have achieved big dog status in the energy club.