When people think of biofuels, the first thing that usually comes to mind is ethanol and, perhaps with it, a roll of the eyes. Mention a chemical like biobased levulinic acid and one may expect a reaction of puzzlement with raised eyebrows. Such a chemical is not likely to ever become a household name compared to, say, corn-based ethanol. Nevertheless, some biorefining companies are recognizing that to heighten visibility of their products, they should consider, or perhaps reconsider, implementing a clear branding strategy within their marketing campaigns. By leveraging a branding strategy in a marketing campaign, particularly with diverse media at their fingertips, advanced biofuel and biobased chemical companies also have a chance to educate consumers and potential or existing customers on the benefits of their products and services-a feat first-gen biofuel producers weren’t really able to successfully capitalize on in the prime of their growth period.



“It’s a definite change in mindset now, not in just the general public, but also in government,” says Al Novak, alternative energy manager for Emerson, a global automated process control supplier to a variety of industries, including biobased fuels and chemicals. “Government is looking at how to adjust subsidies, tax credits or funding to take into account the new dynamic of the market, where it isn’t just about corn-based ethanol anymore.”



Colorado-based cellulosic ethanol developer Range Fuels selected Emerson as its primary automation and process control contractor for its 100 MMgy cellulosic ethanol and methanol plant under construction near Soperton, Ga., where it will use wood waste as feedstock. Emerson also teamed with Dynamic Fuels to help bring the 75 MMgy renewable diesel plant in Geismar, La., online.

In a move intended to showcase its innovation and engineering expertise with Range Fuels, Emerson rolled out a 30-second television commercial under the “It’s Never Been Done Before” marketing campaign. Created by Chicago-based marketing agency DDB, Emerson first launched its “Consider It Solved!” marketing campaign in 2002. Emerson later extended the campaign for another seven years in March, subsequently renaming the campaign under the new designation, “It’s Never Been Done Before.”



Regarding the ad with Range Fuels, Novak says, “It was a mutual marketing campaign. Companies like Range Fuels have enough to worry about with the underlying process technology. They may not have a lot of expertise in large-scale project execution or process control, and those are obviously things we can help them with and remove some of the risk when they get to execute a project or build a plant.”



 According to Novak, the advanced biofuels market is one that the company has been keeping a close eye on for three to four years to potentially offer its services to. “We’ve recognized advanced biofuel as an emerging sector that we definitely want to be engaged in,” Novak says, adding that Emerson is the only nonproducing, or technology developer, member in the Advanced Biofuels Association. Novak says the company also has engaged between eight and 12 advanced biofuel developers in the ABFA as potential candidates for partnerships similar with Range Fuels. “We’re keenly interested in its success,” he says.



Though an aggressive marketing campaign seems to work for Emerson and Range Fuels, the time may not be right for all companies with similar strategies. They place varying degrees of importance on finding, or refining, particular company names, process technologies and products to increase recognition  of the products they intend to offer.



What’s in a Name?

Irvine, Calif.-based advanced biofuel developer BlueFire Renewables rebranded its company name in August to better reflect the all-encompassing products and services it will market. Formerly BlueFire Ethanol Inc., the company works to deploy technology for manufacturing a suite of biobased chemicals and fuels, including cellulosic ethanol, biodiesel, synthetic fuels and biojet fuel utilizing a concentrated acid hydrolysis technology originally developed by Arkenol Fuels LLC. A primary impetus behind the company’s rebranding and name change, according to CEO Arnold Klann, was to move beyond advanced biofuels exclusively, such as cellulosic ethanol, in order to attract equity investment.



“A lot of companies realized they couldn’t get financed in the concept of just being a pure ethanol play because of the bad press,” he says. “By rebranding, the primary reason was to open the mindset of the investment community as they’re now recognizing there’s a much broader market out there.”



The company initially went with its previous company name during corn-based ethanol’s growth period when investor interest peaked. “We ended up calling our company BlueFire Ethanol mainly because ethanol in the name attracted attention,” Klann says. “It’s like giving kids primary colors as opposed to muted colors-you have to be in their face, so to speak.”



Another reason why BlueFire Renewables chose to rebrand its company name, Klann says, was to create exposure into international markets under the umbrella of a true biorefining company. “If you think about Thailand or Europe, their primary focus on fuels is diesel,” he says. “It’s not necessarily gasoline as their infrastructure and their cars aren’t designed to run on ethanol. The rebrand should open up that market for us as a result.”



Bio'D'efining Process Technology

Depending on where an advanced biofuel or biobased chemical company sits in its development cycle and financial position, some companies may prefer to focus their capital resources on refining their process technologies to scale rather than marketing a branded technology. However, some companies, such as Biofine Technology LLC, say having a brand or trademarked name attached to a process technology is what helps establish potential licensing ventures once commercial deployment nears.



“You have to define the technology you’re selling,” says CEO Stephen Fitzpatrick. “You sort of sell the whole concept along with the core technology.” The company’s core conversion pathway, called the Biofine process, is derived from a contracted version of the word “biorefinery.” Fitzpatrick says the process can convert virtually any biomass feedstock that contains cellulose into four main intermediate products: levulinic acid, formic acid, furfural and ligneous char. The company is targeting production of ethyl levulinate as the “basis for advanced biofuel,” he says.



If a biobased chemical developer wishes to enter the commercial marketplace, equal effort would have to be put into filing for patents to build an intellectual property wall around the branded technology. In other words, patent protection backs the name a technology developer puts on its processes, which can be an attractive selling point.



“A branded technology encapsulates what a technology is selling, what it’s all about,” Fitzpatrick says. “It’s extremely important to have a brand name and have it relate, certainly in this business, to a certain technology or set of IP.”



Downstream Marketing

Since 2003, NatureWorks LLC, a Cargill joint venture, has been marketing its line of biobased polylactide (PLA) under the brand Ingeo, used as a biopolymer material in variety of plastics and fiber applications. The company manufactures PLA from dextrose in plant material through fermentation. NatureWorks’ primary customer is ultimately the product manufacturers that opt to use Ingeo biopolymers, which are then offered to consumers in the retail sector through various products. But in order to reach its consumer base, the intended results of an aggressive marketing campaign, if pursued, can sometimes get lost in the fast-paced business-to-business (B2B) market. 



“When branding is done in the B2B space, it’s more of a trademarking strategy that never survives beyond the first step,” according to Steve Davies, director of public affairs and marketing for NatureWorks. “For us, it was critical to get the environmental credentials across what we’re selling, and that’s what’s critical to the brand-owner for making the consumer sale.”



When marketing a biobased product such as Ingeo, NatureWorks puts a tremendous amount of attention into developing and improving upon the environmental credentials, or “ecoprofile,” in order to better communicate to retailers and its customer base the renewable advantages Ingeo carries. Davies says, “That’s why it is critical to us, even though we’re in a B2B space, to brand our product so that it can be tracked downstream to the final user, so they know the pedigree of what they’re buying.”



Author: Bryan Sims

Associate Editor, Biorefining

(701) 738-4974

bsims@bbiinternational.com