Marketing to Millennials: Tout the Environmental Benefits of E15

The fourth in a six-part series about the benefits of E15

Capture millennial consumers and you’ll likely have loyal customers for life.

For E15 retailers, that means targeting these young shoppers, who were born between 1982 and 2000, with the message that the biofuel meshes with their world view.

“The fuel retail business is no stranger to millennials. Retailers already are thinking creatively about how to get them into their stores to purchase products, whether by promoting more eco-friendly packaging or nutritious, healthy snacks,” explains Mike O’Brien, vice president of market development for Growth Energy, the leading biofuel trade association representing ethanol producers and supporters in the United States. “Fuel is no different. Ethanol blended products have been around for nearly a century, and with millennials seeking out more environmentally friendly options, retailers who offer E15 have a competitive advantage with this important audience.”

Demographic Data

One look at the sheer size of the millennial population and its corresponding buying power shows why capturing their business is key to success — not only today, but also in the years to come.

As O’Brien notes, the millennial generation is currently the nation’s largest demographic group, besting even the giant Baby Boom generation.

Depending on which source you use, millennials currently represent between 75 million and 80 million consumers, and their disposable income is estimated to increase in the next few years.

And it’s not just the size of this young cohort that should convince fuel retailers that it is time to target millennial fuel consumers.

“Looking at the bigger picture and long-term potential, millennials are already visiting and purchasing more products from convenience stores than their peers,” adds O’Brien, who notes this is especially important to c-store retailers because the number of overall trips to convenience stores is on the decline.

What Matters to Millennials

Among the many characteristics that distinguish millennials from their older counterparts is the fact that they base buying decisions on a product’s overall impact on society in general and the environment in particular, as well as its impact on their own bottom line.

“When surveyed, millennials stated they liked the fact that E15 is a cleaner-burning fuel,” O’Brien notes. “Also, the fact that millennials tend to have lower annual salaries than baby boomers means the lower price point for E15 helps out their pocketbooks. And after saving money by filling up with E15, millennials are more likely to purchase items inside the store.”

An opportunity for E15 retailers is to educate millennials and get them to try the biofuel by communicating environmentally friendly messages in the language these consumers understand.

Present the Facts

One important and relatively simple environmentally focused message is that using E15 can help reduce air pollution and toxic tailpipe emissions.

Both air and fuel are required to power the combustion in an automotive engine,” O’Brien explains. “One will not burn without the other, and ethanol makes it easier to create a cleaner-burning mix, resulting in fewer unburned, unhealthy chemicals leaving the tailpipe.”

In fact, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with corn-based ethanol in the U.S. are about 43 percent lower than gasoline when measured on an energy equivalent basis, according to A Life-Cycle Analysis of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Corn-Based Ethanol, a January 2017 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This is comparable to reducing GHG emissions in the U.S. transportation sector by as much as 35.5 million metric tons per year.

The USDA report also projects that the GHG profile of corn ethanol will be almost 50 percent lower than gasoline in 2022 if current trends in corn yields, process fuel switching, and improvements in trucking fuel efficiency continue.

Not only can promoting the social and environmental benefits help boost initial sales, but it can help build brand loyalty, too.

“A common misconception about millennials is that they lack brand loyalty. They can be brand loyal — they just continue to look for new ideas, the next ‘new thing,’” O’Brien says. “By positioning E15 as a cleaner-burning alternative, millennials are more likely to visit the locations that are selling it. A product like E15 being promoted as an engine-smart, cleaner-burning alternative appeals to millennials’ desire to improve the earth while saving money.”

Take Advantage of Technology

Millennials have been immersed in technology from the get-go — which means retailers who embrace outlets like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and communicate with these tech-savvy consumers via digital marketing campaigns will have the best shot at capturing E15 market share.

“Since millennials have been exposed to marketing and advertising for so long, the message needs to really appeal and be tailored to them, because they are essentially always ‘plugged in.’ They always have some type of tablet, smartphone or laptop with them, sharing the latest tweet, social media post or Instagram photo of their lunch date,” O’Brien says.

More Than Millennials
Millennials, of course, aren’t the only audience likely to purchase E15.  

“Through more than 4,000 consumer surveys, fuel purchasing intercepts and analyses of more than 300,000 transactions, the research Growth Energy has conducted over the last three years, has found that customers like to be offered a better choice,” O’Brien reports. “E15’s primary appeal stems from being a cleaner-burning fuel, having slightly higher octane, and typically being at a lower price point. Emphasizing the right benefit with the right audience means that E15 can appeal to all of the major customer segments that visit convenience stores.”

Today, E15 is offered at more than 1,400 sites across 30 states by some of the largest retailers in the nation. Bringing more millennials into the E15 fold will only increase its availability and demand.

“E15 offers retailers a new fuel that can be a competitive tool to draw in more customers who will ultimately visit the inside of the store more often,” O’Brien concludes.