MARKETING MANAGEMENT REPORT

On
BIOMASS BRIQUETTES

Prepared by:

Sr. No. Roll No. Name

1. 20MBAOPE07 Akanksha Patil
2. 20MBAOPE41 Pratik Papde
3. 20MBAOPE42 Pratik Potdar
4. 20MBAOPE07 Roheet Kantode
5. 20MBAOPE07 Rutuja Valte
6. 20MBAOPE07 Sarvesh Manore
7. 20MBAOPE07 Shubham More

(MBA: 2020 – 2021)

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

Course Code and Name: MBA2001MM: Marketing Management

As prescribed by MIT-World Peace University

MIT-World Peace University’s
Faculty of Management (PG),
Pune

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 CONTENTS

Sr. No. Particulars Page No.

1. Introduction 3

2. Market for Biomass Briquettes 5

3. Product 5

4. Place 7

5. Price 9

6. Promotion 10

7. People 11

8. Process 12

9. Physical Evidence 14

10. Conclusion 15

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INTRODUCTION:

A briquette is a compressed block of coal dust or other combustible biomass material

(e.g. charcoal, sawdust, wood chips, peat, or paper) used as fuel and kindling to start a fire. The
term derives from the French word “brique” which means brick.
Biomass briquettes are made from agricultural waste and are a replacement for fossil
fuels such as oil or coal and can be used to heat boilers in manufacturing plants, and also have
applications in developing countries. Biomass briquettes are a technically renewable source of
energy and their emissions do not constitute an anthropogenic greenhouse gas, unlike emissions
from traditional coal briquettes, as any carbon released was taken directly from the atmosphere
in recent history, not sequestered deep in the earth during the carboniferous period as with coal.
A number of companies in India have switched from furnace oil to biomass briquettes to
save costs on boiler fuels. The use of biomass briquettes is predominant in the southern parts of
India, where coal and furnace oil are being replaced by biomass briquettes. A number of units in
Maharashtra (India) are also using biomass briquettes as boiler fuel. Use of biomass briquettes
can earn Carbon Credits for reducing emissions in the atmosphere. Laxness India and a few other
large companies are supposedly using biomass briquettes for earning Carbon Credits by
switching their boiler fuel. Biomass briquettes also provide more calorific value/kg and save
around 30-40 percent of boiler fuel costs.
A popular biomass briquette emerging in developed countries takes a waste produce such
as sawdust, compresses it and then extrudes it to make a reconstituted log that can replace
firewood. It is a similar process to forming a wood pellet but on a larger scale. There are no
binders involved in this process.
Coal is the largest carbon dioxide emitter per unit area when it comes to electricity
generation. Carbon is also the most common ingredient in charcoal. There has been a recent push
to replace the burning of fossil fuels with biomass. The replacement of this non-renewable
resource with biological waste would lower the carbon footprint of grill owners and lower the
overall pollution of the world. Citizens are also starting to manufacture briquettes at home. The
first machines would create briquettes for homeowners out of compressed sawdust, however,
current machines allow for briquette production out of any sort of dried biomass

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 Some briquettes are compressed and dried brown coal extruded into hard blocks. This is a
common technique for low rank coals. They are typically dried to 12-18% moisture, and are
primarily used in household and industry. As a rule of thumb, a charcoal briquette will heat a
camping Dutch oven by approximately 25 °F (14 °C), so 20 charcoal briquettes will heat it by
500 °F (280 °C).

There is no doubt that switching to biomass briquettes means not only changing the fuel
but also adopting a whole new combustion unit, consumers will hesitate. They will ask
themselves if briquettes offer any significant advantages, in terms of quality of combustion or in
financial advantages that might persuade consumers to spend money on new appliances. But that
is not enough: briquettes are also a consumer good. That means consumers must trust in their
availability. This aspect might be especially difficult at the beginning of a briquetting activity
while searching for penetrating a new market. The likely size of briquette supply relative to the
total traditional fuel supply will be small.
At these low kinds of penetration, consumers will always be aware of the need to give
themselves an alternative source of fuel. This will certainly be true in the early stage of
marketing briquettes whether or not, at the later stage, some consumers would have the
confidence to commit themselves wholly to briquettes. Thus, briquettes have to be compatible
with existing appliances with little or no modification if they are to have any chance of achieving
initial market penetration.

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MARKETS FOR BIOMASS BRIQUETTES:

All hereby mentioned appliances (wood, charcoal, gasifier stoves) for briquettes are
mostly supposed to target two main market segments:
 The mass domestic market, consisting of normal households that use wood or
charcoal as daily cooking.
 Business and institutional consumers. This segment includes large consumers such as
restaurants, hotels, institutes etc.

Both of these market segments are driven by consumer decisions which are normally
based on price comparisons between biomass briquettes and traditional solid fuels. But not
always the price seems to be the only or crucial point for a consumer decision to buy biomass
briquettes.

MARKETING STRATEGIES:

But in India there are very few industries or companies which are using this biomass
briquettes. Hence in order to promote the usage of briquettes in India we need to carry out new
promotional & awareness strategies. We will understand the different strategies using 7 P’s f
marketing.

1. PRODUCT:

The briquettes will be made out of charcoal-dust, dry agricultural wastes, sugar cane
trash, and maize trash from farmers. Trash is defined as “fibrous material left in the field after
harvesting.” The trash is burned in a carbonizing unit to form charcoal. The charcoal is then
mixed, molded, and dried. Finally, the charcoal briquettes are packaged in various quantities
suitable for sale to both commercial and domestic buyers.
General Characteristics of the carbonized Briquettes:
 Moisture Content: 7.1% - 7.8%

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  Volatile Matter: 13.0% - 13.5%
 Fixed Carbon: 81.0% - 83.0%
 Ash: 3.7% - 7.7%
 Heating Value: 7,100 - 7,300 kcal/kg
 Density: 970kg/m3

The use of biomass briquettes has been steadily increasing as industries realize the
benefits of decreasing pollution through the use of biomass briquettes. Briquettes provide higher
calorific value per dollar than coal when used for firing industrial boilers. Along with higher
calorific value, biomass briquettes on average saved 30–40% of boiler fuel cost. However, in the
long run, briquettes can only limit the use of coal to a small extent, but it is increasingly being
pursued by industries and factories all over the world. Both raw materials can be produced or
mined domestically creating a fuel source that is free from foreign dependence and less polluting
than raw fossil fuel incineration.
Environmentally, the use of biomass briquettes produces much fewer greenhouse gases,
specifically, 13.8% to 41.7% CO2 and NOX. There was also a reduction from 11.1% to 38.5% in
SO2 emissions when compared to coal. Biomass briquettes are also fairly resistant to water
degradation, an improvement over the difficulties encountered with the burning of wet coal.
However, the briquettes are best used only as a supplement to coal.
Advantages of the Briquettes:
 Briquettes burn without any smoke during ignition and burning.
 Minimum residual ash is formed (less than 5% of the original weight of the
 Charcoal).
 The concentration of fixed carbons will be about 82%. The calorific value of 
 Charcoal briquettes are 7500 Kcal/Kg
 Briquettes contains minimum evaporative substances, thus eliminating the possibility
of odor.
 Briquettes burn twice as long as hardwood charcoal due to fewer cracks and
increased strength.
 Briquettes can be made in a uniform size and shape.

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  Briquettes are dust free.

2. PLACE:

Biomass briquettes are made from agriculture waste, wood waste, and other materials.
Growing pollution across the globe and rising environmental concerns are positively impacting
the growth of the biomass briquettes market. The rising cost of fossil fuel and increasing
inclination toward a renewable source of energy and fuel is accelerating the growth of the
biomass briquette market. Growing replacement of fossil fuel by biomass briquette owing to its
low cost and it produces less emission, which further fuel the growth of the biomass briquette
market.
The global biomass briquette market is segmented on the basis of type, application. On
the basis type the market is segmented as agriculture waste briquette, wood waste, others. And
on the basis of applications, the market is segmented as power generation, thermal energy,
others.

If we cater the market in India, Briquettes can be used in various regions and place and for
different purposes:

 Industry: There are various jobs which require boilers, Power generation, etc. and high
amount of coal or wood is burnt daily to overcome the purpose. If we use briquette as a
substitute, we can get down the pollution, Ash as remains and can put a step towards
consumption of non-renewable sources of energy.

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 Briquettes used in Industrial furnace

 Urban Areas: Various operation require energy generation through burning coal or
wood in small plants, hotel or dhaba industry, Wood is required for funerals in some
religions. Many citizens are fond of making food grill or BBQ parties, briquettes can be
used here.

Briquettes used in Hotels

 Villages: In many villages, it is still practiced burning challah for all the kitchen
activities. Households in rural India are highly dependent on firewood as their main
source of energy, partly because non-biofuels tend to be expensive, and access to
affordable fuel alternatives to coal, gas, kerosene and electricity for cooking and heating
is limited. Approximately 96% of rural households are estimated to be using biofuels.
These fuels dominate the domestic sector and are primarily used for cooking. Fuel wood
is the primary energy source for cooking used by rural households (78%)

Briquettes used in villages for cooking food

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 In addition to cost saving these compressed briquettes can also be used as a fuel for starting
fires or as an insulating material. And also, for domestic use like cooking, heating water, etc. in
rural areas. The use of biomass briquettes produces much fewer greenhouse gases, specifically
13.8% to 41.7% CO2 and NOx.

3. PRICE:

The total cost in briquette production is sum of fixed cost and variable cost. The fixed
cost includes Salaries to Staff, Rent paid for land, Electricity Installation, Depreciation on
Buildings and Machines, etc. Variable cost includes the cost of Raw Material, Transportation
cost, Cost of Electricity, Man power, Repair and Maintenance cost, Stationery and Supplies, Cost
of Storage, etc.
The cost of Raw Material alone accounts for Rs.2300 per tonne and the cost of
conversion to briquettes work out to Rs.650 to Rs.700 per tonne based on the actual field data.
The average Total Fixed Cost is around Rs.350 per tonne. Therefore, in India the cost of
production of briquettes is generally around Rs. 3000 – Rs. 5000 per tonne depending on the
quality of production and the raw material used.
Base on quality the product can be divided into three price segmentations:

 Business and institutional market: - This segment is served by lower grade

briquettes and sold in large bags. These briquettes are made as cheaply as possible in
bulk from charcoal dust (fines) with some contamination of soil (clay). No binder is
added. The high ash content (due to the clay) causes the briquettes to burn slowly,
rendering them particularly for slow-release space heating at night time.

 Mass domestic market: - This market is served by regular grade briquettes, made in
roller presses and sold in generally 5 – 10 Kgs of bags, as feedstock screened
charcoal waste is used, with minimum contamination. Gum Arabic is used as binder.
Briquettes are sold at prices below the urban wholesale price of charcoal.

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  Premium grade briquettes: - In this type of market generally the urban middle class
are targeted which is labelled as Fireballs and can be sold in packaged bags in
supermarkets. These are made from high quality of biogas or coal with no moisture
along with a liquid binder (a blend of molasses, corn starch or gum Arabic).

4. PROMOTION:

The role of promotions is an integral part of the marketing mix. In general, promotions
tend to focus on how to attract the attention of consumers and motivate them to take action or
make a purchase via eCommerce or other channels. There are many ways marketers can go about
promoting a product or service, but it requires strategic research into the target audience and
where to find them
Biomass Briquette is a biofuel substitute to coal and charcoal. They are used to heat,
cook, and for energy, where they heat industrial boilers in order to produce electricity from
steam. Biomass Briquette offers an alternative to charcoal that now delivers economy with
traditional cooking experience.
We will see few promotional activities for Biomass briquettes:

 Government Initiative:
Governments are sparing no efforts to promote bio-mass briquettes by way of slew of
tax benefits and financial incentives to boost the usage of bio-briquettes as alternate
source of renewable energy.

 Create awareness:
To promote Biomass Briquette, we first need to create awareness about benefits of
using briquette, its environmental benefits such as its pollution free, because there is
no sulfur content other than that easy transportation and high burning time than coal,
easy availability. To create this awareness, we can take help of social media
marketing, TV ads, newspapers, etc.

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  Retailers Advertising:
Now a day, consumer is well exposed to mainstream advertisement and promotion
channels like social media marketing, posters, TV, newspaper ads, celebrity
endorsement, door-to-door marketing and sales. Most of the households capitalize on
seasonal and festive offers from major retailers to make major purchases for their
home. So here retailer advertising plays a very important role. They can attract
customer by giving advertisement or by doing door to door marketing. This will be
beneficial in villages and urban areas.

 Request for referrals by customers:

We can ask customers to give referrals. In villages, urban areas as well as in small
scale industries mouth publicity works more than any advertisements. So, if request
our customers to give their feedbacks or share experiences that will be best
promotion and effective as well.

 Cost comparison:
In India, people think about price before buying any product so we can use cost
benefits as a promotional activity for biomass Briquette. By comparing prices of both
the products, we can promote and advertise heavily about briquettes.

5. PEOPLE:

Our targeted customers are Industries, hotels, canteens, and residential areas. As India has
become more urbanized and industrialized, the need for electricity has increased exponentially.
Electricity is generated at power plants where turbines are used to drive generators. There are
three types of power plants in India, namely hydroelectric power plants, thermal power plants,
and nuclear power plants. In present scenario, 62% of power plants in India use fossil fuels.

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 For heating purpose in hotels, canteens and residential etc., also in drying process and in
gasification plant they are widely uses conventional solid fuels like Coal and Firewood and
liquid fuels like Diesel, Kerosene, Furnace Oil (FO), etc.
While considering the audience, we must target only one type of audience that is people
living in villages and rural areas. As targeting the urban people will be not that effective as
people are already using LPGs in their daily routine life. But there are still many undeveloped
villages in India where these LPGs or kerosene are not available and people are still using the
traditional wood for their livelihood causing a two-way damage to environment one by cutting
trees and second by burning the wood & creating pollution.
Hence creating awareness in villages and providing them the biomass briquettes at
subsidies rates with the help of government can of great effective marketing. Also usually the
cost of briquettes are already low in order to showcase CSR activities we can even provide free
products for few months to grab the attention of the market over the product.
However, the government of India has been encouraging the use of renewable energy for
electricity generation to reduce pollution levels and dependence on fossil fuels. A great option
that can be used to replace fossil fuels is ‘Briquettes’.

Some benefits of briquettes are: -

 A tree saved is more than a tree grown.
 The above Bio-Message is very clear. We need not spend more energy and money to
 Grow more trees if we could avoid using them.
 Thus, all ecological disaster arising from deforestation can be checked.
 Saves the environment from pollution, all conventional fuel pollutes the atmosphere.
 Avoids using conventional resources like coal which means that future generation
will
 Not be deprived of its utility.

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6. PROCESS:

This stage refers to the delivery of your product or service to a customer. Maps need to be

made to outline functions, activities, tasks, and processes. Doing so keeps your processes
functioning smoothly and efficiently. Check your processes frequently to guarantee they are
simple and increasing your ability to generate revenue. This step may come with many trial and
error phases.
Briquetting is a way to make use of biomass residues that would otherwise go to waste
and replace the use of wood and charcoal (often produced unsustainably) as well as fossil fuels,
thus cutting greenhouse gas emission.
The potential market for briquettes in developing countries with examples from East
Africa is presented.  Depending on the raw materials used and technologies applied during
production, fuel briquettes come in different qualities and dimensions, and thus require
appropriate targeting of different market segments. Quality and burning efficiency of fuel
briquettes depend on the characteristics of the raw materials (ideally with lower moisture
content, volatile matter and ash content, and with higher fixed carbon content) used to produce
the briquettes. Therefore, the raw materials used and the briquetting processes should satisfy
these characteristics to obtain the required briquette quality.
Key drivers of success in briquette production and marketing include ensuring consistent
supply of raw materials with good energy qualities, appropriate technologies, and consistency in
the quality and supply of the briquettes.
Some of the basic marketing process are mentioned below which will help to have
effective marketing & business:
 Creating strong partnerships with key stakeholders, such as the municipality,
financiers and other actors within the briquette value chain, and enabling policy are
important drivers for the success of briquette businesses. Partnering with the private
sector, for instance, for waste pre-processing and delivery significantly reduces the
cost of production.
 Partnering with municipalities or other organizations for resources, such as land, can
be important drivers.
 Tie ups with GRAM PANCHAYATS in the rural areas.

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  Collaborate with local shops selling firewood, coal, and kerosene in the rural, semi-
urban, urban areas.
 Restaurants, hotels, dhaba, who rely on coal, wood for cooking purpose can be met in
person.
 Online platform for selling overseas.
 Meeting one to one with small, big industries who are looking for alternatives &
trying to reduce their operating cost.
 Displaying the variety of briquette products in various agricultural expo, exhibitions,
village festivals, newspaper or magazine articles, blogs, etc.

7. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE:

Physical evidence refers to everything your customers see when interacting with your
business. This includes the physical environment where you provide the product or service, the
layout or interior design, the packaging and the branding. Physical evidence can also refer to
professional attributes of staff and how they dress & act.
Generally physical evidences are used in service sector to highlight the differentiating
factors among the competitors in the market. Hence in order to generate customer loyalty and
create position in marketing the aesthetics as well as the quality of the product should be very
good. Also, the company’s website or social media handle should try to stick to the motive and
should be appealing to the customer for branding purpose.
Some of the methods can help to create brand value:
 Free samples to the customers.
 Discounted or promotional rates on the products.
 Additional benefits like free transport, etc.
 CSR activities at least in small scale to grab attention.
 Appealing website or advertisements.

Once the business is started your supply record will automatically create evidence in the
market. But till then in order to penetrate in the market the profit margin should be kept as low as
possible.

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CONCLUSION:

Biomass briquettes are an effective alternative to existing fossil fuels and are made from
agricultural waste, which make them renewable source of energy technically and their
emissions do not constitute atmosphere. Biomass briquettes can be used by the normal
household consumers to business and institutional consumers and to promote the usage some
of marketing strategy has been implemented which includes 7P’s such as, Product, Place,
Price, Promotion, Physical evidence, People and Process. Each P of marketing strategy gives
an important aspect to promote use of the Biomass briquettes.

Biomass briquettes has higher calorific value and burn twice as long as hardwood
charcoal due to increased strengths. On the basis of applications of biomass briquettes it can
be used from urban to rural areas such as in household purpose, hotel and various industries,
power generation plants, etc. Pricing of biomass briquettes depend on quality of product and
is a bit higher than usual available fuels but can be segmented according to the markets.
Government has taken initiatives by way of slew of tax benefits and financial incentives to
boost the usage of biomass briquettes. Partnership with key stakeholders, private sector, local
shops in urban and rural areas and selling overseas trough online platform will play major
role to promote usage of biomass briquettes.

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