The Challenges of Marketing Fair Trade - Wynne, Sandy

CHAPTER 2: Identifying Fair Trade Marketing Challenges
The Fair Trade model has only been formally established within the past 10 years
with the creation of international standards, requirements and official organizations for
certification, monitoring and auditing. While early growth rates are encouraging,
identifying and addressing Fair Trade marketing challenges are essential to sustain that
growth. “The sternest challenge facing Fair Trade groups today is how to market their
products to a wider audience beyond the naturally sympathetic segment of ‘ethically
aware’ consumers and gain mainstream acceptance.” (Nicholls & Opal, 2005, p.153)
Retailers play an integral part in the Fair Trade movement shifting from a niche to
mainstream. They are at the front line in these issues, often dealing directly with
suppliers, importers, manufacturers, TFUSA, and consumers. The retailers facing these
marketing challenges, for the purpose of this thesis, will refer to local, regional and
national retailers, rather than multinationals.
Fair Trade marketing “aims to articulate the social and economic
interconnectedness between producer and consumer in a commercially viable way.”
(Nicholls & Opal, 2005, p.153) This marketing strategy conveys that interconnectedness
through stories of the producers, their families and communities. Those stories create a
direct relationship between producers and consumers. Fair Trade empowers consumers
by using stories to demonstrate the positive impact consumer choices have on improving
the producer’s quality of life. This empowerment motivates consumers to demand more
products with socially responsible, transparent supply chains, resulting in more demand
for Fair Trade.
Fair Trade marketing is unlike conventional marketing. Fair Trade is not a
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