The Challenges of Marketing Fair Trade - Wynne, Sandy

profit margin differential between conventional and Fair Trade Certified products.
Large companies have the advantage of spreading costs over a larger basis to keep the
retail prices lower. Wal-Mart can afford to sell a Fair Trade coffee for under $5 a pound
(Gunther, 2006) while a small retailer may need to sell one for $10 to $13 a pound.
Along with ethical messages and quality attributes, healthy is a brand positioning.
Fair Trade principles require production that respects the environment which, for coffee,
often results in “certified organic” as an added value. Of the Fair Trade Certified coffee
sold in the U.S., 85% is certified organic according to the Organic Trade Association.
While marketing often highlights the more familiar value of organic over the Fair Trade
certification, Fair Trade benefits by association.
McDonald’s, Coca Cola, and Nike view their specific brand positions as their
most valuable asset, far greater than their physical assets (Kotler, 2005, p.214). For the
conventional corporate world, “a brand is the company’s promise to deliver a specific set
of features, benefits, services and experiences consistently to the buyers” (Kotler, 2005,
p.242) that gives one company the competitive edge over another. The challenge of Fair
Trade branding is not about promoting a particular product or company; it is about
benefits and values that many products from many companies share, along with a single
logo. That logo, and all it represents, is Fair Trade’s most valuable asset.
B) Identifying Awareness, Availability and Accessibility
1) Awareness
The awareness level of Fair Trade continues to increase. As of 2006, 27% of
Americans can identify the certification logo (Downie, 2007). While that percentage is
encouraging, it lags behind the UK with an awareness level of 57%, according to the
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