The Challenges of Marketing Fair Trade - Wynne, Sandy

many benefits which are essential to communicate to consumers. While receiving a better
price for products is one of the Fair Trade objectives for producers, pricing is more
complex than just a fair price. Farmer cooperatives or other organizations are paid for the
products, not the farmers directly, and then those cooperatives decide how much farmers
receive.
The logo represents the Fair Trade brand. TFUSA controls the use of this logo
and has strict requirements about it use. Given the value placed on this logo, it is
unfortunate that not all companies carrying FTC products use the logo, or use it correctly.
For consumers, the logo is the guaranty that products are genuinely Fair Trade
Certified, reflecting the Fair Trade principles.
Along with packaging, the survey (Appendix J) shows the second most used tool
for marketing Fair Trade and communicating the branding is talking with customers,
which relies on the expertise of the retailers. This brings the discussion back to the need
for more educational programs directed specifically at retailers. Retailers rely on websites
and suppliers as their two main sources of information (Appendix J). The dependence on
websites highlights the need for TFUSA to take an objective look at its current site,
compare it to Fairtrade Foundation’s site and have a focus group do an objective
comparison. For the author, the TFUSA site has several problems: small font size, lack of
excitement and color, too much information on management, not enough information on
the activists, advocacy, producers and products. This site lacks the ability to search it, a
critical tool for retailers looking for specific information.
B) Addressing Awareness, Availability and Accessibility
1) Awareness
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