CASE OF CAFÉDIRECT

Fairly Trade

Case of Cafédirect

(A) Introduction

Concern with gaining a better understanding of, and connection with, key target customers underpins much debate about the purpose and commercial effectiveness of marketing (for example, Bagozzi, 1995; Day, 1989; Gummesson, 1987, 2001; Keller, 1993; Park et al., 1986; Shocker et al., 1994). The strategic objectives of developing such connection and understanding have typically been directed at raising consumer involvement with products. Generating consumer involvement can lead to improved loyalty, better levels of awareness, and positive word-of-mouth communications. All of these can contribute towards the development of competitive advantage and, thus, towards maximising sustainable profitability (Storbacka et al., 1994; Yeung et al., 2002).

Consumers, in turn, appear to demonstrate an increasing interest in the goods and services they consume, typically looking for more information concerning their provenance and background. Such interest includes a more general move towards “ethical” consumption (see, for example, The Guardian/ICM, 2004; Mintel, 2001), but also involves a wider range of products that have more detailed information embedded within them. In this penultimate section of the paper we illustrate the value of a network conceptualisation of the development of fair trade marketing. In particular we wish to draw on insights from Cafédirect, which we consider to have characteristics relevant to this analysis. In the marketing of fair trade the challenge is to “shorten” the geographical distance between producer and market through marketing communications. “Lengthening” the communication network between consumers in the developed North and producers in the developing South and strengthening connectivity between the two achieve this. In the language of Cafédirect, this “lengthening” is made possible by mediators, both human and non-human agents, that include fair trade certification, brand developments and marketing communications campaigns. The network is sustained by connectivity as a fundamental mode of ordering which serves to establish the performance of “fairness” for the consumer (Whatmore and Thorne, 1997, p. 295).

An Cafédirect informed analysis provides insights to illustrate and explain the three current phases of the network of fair trade marketing to date. It should be noted that what we describe and present graphically as the marketing network is very much a simplification of a complex reality in which the network in all phases is sustained by numerous interwoven mediators. Our intention is merely to reveal what we consider key mediators at each network stage.

(B) Thesis

Fair Trade: Principles and Progress Focusing the Cafédirect

Fair trade represents an approach to the buyer-supplier transaction that aims at equality of exchange, recognising the power discrepancy between the developed and developing worlds (Nicholls, 2002). Attempts have been made to define fair trade based on a series of factors that distinguish it from other trade practices (see, for instance, Nicholls and Opal, 2005, pp. 6-8). Central to this fair trade model is a partnership approach emphasising joint business aims and objectives (Tallontire, 2000). Furthermore, fair trade represents a new model of supplier-consumer relations, centred not on economic capital alone, but also embracing human and social capital (see Putnam, ...