Challenge
The Fairtrade Foundation began life in 1992 as a movement for a better deal in international trade for small farmers and workers in poor communities. They have experienced massive growth over the last two decades. Today, more than 7 in 10 UK households purchase Fairtrade goods. However to scale-up Fairtrade, we needed to position the organisation more powerfully and have greater impact with both new and existing consumers and businesses.
The Director of Communications and Policy said of our work: “The Fairtrade Foundation employed Green Banana Marketing as independent marketing consultants. During this time they led our global market research and brand-positioning programme, working with international partners in Germany, France, Switzerland and the US. They bring huge energy with a clear sense of what works and doesn’t. It was a pleasure working with GBM – we would certainly consider them for future marketing consultancy and recommend them to others”.
Action
Building partner understanding and exploring new ways of developing the Fairtrade message was key to this. Our research proved valuable in demonstrating to partners the areas in which people support Fairtrade. We also developed quantitative findings across 15 countries, feeding into the 5 year growth strategy.
Result
We developed new initiatives for Fairtrade Fortnight including Go Bananas – a new record attempt for the most people eating Fairtrade Bananas in twenty-four hours. The campaign was a success with 470,000 consumers responding to a viral email. Corporate support was changed gear with Sainsburys, Waitrose and Tesco advertising the event on all their pre-packed Fairtrade bananas.
Successful partnerships were established with new organisations including Cadburys and sales of Fairtrade bananas during the campaign period across multiple retailers increased by 15% overall.
Fairtrade – battle for the farmers
Harriet Lamb in our top 10 environmental leaders – for opening up Fairtrade to producers on the other side of the world