In December, I wrote an essay on the marketing of Fair Trade. Please read it and let me know what you think.
In the essay, I argue that Fair Trade appears to be more of a ‘timely and emotional marketing ploy’ than an effective strategy for poverty reduction. This is because up until very recently, a majority of Fair Trade marketing has concentrated on the process of production rather than the product itself. Rather than creating powerful mainstream brands and products, Fair Trade marketing has focussed on engaging the emotions of altruistic Western consumers at times of increasing concern about the power of multinational companies and the inequality of global trade relations. Although there is evidence to suggest that Fair Trade improves the well-being of the producers it engages with, issues with methodology may mean that these benefits are over-stated, and quotations from promotional materials do not appear to representative of all Fair Trade producers. Additionally, because of its small scale relative to global trade flows, the fact that it has high standards (meaning that it does not reach the world’s poorest), and the fact it has concentrated on agricultural products (and thus leaving unequal exchange relations in tact), the ability of Fair Trade to be an effective vehicle in tackling world poverty appears to be limited. However, if Fair Trade is able to develop strong brands and more sophisticated products that do not need to rely on playing with the hearts of altruistic consumers, it will be able to move beyond the small percentage of committed ethical consumers and into the mainstream, bringing benefits to many more producers. Additionally, if it can expand its product range substantially (into lower quality agricultural products and into manufactured goods), it will be able to bring help to more of the world’s poorest and also help transform the unequal trade relations, and thus may become more viable vehicle with which to tackle global poverty.
