The Times, Jan 2010
Walk into any of the coffee shops that are found throughout the UK’s high streets these days and you find yourself faced with a vast array of choices. Skinny this, double shot that, frappe the other. Indeed, the number of possible options at Starbucks has been calculated at over 20,000 and one helpful consumer group recently published a 22 page guide on how to order a Starbucks coffee.
In addition to these myriad size, taste and flavour options, most of the big chains now also offer another layer of choice: fair trade beans. Either as another option – fair trade with that or not? Or as a reason to choose one chain over another. “We only serve fair trade.”
Social issues matter
At first glance, this all seems like a good thing. After all, there is clear evidence that consumers want to see coffee shops give their suppliers a fair deal. This is particularly true in a recession, when everyone feels more vulnerable. In this month’s exclusive Concerned Consumer Index survey on the coffee shop and fast food sector, conducted by Populus for the Times, 54% of consumers want coffee shops to focus on social issues, just ahead of environmental issues and up 6% in the last year. And the top issue consumers would like coffee shops to address is ensuring worker are treated fairly and paid well. Offering fair trade beans seems to be one of the clearest and the best ways to deliver against this strong consumer demand.
Plenty of commitment
And so, unsurprisingly, the competitive coffee shop industry has jumped onboard the fair trade train. Starbucks, which currently offers fair trade beans as an option, has committed to go 100% fair trade in 2010. McDonalds, Pret a Manger and Wild Bean Café all offer 100% fair trade beans. Costa also offers the fair trade option and plans to go 100% Rainforest Alliance certified by June 2010 and has set up the Costa Foundation to “help coffee communities grow”.
And there are clear reasons for doing this. As Kevin Hydes, Head of Marketing at Costa says "We have chosen the Rainforest Alliance certification scheme as it helps farmers to improve their livelihood by placing equal emphasis on environmental protection, worker welfare and social improvements. We recognise that without the farmers and co-operatives who grow our coffee beans, we have no business.”
There is however, one fatal flaw in this seemingly perfect model of demand and response. The consumer has been largely left out of the loop. Less than 50% of consumers are aware that any of the outlets offer fair trade beans. And as this month’s survey shows, a clear majority are completely unaware of many of the higher profile commitments to fair trade, such as Starbucks’ 2010 pledge (58% completely unaware), Costa’s foundation (58% completely unaware) or Pret’s commitment (69% completely unaware).
And so the majority of people continue to think that the coffee businesses are not doing enough to address social issues (in this month’s survey 61% of consumers still do not think the sector is doing enough) and the brands are not getting any benefit from the actions they have taken.
A multitude of marks
A quick survey of the options provided in the world of fair trade may help explain why. Just like the coffee itself, there is a dizzying array of options: Fair trade and organic; Fair trade or organic; Certified; Certified by; Rainforest alliance; UTZ; and more.
Fairtrade, which this year celebrates its 15th anniversary, may be one of the established marks in the UK, however as Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation, said despite the step changes companies have made, much more still needs to be done.
“Over the last 15 years,” she said, “we have seen Fairtrade spread through the business world, with pioneer dedicated Fairtrade companies first taking the lead, retailers taking the baton and now major multinationals joining the race. Today, more and more companies are upping their game on Fairtrade.”
And as with many other social and environmental issues in many sectors, the search for a stamp of authority and credibility has created a proliferation of marks and stamps creating confusion and cynicism. This reduces the effectiveness of the action, from the business perspective as it means consumers are all the more likely to glaze over and not take note. They lack the basic bedrock of shared understanding which enables them to make conscious choices. Instead it’s all white noise.
Choice will keep us on our toes
So what should the coffee shops, and all the other companies which face similar eco mark mayhem and madness do?
The most obvious answer might be to establish an industry standard, so that there’s only one mark which consumers can come to understand and look out for. But is that the long term solution? Or isn’t there actually, as the coffee shop menu suggests, something to be said for choice?
In a competitive, capitalist world, the answer has to lie with choice. Which, after all. offers a route to differentiation. It also, however requires work, on the behalf of the coffee shop in question. The companies need to accept that the bedrock of understanding is not there. And that they need to build it. They need to accept that consumers’ current social and environmental intelligence levels are low. That this is all relatively new. And that the impact is intangible and hard to prove. And slowly work to build trust and educate people on what they’re doing and why and what difference it makes. And, importantly, why it is the better route than that taken by the coffee shop right next door. And they need to do all this in a way that fits with their overall brand image, and to communicate it in their voice. This is the only way to make the choice meaningful.
