Can fair trade coffee break through the clutter of “green”?

I have written in a few posts about the challenge faced by the fair trade movement when it comes to finding a place in consumers’ minds.

In a recent article in Brand Week they talk about how the whole “green’ thing is becoming confused in people’s minds.

Here is a short excerpt from that article:

"Is it about the environment, organic food or 'good-for-you' living? … It could be about all of those things," said Allen Adamson, managing director at Landor. "It is easy to say you are green, but consumers are skeptical. And because everyone wants to jump on the green bandwagon, all of a sudden it is noisy in this space, and it is hard to break through."

Both large companies and small send out messages about how green and responsible they are.

Many people quite rightly feel suspicious about these messages when they come from companies like Kraft and Nestlé – both of which market fair trade coffee.

The trouble is, that skepticism trickles down and damages the credibility of smaller companies too.

As I have said before, the fair trade coffee movement needs to create a clear, single message that resonates with consumers, is genuinely credible and is then used by as many fair trade coffee companies as possible.

When you’re in the middle of noise and clutter...your communications need to be very clear, honest and consistent.