CONNECT WITH FAIR TRADE THIS OCTOBER!
Fair Trade Month is an annual retail promotion that breaks sales records year after year by leveraging the growing network of manufacturers and consumers to promote Fair Trade Certified™ (FTC) products nationwide.
Fair Trade Month Excellence Award Grand Prize Winner:
Linden Hills Co-op & Natural Home in Minneapolis , MN
The Linden Hills Co-op has been selected as the Grand Prize Winner! Linden Hills undertook an impressive campaign to promote Fair Trade and nearly every point of interaction with customers. Their comprehensive plan to market Fair Trade certified products successfully identified Fair Trade values and differentiated brands carrying the Fair Trade Certified seal. As a result, a remarkable increase in sales of Fair Trade products was seen during month of October and customer awareness of Fair Trade was strengthened. Jeanne Lakso from the co-op will travel to Fair Trade cooperatives in Peru with a guest to learn about Fair Trade first-hand.
- In Stores: More than 11,600 locations participated.
Some promotion examples:
- Sam’s Clubs held demos of 3 Fair Trade Certified products (coffee, tea, sugar in dried fruit) in 300 clubs, distributed a customized educational brochure, and had main aisle displays.
- Wegmans participated in all 64 stores by displaying Point Of Purchase Materials and promoting products, held demos in 40 stores, and featured a center spread in Taste for Life in-store magazine.
- Fred Meyer participated in all 127 stores by displaying FTM POP Materials and promoting products.
- QFC participated in all 86 stores by promoting FTC coffee for the month of October.
- Starbucks ran a Café Estima promotional bag and coffee of the week for three weeks and displayed promotional materials at 500+ university accounts.
- Media: Fair Trade Month received over 50 million media impressions.
Some examples:
- New York Times: “Fair Trade in Bloom” – Cover of business section profiling a Brazilian coffee farmer, with color photo. This syndicated article was picked up in at least 12 other daily print publications, including San Diego Union-Tribune, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and International Herald Tribune, leading to more than 6 million gross media impressions.
- Shape magazine (circ: 1.7 million): Q&A interview on Fair Trade Certified products in the Green Living section.
- October placement in Martha Stewart Living’s Body & Soul and Real Simple
- Houston Chronicle (circ: 5.1 million): “Fair Products that Fare Well” – Profiling local businesses that are doing their part to raise awareness of Fair Trade Certified products.
- Dow Jones Newswire: “Sugar Industry Embraces US Fair Trade Movement” – Leading business wire covers the growth of Fair Trade Certified sugar.
- TransFair USA organized a day-long NYC media tour with Paul Rice and Juanita Baltadano Vilchez from Costa Rica. There were deskside interviews with Fortune, New York Times, Plenty and a media dinner at Savoy restaurant, which fostered long-term advocacy with editors from the following publications: O: The Oprah Magazine, Natural Health, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Plenty, Epicurious.com, Reuters, Shape, Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, Real Simple, Prevention, Verdant, and Parenting. Epicurious.com and plenty.com posted articles within one week of the event.
- Coverage in major trade publications, including Gourmet Retailer, Better Nutrition, Natural Foods Merchandiser and Coffee Talk.
- We anticipate additional placements as a result of Fair Trade Month efforts in the coming months in Health, Everyday with Rachel Ray, Body + Soul, and others.
- Licensee promotions: FTM is becoming a standard part of our licensees’ promotional calendars.
Some examples:
- BomDia launched their first ground coffee at Sam’s Clubs and promoted it with an in-store video, materials and a contest for teachers
- Green Mountain Coffee Roasters promoted their FTC coffees online and worked with Brueggers for in-store promotion of FTC coffee offerings.
- Ben and Jerry’s promoted their FTC products on their homepage
- Divine Chocolate toured the mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Midwest with two farmers from Kuapa Kokoo and launched a recipe contest
- Oke Banana hosted a banana farmer in the northeast and Midwest
- More than 60 licensees exhibited with TransFair USA at the Fancy Food Show in New York to get retailers excited about Fair Trade and Fair Trade Month
- 11 licensees participated in a joint Coop Grocer ad
- Over 20 licensees participated in edible press kits sent to magazine and newspapers
- In Communities: Fair Trade Towns were officially launched! In addition, TransFair USA hosted Juanita Baltodano from APPTA who toured schools and met with A-list media in the Northeast. We also supported 2 other farmer visits led by Oke Banana (Northeast and Midwest) and USFT (West and Midwest) and helped 18 communities and student groups promote Fair Trade through our mini-grant program. In total, 150+ community events took place across the country, including 30 coffee giveaways designed to reach an audience beyond our core supporters.
- Non-Governmental Organization involvement: Fair Trade Resource Network, Oxfam, USFT, Catholic Relief Services, Lutheran World Relief, Global Exchange and Fair Trade Federation all promoted FTM
- Promotions and Advertising: Over 3 million impressions through online advertising. Free ads in Roast and Gourmet Retailer; licensees participated in a two page ad in Cooperative Grocer Magazine. UNFI and Tree of Life had special FTM sections in their catalogs featuring all products, not just coffee.
- Video contest: Participants had the opportunity to win a trip for 2 to Peru! Submission of a short video describing what Fair Trade means to them - go to www.connectwithfairtrade.org and watch our video contest finalists!
|
