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Marketing by Controlling Social Discourse: The Fairtrade Case

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  • Peter Griffiths

Abstract

A non-conventional marketing strategy is used by the owners of a not-for-profit code of practice, Fairtrade. People buy Fairtrade-branded goods because of the social discourse around it – what friends, newspapers, teachers and others tell them about what it guarantees, what it achieves and what is its social acceptability – rather than because of the advertising. The social discourse is favourable to Fairtrade but bears little relation to observable fact. Methods used by the brand owners and others to control and manipulate the social discourse are identified.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Griffiths, 2015. "Marketing by Controlling Social Discourse: The Fairtrade Case," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 256-271, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecaffa:v:35:y:2015:i:2:p:256-271
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/ecaf.12123
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Murtaza Haider & Randall Shannon & George P. Moschis, 2022. "Sustainable Consumption Research and the Role of Marketing: A Review of the Literature (1976–2021)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-36, March.
    2. Durevall, Dick, 2017. "Who Benefits from Fairtrade? Evidence from the Swedish Coffee Market," Working Papers in Economics 708, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.

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