Patrick Falconer Winnipeg Jan 24, 2006 15:57 pm

Greetings:

I am working on the design and animation a fair trade campaign (one of the elements of fair trade being to promote sustainable environmental practices) in Winnipeg, a city of 600,000 on the Canadian prairies. As currently envisioned, the campaign will initially focus on work with three leadership sectors (labour, faith communities, and university/college students) and then broaden out to the general public. The campaign will also include supply-side work and policy work, the latter focused on the procurement policies of public sector and large institutional players. As with other environmental products, there is a gaping disconnect between survey results on consumer willingness to buy fair trade products and actual purchase patterns. For example, a recent Washington state survey reported that 77% of respondents said that they are likely to switch to fair trade coffee if its cost and quality are the same as coffee of comparable grade and origin, with 69% saying that they would likely switch even if fair trade coffee costs a little more. It is estimated, however, that fair trade coffee has an average market share of 1.7%. I am very interested in securing: *formative research on consumer attitudes on and the perceived barriers to the purchase of fair trade or analogous goods; *information / advice on models / approaches not rely in economic incentives to support the increased purchase of fair trade products; and *reviews of the efficacy of different social marketing strategies to support the increased purchase of fair trade products. Any help you can provide in these areas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Patrick Falconer

The Project Group
814 Dorchester Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Phone: (204) 475-7627
Email: [email protected]