Ethical Decisions Dessert Consumers
By Samantha Gelfand
Have you noticed that Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate has become certified Fairtrade? No? Neither has the average consumer. Perhaps this is due to the fact that Australian consumers are not quite ready to make ethical choices just yet.
Cadbury Fairtrade Dairy Milk was released in Australia and New Zealand over Easter. This followed a similar move by the company in the UK and Ireland in September of last year.
Daniel Ellis, Corporate Affairs Manager for Cadbury Australia, said that the move to Fairtrade was both a business and an ethical decision.
“We are trying to build our brand and the Fairtrade brand at the same time. We are helping people make ethical choices in the front of their mind” said Ellis.
Cadbury chose not to run an extensive marketing campaign about their new ethical line, preferring to let it spread by word of mouth and the ‘Spread the Joy‘ campaign.
“If we would have gone through a mainstream marketing campaign it would have been seen as a gimmick, we wanted credibility as Fairtrade is credible and we are managing both brands through this,” said Ellis.
Has their “Word of Mouth” idea worked? Are consumers aware of Cadbury’s move to Fairtrade ingredients, and do they care?
In the first episode of The Daily Squeeze, customers outside Coles were asked about their chocolate buying habits.
Anneliese Shortt, Managing Director of the PR firm Polarity, does not think the move will change consumer habits.
“We care when it suits us, people aren’t prepared to compromise,” said Shortt. “If the product changes in price or quality, Cadbury could be at risk of losing customers.”
A recent Choice Magazine study analysing consumer awareness agreed with Shortt, finding “consumers are most concerned about [the] aspects of a product that directly affect them – and that’s performance, quality and price”.
“For the mother with three kids and a job, she wants to be environmentally proactive but without great sacrifices in everyday life,” said Shortt.
Before Cadbury made the switch to Fairtrade they compiled surveys to gauge the public’s awareness of the Fairtrade brand.
Ellis said that only 25% of people in Australia recoginsed the Fairtrade brand, compared to 80% of people in the UK and Ireland.
The Ethical Consumer Guide is attempting to tackle this lack of awareness by compiling a list of products on supermarket shelves that are the most ethical choices.
Producer of the Guide, Nick Ray, said that over the past two years they have sold over 50,000 books and over 2000 iPhone applications.
“There has been a huge growth in the market, but education is still an issue,” said Ray.
Market Juice asked Twitter about their ethical choices at the supermarket.
One interesting finding from the discussion was that every person who responded said they would only purchase free range eggs.
Jacqueline Baptista, Communications Manager at the Australian Egg Corporation Limited, said that in 2009 25.3% of purchased eggs in the supermarket were free range, 64.2% were cage and 7.6% were barn.
“Animal welfare groups perpetuated the message that caged eggs were bad as it was, and still is, an issue that is very emotional,” said Baptista.
She continued, the welfare groups’ educational campaigns worked, that is why the consumer is choosing to buy free range, despite the price difference.
For your business, the advantage of making or switching to an ethical product will be contingent on the market’s knowledge.
“The consumer needs to first be educated on the problems associated with the less ethical product before they are willing to pay extra or compromise on quality for the ethical one,” said Shortt.
However, judging by the UK and Ireland, it may be one day that the Australian public will be knowledgeable enough to make ethical decisions – then, just like Cadbury, it might pay to have been ahead of the game.
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If you are looking for more information on Cadbury’s switch to Fairtrade, visit the websites of Fairtrade or Cadbury Fairtrade.
The following video is the interview with Daniel Ellis from Cadbury Australia. He shared information on what it means for Cadbury to become Fairtrade and what Cadbury is doing to help the cocoa farmers in Ghana.
Daniel Ellis Interview
