In Fairtrade Fortnight we asked our Ideas and Imagination Team about their views on fairtrade and whether they make ethical purchases.
Young people are idealists
The team said that ethical purchases were a normal part of their lives – especially when they know the impact of bad buying decisions. For example, most of our team of students buy Happy Eggs over caged hens’ eggs despite being more expensive. Young people want to change the world so they are open to options like fairtrade that tap into this passion.
Do young people buy fairtrade products?
Despite this passion to make the world a better place, most of our team didn’t think they bought fairtrade products. This was partly due to unawareness that products like Cadbury’s Dairy Milk was fairtrade. However, for the most part, it is due to millennials perceiving the branding of fairtrade products suggest that they have compromised on quality in order to be ethical.
The team said that a product being fairtrade was not its USP. Rather, they invest in brands and branding that is confident and signals a quality product even if this comes with a higher price tag. We can see this in their responses about the must-have brands of student life.
However, if a confident brand that screams quality is also ethically traded, they have found a way into the millennial’s heart and wallet for life. We see this perfect recipe with brands like Ben & Jerry’s and Toms.
We believe if fairtrade products invest in confident rebranding, they will ultimately see more benefits for the workers they are supporting.