Arnold on ethical marketing

CHRIS ARNOLD

The biggest event in the food lovers’ calendar; the BBC Good Food Show, was on at the NEC at the weekend. Any of those that ventured there may be asking what does ‘good’ actually mean these days. 

Claiming a fantastic mix of live cookery demos, masterclasses, top celebrity chefs and hundreds of exhibitors, it was certainly a feast. What it didn’t claim was food that was actually good for you, the environment or farmers.

In these ethically conscious times there seemed to be a total lack of ethical suppliers. Today I would have thought that good would mean healthy, less exploitative, natural, organic, fair trade. By contrast there was plenty of rubbish food there.

The exhibition was zoned into different areas but what was noticeable was there were no areas dedicated to Fairtrade, Organics, Healthy options or any of the many other ethical food types. By contrast the IFE show (held at Excel earlier this year) did have that.

There were just a handful of established suppliers like Divine, ChocAid, POM, Union coffee, Doves Farms and a few others.

There were a few new ethical brands like Best Coffee Beans and Grumpy Mule (both doing Fairtrade and organic coffee), Safe to Eat and my favourite named brand - The Well Hung Meat Company.

One interesting new  brand is The Good Food Village. Set up by two New Zealanders, their mission is to bring good food to kids and educate their palate by making food fun as well as healthy.

The Co-op - who were there and are now one the UK’s biggest retailer of Fairtrade wines - have just published their latest report on ethical consumerism (to save detailing it here go to: http://www.brandrepublic.com/BrandRepublicNews/News/770611/Ethical-spending-doubles-spending-green-energy-low/ ).

It marks a growth in our spending, Fairtrade has grown by 46% with overall spending on ethical food & drink almost doubling. However, spending on ethical shopping is still only a fraction of total spending and less than 10% of the (middle class) shopping basket - 25% being discounted items.

Discounts has been an area that organisations like Action Aid have focused on recently with their WHO PAYS? campaign, highlighting how discounts were not being absorbed by the supermarkets but passed down the line to the farmers and workers (see:  http://www.actionaid.org.uk/100842/who_pays_loyalty_zone.html).

One of the key issues that has held growth back has been the premium charged on all green & ethical goods - many retailers charge as much as 30% above normal prices. Being green is something many people can’t afford to do. It also explains why lower social economic classes (up to 40% of the population) buy hardly anything that’s ethical.

Green is largely a middle class thing, but faced with a tighter budget, shoppers will cut back and opt for value over ethics when it comes to the crunch. So the health of the economy plays an important part in growth.

If we want to see a dramatic change prices need to come down to the same level. Ironically, the spotlight falls upon the supermarkets again.