By: Kelly Spors

September 12, 2006, Wall Street Journal

Q: I recently started a small business that is a fair-trade fashion-distribution company. How do you market a fair-trade firm, a company with a double bottom line -- profit and philanthropy?

--Katie Uhre, Washington

A: Your timing is good. More consumers are voicing concern about companies that don't pay their workers a fair wage, or engage in unethical practices. That sentiment seems to be spilling somewhat into their buying habits.

But that doesn't mean you can simply blazon the words "fair trade" on your products and Web site and expect orders to roll in. Marketing a business's moral side takes some finesse, because if you flaunt the do-good, you risk underplaying the attributes of your products that the majority of consumers care about most -- such as style, fit, price and quality.

"The challenge on a lot of things like 'fair trade' and 'environmentally friendly' is that they are good things, but they don't drive decisions," says Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. "I always get nervous about brands that try to use something like fair trade as their primary point of differentiation."

Some good news for you, though: Numbers suggest the fair-trade movement is catching on. World-wide sales of fair-trade products reached more than $1 billion last year, according to the Euromonitor International, and North American sales jumped to an estimated $359 million in 2004, from $125 million in 2001, according to data from the trade group Fair Trade Association.

So the big questions for you: How much should you emphasize fair trade in your marketing, and how then do you use it?

Much depends on your target audience. Some businesses make their ethical-labor practices the main selling point, but they cater to a narrow niche of consumers, says Leslie Pascaud, ethical-marketing director for Added Value, a London-based marketing consulting firm. More mainstream distributors and retailers, says Ms. Pascaud, need to subtly weave the fair-trade message into their marketing so it accentuates, but doesn't overshadow, more tangible consumer benefits of their products, Ms. Pascaud says.

As a distributor, you might try appealing to both kinds of buyer. With businesses where consumers are more conscious of ethical behavior, you might play up fair trade, providing buyers with detailed information about your labor practices and perhaps even give them placards about your artisans to display with your products for their customers to see. It's a good idea to devote a section of your Web site to your labor and business practices so those consumers and clients who care have easy access to that information.

For more mainstream retailers, you'll likely want to focus on the style or quality of your products -- or whatever their customers care about most -- and present your labor practices as an extra benefit. A fair-trade clothing company might emphasize that their fabrics are of better quality and more durable since the artisans stitching them together are paid a livable wage and care deeply about their work, Ms. Pascaud suggests. A fair-trade coffee producer might stress that its coffee is more flavorful because the small farmers are growing organic coffee beans. Sure, the fair-trade message will help, but it won't sell the product for you.

"It's always about finding the consumer benefit underlying the fair trade," Ms. Pascaud says. "It's feel-good marketing. Feel good about yourself, because you're doing something good for others."

Celebrity endorsements are such a big deal in the fashion world, you might even try to persuade some politically conscious celebrities to don your wares as a way to connect the cool with the conscience. (Leonardo DiCaprio scooting around in a Toyota Prius certainly didn't hurt its sales.)

Whatever you do, keep your marketing about fair-trade positive and empowering. Research shows guilt trips don't compel consumers to buy. And one parting piece of advice: Once you designate yourself as fair trade you need to stick by it very rigidly and make sure you are constantly monitoring your supply chain and adhering to your promises. One exposed breach of labor ethics can ruin a reputation.