Joe Turner

on your marks - is there a case against ethical branding?

Marks are strange things.  Talking particularly about those attached to consumer products, we've got the Fairtrade Mark, the Organic (and/or Soil Association) mark, the Rainforest Alliance frog.

My friend Rob has blogged about the development of a Social Enterprise mark, there is talk about a Co-operative mark (or marks), and even local farm shops in Gloucestershire have their own mark.

It seems it is no longer good enough to develop your own brand, you must show that you're part of something bigger and buy into a mark.

And within the 'ethical' sector, there is now a perfusion of marks.

A few things strike me:

First, there was a reason why these marks were developed.  For example, most of us understand the development of the Fairtrade Mark.  And there is still some logic applied to that - if you buy this product, you know that it is better than something without the mark.

There is a problem when there is a lack of rigour behind the mark as many of the posts on this blog attest. 

But overwhelmingly, there is a bigger problem.  Consumers do not just by products on their ethics, even if those are communicated accurately. 

Hence, I have to ask - are we actually interested in supporting these causes by bringing good business, or are we engaged in a vanity project with our branding?

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