New Marketing Director for Fairtrade Foundation
The Fairtrade Foundation has appointed a new Marketing Director to its senior leadership team to help deliver an ambitious new strategy to double its reach and impact for producers in the developing world.
Cheryl Sloan joins the Fairtrade Foundation from Freeview where she worked as Strategy Director, guiding new product development and brand strategy. Cheryl has 13 years experience in brands marketing, from Mattel to Kimberly Clark to the National Lottery, where she was part of the successful team which won the third lottery operating license for Camelot.
The new post has been created as the Fairtrade Foundation seeks to deepen its relationship with existing supporters and to mainstream Fairtrade purchasing habits as part of UK consumer lifestyles, lifting sales of products carrying the FAIRTRADE mark to £2bn by 2012. Fairtrade in the UK has gone from strength to strength, where estimated retail sales of Fairtrade products reached £700m in 2008, a 43% increase on 2007 despite the global economic downturn.
Cheryl says: It’s a privilege to be leading Fairtrade’s marketing efforts and to work across the spectrum of industry in the UK with people who are listening to modern consumers, helping realize a true peoples' movement for change. I look forward to adding a new narrative to the Fairtrade story and creating new and exciting connections between consumers and producers. I want ordinary people to think of Fairtrade as a basic requirement of products that come from the developing world.
One of the unique aspects to marketing Fairtrade is that alongside conventional promotion activities, its unique strength comes from its loyal, dependable and global grassroots supporter base. According to a survey by GlobeScan, 26% of people learn about Fairtrade through family, friends and colleagues – a key ripple effect for Fairtrade which the Foundation hopes to fuel with its new marketing plans.
The Fairtrade Foundation is currently leading a three-way pitch for a new communications agency after four years with Forster.
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Notes to Editors
1. The FAIRTRADE Mark is a certification mark and a registered trademark of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) of which the Fairtrade Foundation is the UK member. The Fairtrade Foundation is an independent certification body which licenses the use of the FAIRTRADE Mark on products which meet international Fairtrade standards. This independent consumer label is now recognised by 70% of UK consumers and appears on products as a guarantee that disadvantaged producers are getting a better deal. Today, more than 7.5 million people – farmers, workers and their families – across 58 developing countries benefit from the international Fairtrade system.
2. Fairtrade is the independent global labelling system connecting consumers in 20 countries across Europe as well as Canada, the United States, Japan, Australia and New Zealand with marginalised producers from 58 countries in the developing world.
3. Over 4,500 products have been licensed to carry the FAIRTRADE Mark including coffee, tea, herbal teas, chocolate, cocoa, sugar, bananas, grapes, pineapples, mangoes, avocados, apples, pears, plums, grapefruit, lemons, oranges, satsumas, clementines, mandarins, lychees, coconuts, dried fruit, juices, smoothies, biscuits, cakes & snacks, honey, jams & preserves, chutney & sauces, rice, quinoa, herbs & spices, seeds, nuts & nut oil, wines, beers, rum, confectionary, muesli, cereal bars, yoghurt, ice-cream, flowers, sports balls, sugar body scrub and cotton products including clothing, homeware, cloth toys, cotton wool and olive oil.
4. 7 in 10 households purchase Fairtrade goods, including an extra 1.3 million more households in 2008, helping Fairtrade sales reach an estimated £700m in 2008, a 43% increase on the previous year. There are over 460 producer organisations selling to the UK and by the end of October 2008 872 certified producer groups were in the global Fairtrade system, representing more than 1.5 million farmers and workers.