At the product launch, the main thrust of the promotional drive was an
advertising campaign with the strapline ‘Fair trade, excellent coffee’, which
appeared on 1000 Ad Rail poster sites on InterCity and some local routes.
One such advert featured a young child in its mother’s arms with the
message: ‘You get excellent coffee. They get vaccines.’ Another version fea-
turing two older children proclaimed: ‘You discover excellent coffee. They
discover school.’ Advertising agencies usually strive for a single definitive
proposition, but Cafédirect had two important messages to communicate:
the ‘help the world’ appeal had to be balanced with ‘without sacrificing
taste and quality’. Since the audience were defined as Semi-ethicals, they
had to be told what the problem was andreassured about the product
quality. A similar problem had been faced by Café Hag several years earlier,
when they had to explain the health hazards associated with caffeine intake
before they could put across the benefits of decaffeinated coffee.
Posters were chosen as the launch advertising medium because the
volume and breadth they offer can create the impression of a big advertis-
ing spend. In reality, promotional funds were so limited that the ‘cam-
paign’ consisted of only a few different executions. Post hoc advertising
research indicated that the campaign had been successful, despite its lack
of scale (Table 3.2.1).
Consumers responded well to the advertisements in terms of their
propensity to purchase at a price premium, but they still had to be induced
to take the product off the supermarket shelf. For that, a good pack design
was critically important. Fortunately, a key part of Media Natura’s service
was cheap (and sometimes free) access to excellent creative people. Those
given the task of designing the Cafédirect pack thought that most coffee
packs had a 1970s look, which gave Cafédirect the opportunity to appear
fresh and up-to-date by comparison. Colour was found to be an important
discriminator; the final design was predominantly dark blue and gold
because the combination suggested quality and was empathetic towards
the values of the ground coffee consumer.
A picture may speak a thousand words, but research showed that con-
202 Relationship Marketing
Table 3.2.1 Post hoc research results, Cafédirect poster advertising campaign*Cafédirect (%) Norm (%)Recognition 36 36
Liking 74 53
Clarity 48 n/a
Purchase incentive 43 31
Premium price acceptance 82 n/aSource: RSL poster advertising research. Note: *Sample frame: travellers on the relevant railway
routes.