Working for many years with farmers organizations and NGOs supporting farmers to practice sustainable (organic) farming methods, increase community self-reliance, enrich environmental health and biodiversity, and improve livelihoods, quite a number of times I have come across organizations and staff who see marketing a bad thing. The normal reasons against marketing of the organic produce and products produced by the farmers involved, is in first that the priority should be to feed oneself, one’s family, and one’s community. Secondly marketing in the minds of many is linked to capitalism which is credited for having caused many of the problems farmers are facing today. So by linking farmers producing high quality organic products to consumers who want to buy and see the value in such products and are willing to pay a premium price, in the view of some, this could be taking away the opportunity for poor people in the community to consume these high quality products and could corrupt farmers and those involved by entering the capitalist economy.
The organization I work with, Green Net, has quite a different view. It sees social enterprise as a tool to bring about positive change, rewarding farmers who are doing the right thing by practicing good ecological methods with better income. It is also fitting a model that is very appropriate in Thailand and other newly developed countries, where donor funding is more of a challenge to obtain. Social enterprise can succeed to be self-sustaining financially while reaping social and environmental profits and even continue to grow to spread these benefits farther. This would be my normal explanation of why social enterprise and systems like fair trade are a good thing.
However now I see an even more vital reason to enter the market. This reason is the very powerful experience of knowing true quality. The reality is today most of us no longer know and rarely experience true quality. What we normally experience is the illusion and expectation of quality. Once we have lost our knowledge of what true quality is, then the best thing we may know is this illusion.
The reason we now rarely know true quality is because we live in a world that is predominantly capitalist, which means that its main focus is to gain financial profit without other considerations. Also we are now more and more exposed to advertising. While advertising at its best is informing the public about something that is out there in an honest way, most of the time it is working to try and generate our interest to buy or consume something that we don’t need and that has low value, creating the illusion of value. My general rule of thumb which you may try as well at home is that the more a product is advertised the greater the difference between its true value and its price in the market. Something that is really good in quality and price needs no or almost no advertising because once you or someone else tries it, you will buy it a second time and share the positive experience with your friends. Thus by word of mouth, soon enough the product or service will have a regular following and demand and market success. On the other hand if the product or service is highly overpriced, meaning it is either low in quality or too high in price or both, then unless one has no other option or knowledge of better options, one will not buy it again. One might think if this is the case that it would be bad for business. It should be bad for business in the long term, but in the short term, the profit is much higher. Also if new people can be continually fooled into buying poor quality expensive products and services, then the business will continue to do well. The classic example of such is a tourist trap. Tourists don’t know what is good or bad and they are likely to only visit once, but many new tourists come every day.
On the larger scale the problem and illusion are more dramatic. I recall hearing about how in the former Soviet Union one had no choice in brands in the market there. If there was toilet paper, there was toilet paper. We in free-market economy countries were much luckier as we could choose from many brands of toilet paper, soap, breakfast cereals and so forth. Consumer choice and power was to be seen in the supermarket. The problem is that this is only really a choice and a power if there are real differences in the products available and there is real information about what one can choose. Too frequently, one is looking at the same basic product in different packages. In other cases there is no real valuable information provided for the customer to choose. I find the most dramatic case of this sort of misinformation is that in the USA it was until recently argued that it should be illegal to label GMO produce as GMO, as there was according to the companies that hold the patents to these GMO products, no significant difference and to label would confuse and mislead consumers. It is logical however that if there was anything good about being GMO, the companies and distributors would proudly show that these cornflakes were from 100% BT corn. They might say BT is Better Tasting and do blind taste tests. It you look at any high quality product from around the world, the producer and distributors want you to know what it is and where it is from, they even want to protect their name and quality. This is the case for Bordeaux wines, Thai Hom Mali rice, Darjeeling tea, Ethiopian coffee, and now many organic, fair trade, and otherwise sustainable and quality products. I experience the efforts of GMO patent holders and distributors to prevent knowledge and traceability of their products as equivalent to the work of mafia organizations to launder their money. If money is the same no matter where it comes from, then it has equal value. However many may be reluctant to accept money gained from illegal activities. If corn, soybeans, cotton, and salmon are the same no matter where they come from or whether they are genetically modified or not, then they will hold the same value. However if not all salmon is the same and one can be informed and choose to buy and eat a wild Alaska salmon, a non-GMO farm-raised salmon, or a GMO farm-raised salmon, then each will hold a different value. If one is superior in taste, nutritional quality, or even in the effect its supply chain has had on the planet and those of us who live here, then there will be preferences for one over the other. This will change the value and cost of each. Those selling superior products benefit, while those selling inferior products will lose out.
As is logical however it is most profitable (economically) to sell low quality products at high prices. This is best done when raw material and labor prices can be kept low, social and environmental costs are not considered or taxed, and one can create the illusion of quality. While very large enterprises may successfully launch such low quality high priced products (through the power of their name and advertising), new small and medium-sized enterprises cannot start and succeed on such a path in most cases. Starting a successful business requires providing real value and developing a name and reputation. This means either offering high quality or low prices or both. In my vision almost every successful large business today started in such a way. I think of getting our first Apple 2+ in the early 80’s. This was a great product at a good price. I remember the early Sony Walkman. It was really revolutionary. It was also made in Japan. I used to really appreciate Levi Strauss jeans and read about the innovations in production and quality from their factory, then in San Francisco. While this is the way most great businesses start, in the modern capitalist system, most such enterprises go public at some point. Once a business is public, the general will of the shareholders is to maximize profit. If a business develops an excellent name and reputation for itself, it now has the possibility of selling the illusion of quality. Consumers like myself may recall quality we experienced from a brand and thus choose to buy this brand again with the expectation of quality. When there are millions who believe in the quality of a brand, it is easy to sell an inferior product under one’s brand at a high price and earn a lot of money. Maybe money can be saved by moving production to China or Bangladesh. Maybe one can make insignificant cosmetic changes to a product but promote it as really innovative and still sell millions. At some point of course consumers should wake up, but this can take a while and in the meantime billions may be earned. Powerful companies may also use their legal power and purses to fight or buy small innovative competitors. This can help keep real quality out of the market and allow a company to reign and reap longer.
Let us however return to the village. Why is it important for a farmer or villager to market their homegrown, organic, natural, traditional products? The reason is because such products are really different and normally possess true quality on a number of levels. If one has the chance to taste organic tree ripened fruit, real raw forest honey, organic black basmati rice, freshly brewed, freshly roasted, organic forest coffee from Chiang Rai, organic buffalo curd with pure palm syrup in Sri Lanka, or so many other products that link to a land and its people, there is a real and dramatic difference in taste and other quality factors. Such products have true quality. They are very different from products in the market that lack true quality but sell the illusion of quality. When you have the chance to taste and experience such products which are not limited to food but also include quality artisan products like handmade rocking chairs, naturally dyed organic silk garments, or the natural soap my wife makes, you can be awakened to a new sense and appreciation of what quality can be. It can be addictive, not in the sense that nicotine is addictive, but in the sense that you see what God or nature intended a plum to taste like. Addictive in that you find such a pleasure and comfort in sitting in your rocking chair, which is like an artist’s work to release the beauty of the wood and craft it into a form that fits you body like a walnut fits into its shell, that sitting in any other chair just doesn’t seem the same.
Marketing is the process of not just selling one’s products, but also passing on information about the product and process that took place to grow or craft it. Now most of us live in cities, and many will have grown up without tasting produce as nature intended. They may grow up only knowing mass-produced plastic products that last a maximum of a few years and get tossed in trash heaps. They may perceive choice as their supermarket experience of a choice between brands with little difference but the exterior packaging and with little quality inside. While not knowing true quality is sad, that most of the products and produce that is sold under the illusion of quality are linked to supply chains that may cause environmental damage, social problems, and reduce biodiversity means that having a real choice is all that more important. If rice is rice and corn is corn, then why do we need to have and maintain 100s or 1000s of varieties of each? If a t-shirt produced in a sweatshop is the same as a hand-spun, hand-woven shirt made by local artisans, why should we preserve such traditions and knowledge? If real natural soap is that same as any bar of soap one can find on the market, why buy it? The reality is I can attest having eaten many varieties of rice, having worn such handmade garments, and using natural soap, that they are very different. As they are in fact different and have special and unique qualities, when we become aware of this difference and quality, we can choose to buy and use such products, both enjoying and benefiting directly from their quality, and indirectly supporting a world that has better environmental health, greater biodiversity, and a healthier society.
Marketing on the most basic and often most powerful level occurs when producers and artisans go to markets and sell their products directly. When this happens consumers can not only taste and try the products, but talk to the producers and learn about the products, learn about how they are grown, how they are made, their special qualities and so forth. There is also a reality in that most people are not likely to join a meeting about why we need to preserve the forest, or how organic farming improves environmental health, or the social damage caused by unfair and abusive labor practices and the alternatives. It is not that people are not interesting in these things, but most people don’t have so much time or energy after their working week and taking care of their families and homes. However almost everyone goes shopping sometimes, and for many people going to a market can be a fun experience, particular a market with many interesting local and traditional products and foods sold directly by their producers. When people meet people in such a context and try and taste what they have to offer, they develop a relationship and ask all sorts of questions. They may learn quite well about different agricultural production systems, how to use and enjoy different local fruits and vegetables, or what makes naturally dyed fabrics so special. This can lead to support on two levels, for one the consumer develops a quality addition, but beyond that the consumer understands and supports the farmer/ producer and process used and thus becomes a political supporter as well.
The transfer of knowledge also flows the other way, in that farmers and artisans learn from consumers about their wants, needs and ideas. This quite often works to help them implement small innovations that can greatly boost the marketability of certain products. It may be as simple as a more friendly packaging design or the size and cut of a garment. They may share recipes of how to use local fruits and vegetables in new a different ways. This sort of knowledge can help make the core quality being produced accessible to more people in more ways. Thus demand to preserve the biodiversity, ecological practices, and traditional cultural knowledge being applied is further strengthened.
So I kindly ask all of those farmers, villagers, and craftspeople out there who are growing and making products that possess true quality to also market them. While you may just enjoy them yourselves, by sharing your quality products and knowledge about what makes them special, you can let many others throughout the world know what quality really is and choose to support it. With the support and linkage between consumers and those who grow food and produce things that exhibit true quality, we can exert an enormous positive impact on the world. We can remove the illusion of quality and provide transparency and empower people to choose and support those who do things the right way.
Michael B. Commons, Earth Net Foundation, Thailand
