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Abstract

The Opportunity Since 2004, UBC’s Fair Trade Committee has been charged with implementing UBC’s Fair Trade Campus Commitment. UBC Food Services and the AMS have both committed to this Commitment by carrying an assortment of Fair Trade products at all their outlets. Recently, UBC was even recognized as Canada’s first “Fair Trade Campus”. The UBC Fair Trade Committee sees this as an opportunity to grow the Fair Trade product offerings but face several key challenges. Currently, there is no data on their current customer base and there also seems to be a lack of awareness of Fair Trade products. The Solution Our team designed and conducted a survey of 100 respondents to learn more about attitudes towards Fair Trade products. We looked at knowledge of Fair Trade certification, awareness of product offerings, barriers to purchasing and current behavior of the campus community. Our strategies and recommendations were formed around the ABC (Affect, Behavioural, Cognitive) model of attitude change which were borrowed from consumer behaviour and social psychology studies. We also offer suggestions on how to implement measure and execute our social marketing plan. Hopefully, our social marketing plan is a good framework for the UBC Fair Trade Committee to better understand their current customer base, assist in increasing awareness for Fair Trade products and be a foundation for further exploration on certain issues. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”