ABSTRACT

This study explores the relatively new potential of places to ethically enhance their branding through accreditation under the Fairtrade Towns (FTT) scheme. It presents insights from a qualitative study of marketing practices across eleven UK FTTs, focussing on the activists who establish these initiatives to facilitate and promote FT consumption within their communities. FTT accreditation is revealed as a grassroots local branding initiative that can work symbiotically with the place brand through connections to other fundamental aspects of a place’s identity and character, or even by playing a ‘redemptive’ role. FTT status encourages a less introspective approach to place branding by connecting with distant producer communities and encouraging tourists and residents to reconsider their consumption in the context of the socio-environmental realities of global supply chains.

摘要

本研究探索了地方在通过公平贸易城镇 (FTT) 计划下的认证在道德上提升其品牌的相对较新的潜力。它提供了对 11 个英国 FTT 的营销实践的定性研究的见解，重点关注制定这些举措以促进和促进其社区内的 FT 消费的活动家。FTT 认证被揭示为一种草根本地品牌计划，它可以通过与地方身份和特征的其他基本方面的联系，甚至通过扮演“救赎”角色与地方品牌共生。