Maccas Hopes Green Beans Are New Short Black
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday May 29, 2008
A GREEN frog and the weathered faces of South American coffee workers are the centrepiece of a significant marketing push by McDonald's to capture its share of a growing market for goods made ethically or sustainably.
From this week, coffee in the chain's 484 cafes will begin using beans sourced from South American plantations certified by the New York not-for-profit organisation Rainforest Alliance. By next year every cup of the 50 million McDonald's serves annually will be Rainforest Alliance-certified, the logo for which is a green frog.Other chains such as Gloria Jeans, Starbucks and Jaspers are opting for either Rainforest or Fairtrade, which unlike the former guarantees coffee growers and workers a minimum price for their beans.Communicating how or why its coffee is more sustainable than the competition has posed a marketing challenge, McDonald's and its agencies have admitted. Awareness of the green frog is virtually nil and according to its ad agency, DDB, most people thought saving the environment would mean sacrificing quality. "Much of the [ad's] focus had to be on the food values," said the executive creative director, Matt Eastwood. The green frog appears on all the marketing material to reinforce the connection between the coffee and the environment, said Trevor Jones the managing director of its design agency, phdcreative. Much of the marketing budget went on flyers, traymats - 1.5 million of which have been produced - and press ads explaining that connection. Phdcreative came up with the idea of a chocolate-powder silhouette of a frog sprinkled on the froth of cappuccinos. But it was the inclusion of real-life South American campesinos in DDB's ad that surprised even Mr Eastwood. "My first instinct was that people wouldn't want to see them," he said of the footage of bean pickers supplied by Rainforest. "But our research showed that they did ... they want to see evidence of whether it's doing any good." The ad's tagline says: "Feel even better about the taste you love."McDonald's has had to tread carefully to ensure it does not encroach on Fairtrade's patch. The certification manager for Fairtrade Labelling ANZ, Cameron Neil said he had been "keeping an eye on it" and that his organisation had been working with Rainforest's New York office to ensure there wasn't a repetition of the "Maccas launches Fairtrade coffee" debacle last year in Britain. Observers of ethical consumerism such as Michael Walsh, executive director of the events and publishing group Ethical Investor, said the Maccas coffee move would prompt mainstream consumers to start asking the sorts of questions about products that green consumers ask. The combination of this latest campaign and the Foster's launch of a "green beer" in March gives business greater confidence about launching ethical or green products. "It's showing them that maybe there's a way through all of this maze." But as to motives at McDonald's, Mr Walsh was sceptical. "I suspect this is more about marketing its sustainability credentials than grabbing a greater share of the coffee market."
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald