Dive Brief:

• Consumers become an audience when a retailer has an authentic story to tell, as when free-trade retailers like Toms or The Little Market travel and meet with the artisans that make their products.

• Highly visual sites like Instagram and Pinterest allow marketers to tell their story with details like time and location as well as impressive photos and videos, says Justin Rezvani, founder and CEO of theAmplify, which offers Instagram-ready advertising services.

• Consumers are becoming more aware and interested in the provenance of the goods they buy and respond well when information is provided by retailers. 

Dive Insight:

Although it hasn’t exactly yet reached a tipping point, interest in the provenance of goods is growing among consumers, especially younger ones. Certainly, consumers appreciate it when something they buy has a story behind it, especially one that shows that the people who made it are treated well. Social media like Instagram and Pinterest are primed for that kind of storytelling and marketing. Photos, at least really good ones, have a major impact, and because the they show the time and location, consumers can see that a fair-trade retailer has an ongoing relationship with the makers of their products.

Of course, this type of storytelling doesn’t work unless the story is true. The question for many retailers is whether the demand for free-trade graduates from consumer appreciation to an actual demand.