Welcome to week three of this course on growing the impact of your social enterprise. We're starting to get close to what is the end of this MOOC specialization. If you have taken all three courses of the Social Entrepreneurship MOOC specialization, then I'm really happy to see that you are still here with us. Actually, quite a number of MOOC members have stayed engaged in this program. And that is very encouraging for us. I really hope, that we will have a number of very interesting social enterprise business plans to read through in a couple of weeks. Remember, that in your group, you should work on your business plan draft. Time moves fast. Actually, two weeks from now, you will have to submit your whole business plan. You can do this either from an open innovation website such as, for example, Babele. Or you can upload a link to a PDF document. But in either case, it will take time to finish the business plan so start working on it. But now, let's turn to what we're going to talk about today. I've introduced you to Cafédirect last week. I've shown you one of their advertisements. And what we're going to do is, we're going to discuss this first advertisement, which probably is quite typical for an early-stage social enterprise, with a strong focus on the charitable mission. This week, we will look at how Cafédirect has actually developed its advertising strategy. As always, this is not necessarily a best practice example. It's a real case example that helps you understand how Cafédirect has developed. And I'm very happy to be able to announce, that we have two excellent guest speakers today. Iain Davies and Bob Doherty, who both have researched Cafédirect in depth over the last 15 years. They will tell us what happened to Cafédirect afterwards, and how the company has developed. Actually, they have tinkered quite a bit with a communication strategy and with quiet drastic results. Following those two guest speakers, we outline to you how you should advance on your business plan draft. Particularly, working on your communication strategy. Following that, I will outline the optional case assignment for next week, which will be on replication strategy. Now, it's quite early for you to think about replication. You are just in the process of starting the business plan for a social enterprise. However, it will be reassuring for your future partners and investors to see what your ideas for replication are. Do you plan to stay small or do you want to grow? Do you want to grow fast? And if yes, how do you want to grow? We are going to discuss a number of options. We will talk about organic growth. We will talk about open source access. And we will talk about social franchising which is something quite in the middle of those two approaches. And, as always, let me encourage you to think through the optional case assignment for next week. Just upload a couple of bullet points onto the discussion forum for that, if you feel like it. And with that, let's turn towards the CBS students and see what they're saying about the advertising campaign of Cafédirect. And how we could develop this further. >> So what did you think about the advertisement? >> It put me off at first sight. I would say, it looked too much like it was making promises about what was going to happen if I were to purchase this particular coffee, without me actually knowing much about the coffee itself. How about you, what were your reactions? >> So, yeah, it was confusing because the advertisement talks about education and health. And not so much about the product that they're trying to sell. So, in terms of how they present it, you don't see the coffee, or you don't see the person who produces the coffee. >> So how would you change it then, if you were going to have an advertisement to try and sell this coffee? >> So yeah, as you were saying, it depends on what type of consumer you're targeting. So it feels like they are targeting more people who are sensitive to charities and to donations, and to helping the communities. But if it was another type of consuming, I would create a different strategy. >> Yeah, I was thinking if it wasn't going to be the ethical consumer, so to speak. If you're going to make some sort of change to appeal to a broader market that wasn't necessarily motivated by that. Such as in the case with thep Prius, where they used to advertise about saving the planet. And now, it's much more about the vehicle itself and what it can do for you, where it can take you. For the coffee, maybe it would be something more artistic or appealing to a certain age group. Say, sort of a pop-art, sort of label, or even if you wanted to have some sort of ethical message while also being cool. For example, a picture of somebody unhappily working in a coffee field and kind of a big circle and cross out through it. Something to get the message across while being a bit different. But I still think whichever way you were to have the advertisement that, that fair trade label makes a big difference. And people depend on seeing that. And it's important that they understand what that is about, at the same time. So what does fair trade mean to you with coffee? >> Yeah, so education also about fair trade means. >> Maybe at least, somewhere on a label. >> Mm-hm. >> Of the coffee package itself. It's hard to express in an advertisement. Generally, with these sorts of advertisements, I feel like I come from a generation who feels that if we're being sold some sort of message too hard, whether it's environmental or human rights, that we're somehow being scammed. That our money isn't being directed towards the purposes we'd actually like. So it tends to work better with us to deemphasize that aspect. >> Mm-hm. >> While still having the message somewhere on the advertisement or product. >> Now, let's take the different advertisements of Cafédirect, step by step. If we look at the first generation, during which Cafédirect was communicating with it's consumers, we find that pictures are black and white, there is mainly a charity appeal. And the question is, who has made these advertisements? Probably, this could have been a pro bono PR agency of Oxfam. That simply has recycled some of the old PR campaigns that they have been using, anyways. An important question to ask yourself in relation to the first advertisement is, is it honest? If we consider the fair trade theory of change, we realize that we cannot be sure that premiums are going to be used for vaccination or school. Obviously, we hope that smallholders will use the money for their children, as they get out of poverty. But there's no guarantee for it. In the second generation of Cafédirect advertising, we see several major changes. Firstly, the focus has now moved towards the producers. They are actually portrayed as the ones producing the coffee. The theme tends to be one of hard work and pride in the work they are doing. We also see a stylized coffee cup and some steam, and, not quite so visible, there are some coffee beans in the advertising. And more importantly, the logo, the brand, is more visible in that advertising. Let's have a look at the third generation of Cafédirect's advertising. Actually, what becomes visible, is that the focus has changed once more. We now see a smiling Machu Picchu. There's very little text in the advertising. And the focus is going away from the fair trade message, why is that? We can assume that Cafédirect by now has reached most of its core consumers who care about the fair trade message. They probably know what Cafédirect is about. And the social mission is built into the brand appeal. What Cafédirect wants to do now is reach out to a broader consumer audience. Who probably do not really care that much about the fair trade mission. Not all of the supporters of Cafédirect were happy about it. Many grassroots supporters actually wanted to build the consumer awareness and consumer education into the communication of Cafédirect. They wanted to alert consumers to the harsh conditions under which coffee is produced. However, the producers themselves were not too much worried about this. They actually, were looking for new ways of improving their market share. And they were quite happy with whatever communication approach Cafédirect was taking. The take-away for your own communication strategy here is, that you will have to balance between the appeal to your consumers, and the appeal towards a social mission. Both parts will be probably important for your brand identity. But it is your decision, how you portray your social enterprise.
