When determining the feasibility of a new product, it is vital to ascertain how it would be received by consumers, Yolande Kyngdon says in her article posted on www.polishedprices.com. This rule-of-thumb applies to most products, including those within the field of ethical consumption.
However, the empirical research into ethical consumption is best described as evolving. The research conducted thus far has confined itself to examining consumer attitudes and behavior to the low-priced ethical products that are already available on the market, such as fair trade coffee.
In order to broaden the scope of ethical consumption research, during my university Honours year in 2009 I designed and launched a fair trade diamond survey. The aims of this research were twofold.
The primary aim was to determine the level of intention to buy fair trade diamonds expressed by survey participants, to see if consumers are actually interested in such a product. Secondly, the questionnaire endeavored to determine which variables would influence a person’s fair trade diamond purchasing intentions.
In total, eight variables were measured within the study. These variables were - the consumer’s motivation for buying fair trade diamonds, the prevalence of proactive purchasing behaviours, the importance of quality, product recommendation/peer pressure, price, branding, and the importance of the availability of information about the product.
The survey was in the form of a self-administered online questionnaire, and was accessed via a website created specifically for my research. In all, 172 people from 13 different countries completed the questionnaire.
The survey data I collected clearly implied that consumer demand for fair trade diamonds supports the expansion of the ethical consumption industry into diamonds, and vice versa. A solid majority of 63% of survey respondents declared a future intention to buy fair trade diamonds, if they were available. Furthermore, more than half of these respondents expressed a strong intention to buy fair trade diamonds.
Of the eight aforementioned variables, three were found to significantly influence participants’ intentions to buy fair trade diamonds, if they were available. The most influential variable was the presence of product recommendation, or peer-pressure. The significance of this variable correlates with the classification of diamonds as ‘conspicuous consumption’. Diamonds are a status symbol. Perhaps liable to exacerbate this is the fact that diamonds are considered the standard choice for engagement rings. Accordingly, consumers may feel a strong motivation to conform to the ‘norm’, in other words, to buy the type of diamond/s the people around them have bought. Thus, if friends and family are recommending fair trade diamonds, or buying them themselves, participants will want to achieve that same ‘status’ as a socially-aware fair trade diamond consumer.
The second-most influential variable was the branding of fair trade diamonds. It is fair to assume that would-be fair trade diamond consumers would use branding to inform of them of whether or not the product is actually fair trade. This suggests that consumers are label-conscience in relation to fair trade consumption. It also suggests that fair trade diamond companies, once they come into being, would need to promote brand awareness in order to boost market share.
The final influential variable was the fact that survey participants would be motivated by a desire to ‘help people in need’ when buying fair trade diamonds. This finding complies with what are arguably the general aims of the fair trade industry when counter-acting unfair trade relationships in developing countries. This would undoubtedly be a powerful tool in the marketing of fair trade diamonds.
While it is important to recognize the limitations of any quantitative study, it is reasonable to claim that, based on my research a product like fair trade diamonds would achieve substantial discretionary consumer support.
Furthermore, these findings suggest that it is economically rational for the fair trade certification process to become more flexible, with specific parameters for specific industry types. In turn, it would be economically rational for the diamond industry to bridge the gulf that currently exists between its morally-ambiguous self, and the rapidly expanding industry of ethical consumption.
