Caffeinated Activism: Three Ways Peace Coffee Thinks Outside the Beans
I considered myself a seasoned coffee junkie. I jump-start every morning with a cup of Sumatra, with Fair Trade, organic and shade grown stamps of approval. A fair – and delicious — start, but after meeting the folks running Peace Coffee, my coffee awareness, appreciation and activism was jolted. Issues I never thought about – cooperative buying, aromas, local roasting – now percolate and affect my next buying decision.
Engaging customers to become activists. Don’t think that’s in the McDonald’s “Premium Roast” marketing plan. But Peace Coffee doesn’t play by anybody’s business rulebook. As a successful, Minneapolis-based coffee company with an ecopreneurial zest for leaving this world a better place, Peace Coffee uses their java beans to do more than brew coffee.
Their coffee serves as a change agent, positively changing and greening the lives of everyone involved in the process. From the farmer in Guatemala now supporting his family thanks to a fair living wage to me direct to me, drinking my morning cup on my Wisconsin farm, this innovative business changes people through their purchases ever since they started as a fledgling brainchild of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) in 1995.
“We’re not out to be the biggest coffee company in the universe,” explains Melanee Meegan, marketing manager at Peace Coffee. “When people choose our coffees, their purchases go directly toward improving the quality of life for farmers across the globe.”
Here are three innovative approaches Peace Coffee uses to engage and inspire their customers:
1. Keep Local Priorities
Peace Coffee doesn’t want to sell me coffee. Trust me, I asked.
