Marketing challenge

Best practices for marketing coffee products
to local and global markets

1. Contact Details

Name of the organization: / Agrinovations
Type of organization (producer organization, NGO, etc) / Consultant
Commodity (coffee/cocoa/cotton/tea) / Coffee
Name of contact person: / Grace Njeri Wanene
City/Country / Nairobi, Kenya
E-mail: /
Telephone: / +254728329607
Website (if available): /

2. Description of your best practice

  1. Please select one of the two categories:

Innovative strategy for accessing new markets for coffee (local or global). / 
Experience to grow coffee trade and recognition in the global markets
  1. Please give a short description of the best practice you wish to enter into the challenge (max 200 words)

The enormous potential of E-Commerce has yet to be exploited for coffee marketing. Kenyan coffee is highly praised all over the world but the end consumers are still not able to access it directly. By creating an E-commerce website / online marketplace for Kenyan coffee, we would be able to supply various blends of Kenyan coffee to global consumers in small amounts from as little as 0.5kgs. Consumers can simply order on the website and their product will be shipped to them within a few days.
  1. What marketing actions were implemented to open the market and generate revenue? (max 500 words)

The following requirements must be met in order to open the global coffee market through E-commerce and generate revenue.
Ecommerce Website- This is the main website where the coffee will be displayed, Customers will be able to pick products and pay for them online. This website would be one of the largest startup costs.
Payment Processor- The website would need to include a payment gateway where shoppers can pay for their coffee. PayPal would be preferable since it accepts all major credit and debit cards. It is also a highly secure platform that would instill confidence in online shoppers.
Marketing – Marketing costs would also be a major investor especially in the start-up stage. This would be done online through Google Advertisements as well as placing ads on other websites in the coffee marketing niche. Customers would be encouraged to “subscribe” for our coffee so that we can have recurring customers and gradually decrease the cost of marketing.
Shipping- Once payment has been completed, we would ship orders to the customers. Unfortunately, shipping from Kenya would be expensive and inconveniencing to the buyers because it takes long. It would be cheaper to ship in bulk to North America or Europe and then have the shipping done from there.
Revenue would be generated from the coffee sales.
  1. What is the potential for this best practice to be implemented in other organisations or even sectors or how can it be significantly scaled up within its own context? (max 200 words)

This model can be scaled up for other beverages such as cocoa and tea. In fact, it would also be wise to include other beverages in small quantities on the online coffee marketplace.
The model can also be scaled up within its own context by encouraging global coffee shops to become exclusive resellers of Kenyan coffee products in their localities. This would greatly reduce shipping costs. Each shop would also have its own E-commerce website that is linked to ours. This would eventually turn our establishment into a wholesaler with thousands of franchises worldwide.
  1. What other value chain actors are involved in this best practice and what is their role? (max 200 words)

Coffee processors would be integral to the success of this model. They would supply us with authentic Kenyan coffee which we would market to global consumers.
  1. How does this best practice influence the living conditions of smallholder farmers?(max 200 words)

By availing Kenyan coffee to the global market through an online marketplace, we would be able to open up new markets for Kenyan coffee. This would increase the demand and subsequently the price of Kenyan coffee. The increased price would enable farmers to earn higher prices for their coffee beans.
We would also only deal with fair trade coffee processors that pay a fair price to farmers.

If you have any documents or visual materials (powerpoint, video, photo) that you feel support you application, please add as an annex to this application format.

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Marketing Challenge 2013