Good morning everybody,
today we are going to discuss about a virtuous case of ethical marketing in the field of food & beverages: Michel et Augustin.
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| Michel et Augustin |
This is a French brand created in 2005 by Augustin Paluel-Marmont and Michel de Rovira, two brilliant ESCP-Europe alumni. Their brand started producing cookies (Petits sablés ronds et bons), followed by yogurts drinks (Vache à boire) and other products, such as mousses, juices, salty biscuits and so on.
The firm targets young people (between 15 and 35 years old), especially the members of the bobos – the new bourgeois and bohemian class, which represents a mix of the counter-cultural, artistic bohemian and the capitalist bourgeois, and which believes in the values of healthy food, natural products, respect for the environment and ethical standards.
The firm’s mission is the following:
«The quality of our yogurts (big and small) and yogurts-in-a-bottle, our little round butter cookies, our cookie squares (actually, rectangles), our petits cookies from France and our cookie crackers is the absolute PRIORITY of the ENTIRE Banana Farm. Our production sites respect all applicable health and sanitation norms. And we even go beyond that, because they all meet HACCP standards, too. One site is already certified IFS (International Food Standard) and the others are in the process of certification. We choose simple, quality ingredients for our concoctions (fresh whole milk and crème fraîche, real butter, Guérande sea salt, fresh eggs, real fruit...).And quality ingredients are more expensive than not-so-quality ingredients (concentrated butter, powdered milk, dehydrated eggs…)! It takes good ingredients to make good, healthy products with real taste and little or no preservatives».
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| Michel et Augustin: their products |
Excellence, a good price/quality ratio – their prices are quite high, but not as high as other high-quality firms – and original packages (with childish, young design) are their philosophy, combined with guerrilla marketing – based on street marketing (events, story-telling, parades and masquerades), social media marketing and world of mouth.
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| Michel et Augustin: street marketing |
Their innovative communication style – young, funny, even childlike – conveys an idea of naturalness and health; moreover, the products’ origins are specified and traced, in order to inspire confidence and credibility.
To enhance the concept of high quality and selectiveness, the distribution is not massive: Michel et Augustin's products are distributed in food stores and coffee shops, and only later they started being distributed in larger distribution chains (Carrefour, Auchan ...).
An important aspect is the dialogue with customers: every first Thursday of the month, customers are invited into the Bananaire 3.0 to taste products and give their opinion about them. This improves the company’s credibility and trustworthiness.
I consider this company’s marketing ethical from a value-oriented perspective: the firm's products are natural, they are environment-friendly and their quality is demonstrated. Moreover, customers can give their opinions and advices: the firm respects the principles of honesty and transparency.
The company has some values and they are strictly observed: they sell something good, qualitative, and they are open to critics, too.
This is what ethical marketing should be: promoting as good products that are really good and qualitative, and not something potentially dangerous for your health.
I thank my French friend Philippine Laroche for the inspiration.
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