Another excellent piece that really illuminates something that has been a trigger for me in the industry, that disconnect between the marketing and the buying practices of many coffee companies. Thanks Ashley!
It's so hard to parse out the gulf between the two sometimes, and I don't even think it's intentional! That comes up in the next episode: the idea of good intent in coffee being somewhat misconstrued or applied without critical thought.
I've never heard of the term "smallwashing" but have completely been sucked into such stories by brands moonlighting as small businesses. Now I'm going to question my small business purchases a bit more before I buy.
It's so hard! Because we simply can't care about everything! We just can't or our brains would explode! I think more responsibility should lay on companies to be truthful in their marketing or at least consider the ramifications of their claims or aesthetic choices. I'd argue companies are making these shortcuts consciously because humans simply cannot investigate every single claim.
Such a nice piece of critical thinking-based writing. Product development and branding has become so easy with free-flowing investment dollars (disrupt xx market, uber for YY etc taglines, same design agencies, marketing channels etc) and virtue signaling via supposed values is so easy to pull off. A simple technique that a former colleague loved was to ask three WHYs and if any of the answers don't logically make sense then you may want to reconsider if you really want to buy said product.
Exactly this re: investment and product development. It's not about making a better thing, but "optimizing" and targeting an audience, and lately that's felt like co-opting values to make people feel like they're good for choosing X, Y, or Z product (I didn't touch upon this at all, but it's a tactic I'm seeing in non-coffee coffee brands — they talk about being more sustainable because coffee farming is taxing, but without any regard to the millions of people who subsist on coffee farming). Thank you for this comment — and that's a great suggestion for questioning where and why the products you consume look or market themselves the way they do.
This is a great one! I too spend a lot of time wondering what I actually know about companies I support, and realizing it is often not much. A good bit to think about. Thank you for writing, as always!
Another excellent piece that really illuminates something that has been a trigger for me in the industry, that disconnect between the marketing and the buying practices of many coffee companies. Thanks Ashley!
It's so hard to parse out the gulf between the two sometimes, and I don't even think it's intentional! That comes up in the next episode: the idea of good intent in coffee being somewhat misconstrued or applied without critical thought.
I've never heard of the term "smallwashing" but have completely been sucked into such stories by brands moonlighting as small businesses. Now I'm going to question my small business purchases a bit more before I buy.
It's so hard! Because we simply can't care about everything! We just can't or our brains would explode! I think more responsibility should lay on companies to be truthful in their marketing or at least consider the ramifications of their claims or aesthetic choices. I'd argue companies are making these shortcuts consciously because humans simply cannot investigate every single claim.
Such a nice piece of critical thinking-based writing. Product development and branding has become so easy with free-flowing investment dollars (disrupt xx market, uber for YY etc taglines, same design agencies, marketing channels etc) and virtue signaling via supposed values is so easy to pull off. A simple technique that a former colleague loved was to ask three WHYs and if any of the answers don't logically make sense then you may want to reconsider if you really want to buy said product.
Exactly this re: investment and product development. It's not about making a better thing, but "optimizing" and targeting an audience, and lately that's felt like co-opting values to make people feel like they're good for choosing X, Y, or Z product (I didn't touch upon this at all, but it's a tactic I'm seeing in non-coffee coffee brands — they talk about being more sustainable because coffee farming is taxing, but without any regard to the millions of people who subsist on coffee farming). Thank you for this comment — and that's a great suggestion for questioning where and why the products you consume look or market themselves the way they do.
Smallwashing! What a great term. Loved this piece, which also helped calm my rage at Thinx. :)
This is a great one! I too spend a lot of time wondering what I actually know about companies I support, and realizing it is often not much. A good bit to think about. Thank you for writing, as always!
Thank you!!! I love comments and it's a delight to see this piece land!