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Commitment to quality: thanks to a clever marketing strategy and a premium product, investments by Colombian coffee growers have improved healthcare, education, and infrastructure throughout their country.

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MANY PEOPLE KNOW COLOMBIAN COFFEE for its rich flavor and aroma. Fewer people know that, 375,000 coffee growers have established a governance structure--the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (Federacion Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia)--that enables their advertising, marketing, and quality management programs. Still fewer people know that this same governance structure makes possible many good works of social responsibility benefiting communities throughout Colombia.

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In 1960 the coffee federation hired a New York-based firm to design a new advertising strategy for Colombian coffee growers. They came up with "Juan Valdez" as the personification of the typical Colombian coffee grower: a humble man of modest means who was committed, like his father before him, to the family tradition of growing only the finest. coffee. Marketers soon paired the human face of their brand with the identifier "100% Cafe de Colombia" and the slogan "the richest coffee in the world." This advertising campaign was carried out in the United States from the early 1960s to the early 1980s. Over the years, Colombian coffee has achieved a remarkable and positive identification in consumer minds. It is consistently recognized among the top five brands in American consumer surveys.

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This marketing campaign has yielded price premiums of at least ten cents per pound for Colombian coffee growers for decades. Grower Carlos...

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