How is the communication of values, qualities, and motivations supported along the value chain from producer to consumer and vice versa?

Summary

First, we consider it helpful to give a short introduction into the topic of communication and share some reflections why this aspect is important to look at in the frame of the HealthyGrowth project. The general question is why communication is necessary and what the purpose of communication is. One aspect commonly mentioned concerns information as a means of marketing. As Karstberg (2015) notes: “Research shows that a significant barrier to consumers purchasing more organic foods is lack of information. This leads the relevant body of research to call for better communication around organic foods.” Zanoli and Naspetti (2002:652) expressed the need “to devise a better communication strategy” with a view to “informing consumers about the extra quality inherent in organic food” (Duffy et al. 2005:374). And Aertsens et al. (2011) add that consequently, “consumers’ lack of knowledge concerning organic food is an important factor slowing down growth”. So communication is of utmost importance when it comes to aspects of growth of the organic sector.
However, ultimately communication is the basis of every human interaction. It is the process by which we create sense and meaning and built up relationships with each other. Communication is thus to be understood in its broadest sense, so that actually everything that carries meaning or conveys a message is to be understood as communication. It therefore comprises all forms of audio-visual interactions between people (face-to-face conversations, phone calls, skype/web-meetings etc.) as well as artefacts like receipts, contracts, e-mails, all forms of publication materials (e.g. brochures, leaflets, flyers, radio or TV commercials, video clips, newspaper ads etc.) and – not to forget – of course also the (organic) products themselves. This said the next point in question is what the purpose of communication is specifically within values based organic food chains. Regarding the overall objective the HealthyGrowth project, we are primarily interested to investigate the role of communication for maintaining trust and integrity during growth processes. In this respect, communication becomes particularly important for collectively developing desired qualities, discussing which values to communicate, establishing fairness,loyalty, identification and trust or simply negotiating volumes and prizes. Moreover, it plays also a crucial role for increasing the knowledge of stakeholders involved along the supply chain.