"Positioning" the Friend a Farmer Fair Trade Cart

Today's reading on "Market Segmentation, Target Market Selection, and Positioning" was very helpful in further developing my social venture concept.

In my Analytics of Social Media class, we had a very interesting presentation by Professor Dan Boyarski form the CMU School of Design. He highlighted the distinction between developing a product or concept and actually consuming it. In other words, as a social venture "creator" I hold only a small percentage of say in what the fair trade coffee cart should actually be. This should be based primarily on the needs of the target market - the greater Carnegie Mellon community.

The "positioning statement" helps me put this product clearly in the lens of this community. Here is my initial attempt of what it would be:

"Our Friend a Farmer Fair Trade Cart provides you an exciting opportunity to be a globally conscientious consumer in a hands-on, interactive environment among all other campus coffee and chocolate vendors because it is the only fair-trade, mobile, self-serve cart that is ready at your convenience."

I know this needs some work, but it's a start! Furthermore, I'm beginning to wonder if such a clear distinction can be made between horizontal and vertical differentiation as stated in the article. Fair trade prices can be competitive with non-fair trade prices. The former is not necessarily more expensive. Hence, I think the term "better" needs further clarification in the context of vertical differentiation. Metrics of better could be a multitude of things - convenience, packaging, taste, etc. How can it be generalized? Furthermore, I can see the Cart being horizontally differentiated from competitors as well - especially if people are informed and prefer fair trade over non fair-trade. Again, this could vary however based on how loyal a consumer is to such products.