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What’s in a Name?

Posted 24 October 2007 by Jacob Malthouse to Opinion.

We’ve been discussing how best to build naming conventions around the labels in this site. Particularly in the retail goods type this can be a challenge. Some labels have the country integrated into their name (Fair Flower Program Germany) others do not (Environmentally Friendly Label (Croatia)). Where the name is not in the title we decided to add it in brackets to make it easier for people using our site.

Here’s another pickle presented by Fairtrade, which seems caught between Fairtrade, Max Havelaar, and Transfair as well as between Mark and Label:

  • Fairtrade Austria
  • Max Havelaar Belgium
  • Transfair Canada
  • Max Havelaar Denmark
  • Max Havelaar France
  • TransFair Germany
  • Fairtrade Foundation UK
  • TransFair Italy
  • Fairtrade Mark Ireland
  • Fairtrade Label Japan

While we welcome diversity there are times when standardisation is useful. From a consumer and directory building perspective, we’re leaning toward the standards are useful end of the spectrum with regard to label names.