El Segundo Nombre
Putting the grower's name on the bag, and rebuilding traceability to make it true.
- Client
- Juan Valdez Café
- Markets
- Colombia, United States, Spain, Japan
The challenge
Colombian coffee sells into export markets saturated with origin storytelling. Every competitor had a farmer on the packaging. Buyers had stopped believing any of it, and retail partners in Japan and Spain were flagging “origin fatigue” in category reviews.
The idea
We made the claim specific enough to be checked. El Segundo Nombre put the name of the actual grower on each bag, alongside a lot number resolving to that harvest, that farm, and the price paid.
This was less a campaign than a supply chain commitment, and it took seven months of traceability work before a single bag shipped. Export packaging was adapted per market, but the grower’s name was never translated or simplified — that was the point.
The results
- Retail listings expanded from 310 to 1,900 doors across four markets
- Sustained a 24% price premium against category average
- 44% of buyers scanned the lot code, averaging 2.3 minutes on the harvest page
- Participating farms grew from 12 to 87 across two harvest cycles