| dc.description.abstract | Every society develops a certain knowledge base over a long period of time.
Development of such knowledge base owes its origin to the geographical environment
and human interactions and becomes an important part of the society’s economy and
tradition. In a globalized society these knowledge are assets and are vulnerable to misuse
and hence the process of preserving the knowledge and heritage is important. This was
the idea behind the initiative by the Coffee Board of Kenya to develop and register a
geographical indication in form of a certification trademark and protect the quality,
reputation and other characteristics of Kenya Coffee essentially attributable to Kenya’s
agro-ecological zones.
Increasingly, customers consume brands not for the products they designate, but for the
affiliation with the brands themselves. It was under this premise that the study explored
the perceptions of coffee branding through the use of geographical indications as a
potential tool in promoting Kenya coffee, a strategy that could also be applied to other
agro-based products in a developing country like Kenya. The study examined the
opinions of the coffee industry players on factors attributable to Kenya Coffee that would
make it a successful brand in the local market and therefore exploit that opportunity in
converting them into marketable product | en |
