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Sustainability in fashion marketing essay
Nike ethical responsibility
Nike ethical responsibility
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Fashion has become an important part of everyday life throughout the world. Every morning people wake up to decide what they are going to wear and if it is “trendy” in today’s society. Television and media is covered with celebrity’s new dresses and unique outfits. Most of the first world countries are unaware of how retail clothing companies manufacture their clothes. Being both ethical and a profit powerhouse in the clothing industry is difficult for even the best of businesses. People throughout the world are speaking up for unethical behavior and these large company’s sales are hurting from it. Two companies that have really stood out in the past decades are Nike and Hennes & Mauritz, more commonly known by the name H&M. Both companies …show more content…
They have many restrictions and rules for their contractors and subcontractors, as well as know every end use and end user for all their transactions. Nike wants all their third party affiliates to comply with their rules about how employee acts, including honesty, free from harassment, etc. They do this through their Code of Conduct and corporate social responsibility. Business integrity and honesty is a key standard for Nike retaining business with a third party. The code specifically states, “This code calls for our partners’ management practices to respect the labor and employment rights of all employees, to minimize the impact on the environment, provide a safe and healthy work place, and promote the health and well being of all employees.” Nike is trying to be a leader by striving for their third party contractors to do the same as them and making the world a better place. Social responsibility is important to an ethical company because it impacts society and everyone in the world. If people and corporations weren’t socially responsible for their actions, everyone would be suffering and the world would be a cold, dark place. Nike not only wants to make themselves a better company, but also the world a better place to …show more content…
H&M was founded by a man named Erling Persson in 1947. The first store opened in Sweden, where the company headquarters is located. He started the company to offer fashionable clothing at a fairly cheap price. He first was selling only women’s clothing until he met Mauritz Widforss in 1968. Mauritz was a hunting apparel retailer, which brought men’s clothing to H&M. H&M is now the second largest global retailer in the clothing retail industry, making profits of $17 billion a year. Their stores can be found from the Middle East to Brazil, with over three thousand stores. H&M may not seem like a large company in America, but they have a lot of impact on the world as a
Scanning the conforming, ephemeral trendy masses, a large percent of the attire donned by the populace is made by cheap labor under horrible conditions. Many of the stores that fill malls and line streets are stocked with morally tainted products. Various popular brand names and stores use sweat shops as a means of production to maintain a low manufacturing cost, and reap a higher profit. Not only do these socially irresponsible conglomerates exist, they thrive on the blinded, and complacent materialistic society. Outfitting popular sports teams, and celebrities, these businesses have immense control, and take a big part in not only the fashion industry, but foreign affairs, as well. Although providing labor to third world countries may at first seem acceptable, the circumstances under which these sweatshops run are not. There are lists of rules by the United Nations, that outline the requirements a corporation must meet to be a socially responsible company. There are many companies that are popular today, however, that don’t meet the criteria stipulated by the UN, and fall in the “sweatshop” category.
Nike’s sweatshop manufacturing practices which can be seen through media have shown people that this company goes under the good guys images, these images which are displayed in their commercials show people that their employees are treated well and their happy in their working environment.
Nike has always been a company that's been questioned ethically. People have heard about the stories of the sweatshops in Southeast Asia exploiting adolescent employees for unreasonably small amounts of money. This had blemished Nike’s reputation several years ago, but since then, it has strived to become a truly respectable company. Located on Nike's website you can find Phil Knight's credo about ethics. It is as follows:
Engineering is one of the largest, most diverse and progressive professions. It is a highly respected profession. It guards public health and safety and is always in the best interest of society by attempting to improve the quality of life. With all professions, there are always circumstances where the image could be jeopardized. From the code of ethics, I will be discussing and analyzing article 77-7-IV. This article states: “A practitioner shall not attempt to gain an advantage over other practitioners by paying or accepting commission in securing professional engineering work”1. In other words this article relates to the term known as bribery, which is the act of persuasion which results in an advantage to one party, typically illegally or dishonestly.
Many global companies like Nike, Inc. are seen as role models both in the market place as well as in society in large. That is why they are expected to act responsibly in their dealings with humanity and the natural world. Nike benefits from the global sourcing opportunities, therefore areas such as production and logistics have been outsourced to partner companies in low-wage countries like China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. As a result the company is limited nowadays to its core competencies of Design and Marketing.
The business world has always been a very risky business. There is a lot to worry about no matter what position a person fulfills; everyone has some level of responsibility. The Gap Incorporated is a multinational specialty retail company (Gap Inc. 2014). The company was created by a Doris and Don Fisher (Joslin et. al. 2010). Don Fisher and his wife was a very wealthy couple, Don was a real estate developer (Joslin et. al. 2010). They decided to open up a clothing store when Don realized how popular jeans were becoming in the fashion industry. Another reason that Don Fisher wanted to open a clothing store is because he has an extremely difficult time finding jeans that fit him properly in department stores (Joslin et. al. 2010). So in the year of 1969 the Fishers opened the very first Gap store in San Francisco, California (Gap Inc. 2014). In this paper I will explore The Gap Incorporated and discuss the company’s ethical culture and behavior past and present. Based on preliminary information, I hypothesize that The Gap Incorporated is an ethical company.
Fashion is everything to society and the media. The fashion industry has transformed into a necessity in the life of people. Everyone wants to look good, feel fabulous and feel as if we belong with everyone else. The envy and desire to wear certain things and look a certain way all come, from wearing the latest fashion handbags, accessories, dresses, shoes, and the list goes on. But, when is considering fashion into an individual’s life going too far to the extreme? Many do not consider the whereabouts of fashion materials and how the environment is affected by the mere existence of certain garments. Some may believe these objects grow on trees. But that is clearly not the case. Even though it would be nice. The fashion industry as a whole, has been notorious from green issues caused by their lack of sensitivity to the environment, conspicuous and unnecessary consumption of materials, encouraging an “throw-away” society and image issues that support women and young adults to look a certain way to feel “beautiful.” This is an issue that has increased over the past decades. Not just women, but men also feel the uncontrollable need to do whatever it takes to look like the celebrities they see on television and on the runways. The thought that the materials to make those desired items may have caused the life of animals or the destruction of mother nature does not come into mind. Countless people are concerned about conserving planet Earth and keeping it healthy. The fashion world has been targeted for many corruptions.
Phil Knight started his shoe company by selling shoes from the back of his car. As he became more successful in 1972 he branded the name Nike. In the 1980’s Nike Corporation quickly grew and established itself as a world leader in manufacturing and distributing athletic footwear and sports' attire. The Nike manufacturing model has followed is to outsource its manufacturing to developing nations in the Asia Pacific, Africa, South and Latin Americas; where labor is inexpensive. It quickly became known for its iconic “swoosh” and “Just do it” advertisements and products. Its highly successful advertising campaigns and brand developed its strong market share and consumer base. But, the road has not always been easy for Nike; in the late 1990’s they went through some challenging times when their brand become synonymous with slave wages and child labor abuses. During this period, Nike learned that it paramount that the company understands its stakeholders’ opinions and ensures their values are congruent with their stakeholders. Nike learned that their stakeholders were concerned with more than buying low cost products; their customers were also concerned with ethical and fair treatment of their workers. Because Nike was unwilling to face the ethical treatment of its employees, the company lost its loyal customers and damaged its reputation. Nike has bounced back since the late 1990’s and revived its reputation by focusing on its internal shortfalls and attacking its issues head on. Nike nearly collapsed from its missteps in the late 1990’s. They have learned from their mistakes and taken steps to quickly identify ethical issues before they become a crisis through ethics audits. This paper is based on the case study of Nike: From Sweatsh...
The marketing goals are: Increase customer retention, Increase eCommerce Sales, Increase our Community Involvement. The first goal specifically works towards reaching 60% repeat sales through different promotional strategies like emotional marketing and sponsoring different professional athletes. Customer retention is extremely important to maintain Nike’s market leader position. Increasing eCommerce is a major focus for Nike. Last year we were able to increase our eCommerce sales by a profitable 51%. Our second goal is to continue this trend by increasing online sales by 50% every year for the next four years. It is our belief that doing so will solidify Nike as a leader in the online athletic market. Nike truly believes that sport can change
With the increased monitoring and enforcement of labour practices; Nike being in the public spotlight and subject to negative publicity on their subcontracted factories is forced to readjust the working conditions of their cross ocean factory workers to abide with proper regulations. This has caused Nike to modify their factory standards and employee working conditions by; limiting the maximum hours worked a week, implementing proper ventilation systems to filter out toxic fumes, increase worker access to protective equipment, and increase the capacity of medical facilities and medical staff for their workers.
H&M Hennes & Mauritz is a Swedish multinational company established in 1947, known for it’s clothing for men, women, teenagers and children. It is expanded to 53 countries and as of 2013 employed around 116,000 people. It is ranked as the second largest global clothing retailer. It generated $18.13 Billion revenue in the year 2013.
Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) is a well-known fashion retailing firm that sells fast-fashion clothing for women and youngsters. It is based in Stockholm, Sweden. As of 2013, H&M operates around 2,600 stores in over 55 countries and employed around 116,000 work forces.
H&M is the world’s second largest retailer, only behind its main rival Zara of Inditex (Petro, 2012). The company currently has 3006 stores in 53 countries. The company does not own any factories. H&M outsources production to network of 800 independent suppliers; 75% in Asia and 25% in Europe. In order to increase the efficiency and productivity of its supply chain, the company strategically locates its network of 20 to 30 production offices close to its suppliers. According to Stockholm Newsroom, the pretax profit of the company for the month of June to August of 2013 is $907 million, which indicates an 11 rise in turnover (Pollard, 2013). The company continuous development plan facilitates its goal for both brick and mortar, and online stores expansion worldwide. The target segments for H&M, a category specialist store, are trendsetters and fashion/money conscious males and females ranging from 16 to 40 years old with income ranging $15,000 to $60,000 annually.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American family spends $1,700 on clothes annually and “the average woman in England has 22 unworn items in her closet.”(Johnson) People buy a surplus of clothing, meaning factories make excess textile waste. While there have been many debates whether the clothing industry is the second most polluting industry of the world, second only to oil, there’s no doubt that the fashion industry has made an impact on the world, but not in a good
It is certain that people are getting more used to wasting products that are still reliable to use and, especially in fashion, not that many people are aware of the concept of sustainability. Although concept of recycling paper, plastic and glass has now spread a cross the states, people still doesn’t know how to recycle or reuse their clothing. “65 pounds of clothing and textiles a year are improperly discarded and only an eight of that goes to charities for reuse [1].” This indicates how unaware people are when it comes to taking care of their garments. Or rather, the way in which fast fashion industry promotes the value of cloth is very low, and it is because the fashion industry wants people to get rid of their clothing as soon as possible in order to sell their new colle...