Good Example Of Corporate Social Responsibility And Marketing Strategy Essay

Ethical and Social Responsibility of Apple

Examples
As it was reported that their workers had to work in dangerous working environment Apple eliminated those conditions in two facilities of company and a case of bribery also came up last year Apple took sudden action and eliminate bribery one of its facilities.
Apple was also criticized as violating the environmental conditions. In their manufacturing process, there was elimination of dangerous gases that are dangerous for society health conditions. Apple took tremendous action to solve this issue. In its recycling process Apple made arrangements so that there will be no more emission of toxic material. And also they started to use the emission of greenhouse gases to make the environment safe and healthy. Now Apple Company is spreading its positive image in case of environmental issues. Apple also contributed its revenue to support Bono for fighting against malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS (Kaiser, 2012).

Impact on Reputation of Apple by the Publication of Ethical and Social Responsibility Violation Made by Apple’s Suppliers

Apple is a company that has both the good and bad side at a time. The bad side of the image is due to the violation of code of conduct by its suppliers. In a publication by China labor watch an investigation report was published about the companies that violate labor rules. These factories were the major supplier of Apple Company. Many orders of Apple were fulfilled by these companies because through violating the labor rules these companies were getting the competitive edge. It was reported that there were 36 legal and 50 ethical violations were made. Violations were related to the underage labor, women right discrimination, hiring discrimination, contract violations, excessive working time, poor working conditions health and safety issues and environmental pollution. Apple’s supplier violates the rule of 49 hour rule of weekend by taking 60 hours weekend. Also working conditions in those factories were very poor and causing safety issues (Kaiser, 2012).
Foxconn is a Chinese company that is the major electronic supplier of Apple Company. It was reported that this company also made worst violation of the code of conduct. There were reported 12 suicides due to the exhausting and stressful working conditions. To combat with this problem the Foxconn implemented anti suicide net to prevent such incident.
The impact of these publications were very bad in the society, Apple company is considered as a company that have no compromise on its quality of products but they should also take care of the rights of labor and must fulfill its social responsibilities. It is strongly advised by the society that Apple should make strong restriction on its all suppliers that they will not make any violation regarding all international laws. Apple Company gives strong and bad image at a time to society but now Apple made many actions to stop these violations. But if we look at the profit side this image does not hurt the total annual profit of the company but the sale of Apple products have increased 100% from last year. But this gives a negative image about the company as a company that violates the international laws (SETHI, 2012).

Methods That Apple Can Use To Ensure Its Supplier Adhere To Wage and Benefit Standards Going Forward

Apple gives the code of conduct to its supplier and expects that the suppliers will fulfill their responsibility. This code of conduct includes the labor and human rights, anti-discrimination working condition, laws for preventing involuntary labor and underage labor, prevention of human trafficking, anti-harassment environment, safe and friendly working conditions. Suppliers are required to full fill all the conducts that are mentioned by the company (Apple, 2014).
In addition Apple requires that their supplier must provide wages and benefits to their employees and standard working hours must be applied in factories. Suppliers are also asked to prevent the student workers right and must maintain all records. There should be proper management of incidents (Apple, 2014).
Other than above mentioned rules Apple also want that their suppliers must take care of the environmental rules and regulation and must use methods for production that are safe for environment. Apple also took action when some cases in China about violation of rules come before it. That gives a good image about the company.

Customer Behavior If Prices of Apple Product Increase to Provide Better Wages for Supplier’s Workers

Apple products are already priced very high and it is considered that they are selling their products are higher prices than the market. If prices of Apple products are increased in order to pay the more wage rate to the workers of the Apple’s supplier than it is give a negative impact to the company because now there are many competitive products are available in the market and it is considered that many of the customers will lose if prices will increase. So it will be better for the Apple that they should not increase the prices. There are many people who are very loyal to the Apple products whether the price will high or not they always prefer to buy Apple products. We cannot say that there will be very negative behavior from the customers but the sale of products will fall to some degree due to competitive products like Samsung (Worstall, 2012).

Marketing Strategy of Apple

Apples company marketing success secret lies in the fact that they use very simple techniques in the marketing. They do not involve in complex marketing they believe that tell the people about the audience what exactly they know about. Apple uses the “simplicity” as more modern marketing techniques. When we see the ads of new MAC that was there were just two people standing before the white board and telling about the people about MAC. No more discussion about complex features and prices but they only focused on the point that MACS are far better than personal computers.
They communicate with the language that are easily known by the people, justify their prices in a very interesting manner and always came up with new innovation into their products that catch attention of their customers (Worstall, 2012).

Recommendations to Improve Competitive Edge

Apple can increase its competitive edge by increasing the wage rate at Foxconn. As now a day’s a rumor about this violation is around every corner of the world this give a positive image to the society as well. This act will give competitive edge to the HP and dell who is major competitor of Apple.

References

Apple. (2014). Apple Code of Conduct [Press release]. Retrieved from https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/pdf/Apple_Supplier_Code_of_Conduct.pdf
Chan, J., Pun, N., & Selden, M. (2013). The politics of global production: Apple, Foxconn and China's new working class. New Technology, Work and Employment, 28(2), 100-115.
Kaiser, T. (2012). Apple's Suppliers Continuously Violate Code of Conduct, Apple Does Nothing to Change It. Daily Tech.
SETHI, S. P. (2012). Two Faces of Apple. Retrieved January 27, 2014, from http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/publications/ethics_online/0068.html
Worstall, T. (2012). Could Foxconn's Wage Rises be a Competitive Advantage For Apple? Forbes.