Saturday, March 14, 2020

Corporate Responsibility and Marketing Strategies Essay Example

Corporate Responsibility and Marketing Strategies Essay Example Corporate Responsibility and Marketing Strategies Essay Corporate Responsibility and Marketing Strategies Essay I believe Apple Inc. [ largely referred as Apple in this papers ] has met the ethical and societal duty towards general populace. employees. clients and shareholders/investors. Apple places itself to be really environment witting and continuously working to cut down the pes print of the company and its merchandises on the planet ( Apple Inc. ) . Apple has a recycling plan for its used merchandises ; it sends gift cards to clients in return for the used merchandises. if the merchandises do non hold any pecuniary value they recycle them responsibly. Apple reports the environmental foot-print of each of its merchandise on their web site to demo how much energy efficient they are and how Apple is taking more biodegradable elements in its merchandises. packaging and installations. Apple has multiple offices and datacenters in United States and as of March 2013 70 five per centum of them are to the full powered through renewable energy beginnings ( Kastrenakes. 2013 ) . Apple is continuously seeking to better the state of affairs and taking to trust wholly on renewable energy beginnings in future. To better ethical consciousness within its employees. Apple has a concern codification of behavior published and easy available via intranet web site within the company and to its investors via stockholder web site ( Business codification. 2012 ) which explains in item on assorted subjects including its well known close manner of let go ofing its merchandises. Apple besides has a Business behavior helpline available for its employees to decide ethical quandary. study struggles of involvement and seek way in doing ethical determination. Recently Tim Cook. Apple CEO has reminded all employees to reexamine Apple’s concern behavior policy via corporate electronic mail ( Marie. 2013 ) which shows the importance Apple gives to Ethical motives within the company. Apple treats its employees really good ; wages reasonably good wages to employees and rates to contractors. Apple’s has a really good benefit plan for its employees. even the parttime employees are entitled to benefit s at apple ( Fiegerman. 2012 ) . it provides shuttle service to many locations from many topographic points in Bay country to campus. Apple merchandises are really safe compared to many other rival merchandises. Apple pays attending to inside informations. e. g. : To avoid tripping over a bear downing overseas telegram. Mac book courser has a magnet alternatively of a difficult stick in stopper as we observe in many Windows PCs. All of its merchandises are good thought and supply batch of convenience and see client wellness and safety. as we see in the instance of latest ear phones from Apple. they have the talkers traveling crabwise alternatively of straight in to ears as most of the conventional ear stoppers do. this restricts music straight hitting the ear membranophone and long term exposure may hold inauspicious impact on the ears. Apple merchandises are good sealed and inactive resistant. the stuffs used in production are non inexpensive and low quality parts. which improves the lastingness of its merchandises. Apple provides batch of fluctuations in merchandises to take. to a client which attracts clients at all degrees. There are about 10s to twelve spirits of latest iPhone based on colour. size of memory and external stuff. Apple has a really good refund policy. points can be returned online or returned in shop. there is about 14-30 yearss to return points. Apple provides full refund alternatively of bear downing for re-stocking fee. If there is a portion malfunction. apple merchandise can be exchanged for a new one within one twelvemonth of purchase for nominal or zero monetary value. Apple considers customer’s ailments and response quickly by multiple agencies and purposes to please the clients ( Denning. 2011 ) . Apple listens to clients at the shops. online and besides via telephone and improvises on its services. client support and besides their merchandises. It is really obvious that Apple takes good attention of its stockholders ; we can clearly detect that from Apple’s grosss and net incomes from past several quarters. Apple’s portion has gone up five times within past five old ages. Apple provides all of its quarterly. one-year studies along with fiscal statements and exhibits with SEC and complies with SEC policies. Question 2: Publications of moralss and societal duty misdemeanors of its providers. chiefly at Hon Hoi Precision. besides known as FoxConn had impact on Apple’s repute and chiefly no impact on gross revenues and portion value. In 2011 there were 14 self-destructions at FoxConn and subsequently on there were many public violences. suicide protests by workers against the really long working hours. deficiency of insurance. workplace safety. atrocious installation care. incidents of utilizing Child labour. deficiency of injured workers compensation. ground forces cantonment manner direction and others ( McGrath. 2012 ) . Apple has handled things really carefully and assigned right people and started redress methods. published supplier codification of behavior. increased audits in its provider houses. provided preparation. to better state of affairs and repute ; Tim Cook. the Chief executive officer of Apple talked about Foxconn and how his company is seeking to better the on the job conditio ns for employees and workers in its suppliers’ mills and how earnestly Apple is taking the allegations ( Knibbs ) . Apple’s repute had an impact during the clip of events. created a bombilation in media universe ; Apple got a bad name within its investors and interest holders. Subsequently on. Apple was able to pull off out of the state of affairs really good. Overall there is no impact to gross revenues or gross or Apple’s portion value. Apple portions might hold taken a little hit for few yearss when there were publications by media. but overall portion value was turning in 2010 and 2011 when all of studies were being published. Apple is still considered the most admired company in the whole universe as per Fortunes World’s most Admired companies for 2008-2013 ; six old ages in row ( Shaughnessy. 2013 ) . Apple merchandises are really good received in the market ; there are no antipathies or hatred towards Apple’s merchandises based on the allegations. We normally see the bead in gross revenues when there are negative allegations on companies. we have seen this in ins tance of Paula Deen based on her racial remarks and besides with Duck Dynasty and its merchandises when Phil Robertson has made anti-gay remarks and cause large dent in their repute. we have non seen this with Apple. When iPhone 5s was released in September of 2013. shops reported people standing in long lines at Apple and its spouse shops to acquire the first piece. Today there are hardcore fans to Apple merchandises than for any other company. Apple merchandises are turning popularity even in China where the allegations of atrocious working conditions have been reported. Based on my personal observation. Apple shops are among the most crowded shops at local promenades. Even with heavy competition for Samsung. LG. Nokia ( now Microsoft ) and Motorola. Apple iPhones are still most normally used smart phones in United States. Apple’s App shop has more than a Billion applications available to stop users. By detecting the Apple’s growing form. it is safe to state that the impact of provider misdemeanors is minor. Question 3: To better the on the job conditions and abide to Fair Law Association ( FLA ) policies Apple has come up with and published supplier codification of conduct ( Apple provider. 2012 ) for all its providers to adhere who provide parts to its merchandises. To guarantee that its providers adhere to pay and benefits criterions traveling frontward. Apple has to purely implement the supplier codification of conduct and besides increase the supervising and auditing of the provider mills. HR and pay axial rotation systems up to allowed by the local and international Torahs. Many of the regulations and ordinances which are illegal in US are acceptable in other states. As Apple’s providers are chiefly in other states than US. Apple can put up rigorous regulations and guidelines more near to US Torahs in add-on to local authorities policies and Fair Law Association ( FLA ) Torahs. as most of its merchandises are used by consumers in US. Apple can besides open up complaint/suggestion boxes ( online. in mill and via phone ) from workers in provider mills to understand and closely supervise the on the job conditions and acquire feedback on rewards and benefits. Apple can curtail the figure of hours a worker can work in its provider mills. Apple can make guidelines in its codification to hold onsite aid to speak with workers and understand their jobs and work with supplier mills to work out them. Apple can steer its providers to setup onsite and near to campus medical installations for workers working in its provider mills. Apple can work with local media and authorities to make studies from general populace about their provider patterns at mill installations. Apple should bespeak the moralss codification of behavior as one of the primary pre-requisite from their providers as portion of the initial RFP – Request for proposal. Apple should acquire feedback suppliers’ employees to understand how good the codification is followed by its upper direction in the company and should implement provider to better it before reclamation of contracts. Apple should halt purchasing parts from providers with corrupt repute. or providers with weak or no ethical codification of behavior. Apple should compare the on the job conditions and rewards of workers in its provider mills to competitor mills in the country and base on balls ordinances to better the rewards to run into market criterions. Question 4: Apple clients would be willing to pay more for its merchandises to provider better rewards and benefits to suppliers’ workers. Apple can do this happen by demoing the grounds behind addition in monetary values. and how extra money will be utilized for worker compensation and benefits. Apple should advertise in Television. publish articles on its web site and supply information to Media on how the extra money will be utilized. This is much similar to Ms. Lee Rhodes and her Glassybaby in the instance survey. Glassybaby gives 10 % of its grosss for malignant neoplastic disease intervention. Another suggestion that I can do is that. some per centum of addition in wages for workers should besides come from Apple’s net incomes to demo consumers that Apple is non merely bear downing more for merchandises but besides taking a cut in their net incomes to supply better working conditions for workers. Apple and its chief laminitis Steve Jobs do non hold really good name as Philant hropist. there is no public record that Steve Jobs has donated any money ( Sorkin. 2011 ) . After Tim Cook took over Apple’s CEO place. he has made some contributions but compared with other companies with high grosss and net incomes ; the contributions made by Apple are really negligible compared to its grosss and net incomes ( Emerson. 2012 ) . Apple can better its image and repute in the universe by giving some per centum of net incomes to suppliers’ workers through multiple plans and inducements. Today Apple’s merchandises are most popular in the market ; iPhone is the best selling smart phone out at that place in market. Apple and its merchandises have immense fan base and many of the rival smart phones from Samsung or Microsoft are non comparable to iPhone. With such a popularity. increasing a minor per centum E. g. : 3-5 % of monetary value will non hold any impact on merchandise gross revenues. Most of the Apple merchandises are sold with web connexion besides known as information program. the minimal information program is really expensive and costs up to $ 40 per month for many bearers. Some of Apple’s iPhone clients take informations program because they are intrigued with iPhone and Apple merchandises. When clients are willing to pay extra money for seldom used informations program as they stay home largely where there is Wi-Fi connexion as an option to data program. Customers should be willing to pass a spot more money to better working conditions and wages for suppliers’ workers. Question 5: Apple has first-class market scheme for its merchandises ; Everyone remembers those PC and Mac comparing commercials. which used to portray Apple’ Mac computing machines as cool and voguish for Generations X and Y and for everyone at place where as Microsoft Personal computer was shown as concern computing machine with bugs. In world. Microsoft runing system is more flexible and clients can custom-make and do alterations and create applications comparatively easy. where as you need to travel to App Store for installing/upgrading any iOS applications. Microsoft or Samsung devices allow users to copy MP3 files. and play them without any intermediary package such as iTunes. a compulsory application for Apple to copy vocals in to iOS applications. Even with less flexibleness Apple’s merchandises are extremely sold in market today due to its design and public presentation of its merchandises and chiefly it’s Marketing scheme. Apple does non truly advertise new versions of iPhone releases. instead it keeps it secret. there are no beta releases. and there are no images or commercials in the market before a new version iPhone is released. It creates bombilation in the market which generates enigma about its merchandise. In add-on to its ain selling. Apple’s iPhones are besides advertized by other companies such as web suppliers such as AT A ; T. Verizon and other companies which make protective instances and other accoutrements for iPhones. Apple maintains such secrecy before let go ofing its iPhone merchandises ; it has worked greatly for them. Another manner Apple merchandises are advertized is by word of oral cavity. Today many of smart phones in the market from Samsung. LG and Microsoft have similar maps as iPhone. but in my position the secrecy/mystery and word of oral cavity advertising for iPhone has helped to keep its leading in the market. To better competitory advantage over planetary market topographic point. Apple should sell its merchandises more in other states ; spread out its base out of US. The use of smart phones is at brink of acquiring impregnation in United States. consumers in US are tied to informations and voice programs from web suppliers in US. Until latest coevalss of iPhones. iphones were sold at a ulterior release day of the months in Europe. India and China than in United States. There is a batch of fan base for Apple in China and India. Apple should en hard currency that by doing merchandises low-cost in those states. Customers in US do non replace their phones until their contract ends with he web supplier. which is normally two old ages from the contract start day of the month. Most of the states outside of US are non bound to network/data programs for the phones as they use GSM engineering ; this provides flexibleness to consumers to purchase more than one phone in two old ages. Smart phones are acquiring more popular in India and china where the population is really high. Population of India and China combined is more than six times the population of United States ( CIA World Factbook ) ; if Apple can capture a little per centum of the market in those states it will hold more client base than it does in whole US which bring higher grosss. Apple should get down custom-making their merchandises and do them consumer friendly in other states. such as make bill of fare in native linguistic communications. make local usage applications etc. As word of oral cavity advertisement has proven working for Apple. they should get down giving some samples of their merchandises to famous persons in India where the common public tendency is to follow the famous persons and mime their merchandise use. It has worked for other companies and merchandises ; it should besides work for Apple. Apple should get down believing about doing their merchandises more flexible and easy to custom-make. Apple is really popular among trade name. but more savvy users with computing machine background started to tilt more towards Google Android based phones from Samsung and LG as they have more flexibleness and customization options. With computing machine accomplishments and techniques being really common to childs in Generation Y and Z. Apple should believe about concentrating on them and their gustatory sensations and Apple merchandises more flexible. Apple should introduce more. there have been some betterments and alterations to its merchandises in past 3 old ages but at that place has non been a WOW merchandise release. They should come in new markets. start coming up with new merchandises such as long anticipated Apple Television or they should acquire in to wearable appliances such as carpus tickers. spectacless. gesture controlled devices. devices with flexible screens and devices which look cool but monitor human body’s current wellness such as temperature. sugar degrees. blood force per unit area etc. Last but non least. Apple should better its altruist image ; they should get down donating more to needy and charitable foundations. That normally helps in both ways ; it improves the repute and besides works as advertizement. Mentions Apple Inc. ( n. d. ) . Apple and the environment. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. apple. com/environment/ Apple provider codification of behavior. ( 2012. JANUARY ) . Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. apple. com/supplierresponsibility/pdf/Apple_Supplier_Code_of_Conduct. pdf Business codification. ( 2012. DECEMBER ) . Business conduct the manner we do concern worldwide. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //files. stockholder. com/downloads/AAPL/2916593555x0x443008/5f38b1e6-2f9c-4518-b691-13a29ac90501/business_conduct_policy. pdf CIA World Factbook. ( n. d. ) . Country comparing: : Population. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. Central Intelligence Agency. gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2119rank. hypertext markup language Denning. S. ( 2011. AUGUST 26 ) . Another myth bites the dust: How apple listens to its clients. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. forbes. com/sites/stevedenn ing/2011/08/26/another-myth-bites-the-dust-how-apple-listens-to-its-customers/ Emerson. R. ( 2012. FEBRUARY 3 ) . Apple’s contributions to charity surpassed $ 50 million: Report. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. huffingtonpost. com/2012/02/03/apple-charity-donation_n_1253185. html Fiegerman. S. ( 2012. JUNE 18 ) . Why working at apple is a dream occupation. BusinessInsider. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. businessinsider. com/heres-what-employees-really-love-about-working-for-apple-2012-6? op=1 Kastrenakes. J. ( 2013. MARCH 21 ) . Renewable energy now powers 75 per centum of apple’s installations. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. theverge. com/2013/3/21/4132402/apple-now-using-75-percent-renewabl e-energy-across-operations Knibbs. K. ( n. d. ) . Apple chief executive officer negotiations foxconn. attempts to repair repute. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. mobiledia. com/news/128273. hypertext mark up language Marie. ( 2013. NOVEMBER 21 ) . Tim cook reminds apple employees to reexamine apple’s concern behavior policy. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //mobileorchard. com/tim-cook-reminds-apple-employees-to-review-apples-business-conduct-policy/ McGrath. B. ( 2012. FEBRUARY 7 ) . Apple’s sweatshop supply concatenation. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. west southwest. org/en/articles/2012/02/appl-f07. hypertext markup language Sorkin. A. ( 2011. AUGUST 29 ) . The enigma of steve jobs’s public giving. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //dealbook. nytimes. com/2011/08/29/the-mystery-of-steve-jobss-public-giving/ ? _php=true A ; _type=blogs A ; _r=0 Shaughnessy. H. ( 2013. FEBRUARY 28 ) . Apple remains world’s most admired company. followed by Google and virago. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. forbes. com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2013/02/28/apple-remains-worlds-most-admired-followed-by-google-and- amazon/