Corporate Responsibility and Marketing Strategies of Apple - Essay Example

Corporate Responsibility and Marketing Strategies of Apple Apple Corporation is an American multinational company that deals with designing, developing and selling computer software and other electronics that are consumed worldwide. Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne founded the Corporation in 1976 with a primary focus on developing and selling personal computing devices but the goal later shifted from personal computers to all consumer electronics. Currently it is the world second largest information technology company by revenue and it is among the few phone makers company that are recognized globally. Ethical and social responsibilities require companies to have a sense of responsibility to the environment in which it operates through participating in programs that are aimed at improving the wellbeing of the community. Over the past years, Apple Corporation has not been performing well as far as corporate social responsibility is concerned. Its workers working in the China based factories have been reported on several occasions as going through harsh working conditions. These poor working conditions involved extremely low wages, forced overtimes with no corresponding remunerations and other unfavorable treatments. Recently the organization has been linked with child labor after Foxconn, which is a major supplier of Apple admitted of being involved in child labor. In its Yantai assembling facility in Shandong province of China student interns who were as young as fourteen years were required to work forcefully at a certain amount of fee. Its environmental practices have not been friendly as evidenced by the many criticisms it has been receiving. The company has been accused severally of consuming a considerable percentage of global electricity, which has raised questions on the commitment of the firm to using alternative means that do not cause a lot of pollution to the environment (Icke, 2013). Currently Apple seems to be heading on the right direction in corporate social responsibility especially after Tim Cook became the CEO. He has displayed having a vision of being socially responsible, which previously lacked in the management since Steve Jobs was only concerned with equipping the society with the best technology. He therefore never took keen interest on public grants to charity organizations and other programs that are aimed at improving the well-being of the society. Cook after assuming office introduced a charity program that is similar to the ones embraced by majority of the successful large multinationals. The program involved a dollar-to-dollar match compensation for employee of up to ten thousand dollars per a year. The program is a good indicator of Apple meeting ethical and social responsibilities despite the criticism that they have faced concerning the program. Apple has been involved in creating empathy with its stakeholders to ensure that there is a good emotional bonding that is fundamental to both the company and the stakeholders. Empathy enables a company to endure unfavorable business conditions without incurring heavy losses since most of the partners that they trade together will still believe on the ability of the firm despite deteriorating external conditions. The stakeholders benefit from the assurance of success they receive of their various agreements as result of the good relationship that exists. Apple has achieved this through the good image it has created with its new measures and policies where the management decided not to sue their competitors over patent rights. They opted to employ other methods that are out of the eyes of the public to settle their disputes on ownership of various products (Yang, 2014). This step has been critical in restoring a good public reputation, which had started to decay because of the several ethical issues that had been associated with the company previously. These two examples are good indicators of the company’s commitment on being socially responsible and they communicate that the organization is meeting its social responsibilities. The publications of ethics and social responsibility violation made by Apple suppliers in the past have negatively affected the reputation of the organization. The publications have made Apple to be viewed as a firm that is only concerned with enriching itself with no interest on the well-being of its workers and the entire society. One of these reports on violation of Apple suppliers was associated with its Chinese factories where workers were reported of committing suicide because of the mistreatments they received. These employees as indicated by the publications and later supported by a videotape released were being beaten and treated as if they were in prison. This uncovering of what was happening adversely affected the reputation of Apple worldwide and most laborers started being unwilling of working in Apple related firms. The Chinese government also responded by closing one of the manufacturing plants linked with the Apple because of the mistreatments and violation of law that was prevailing. All this was translated to low revenue since most people developed a dislike on their products and shifted to their main competitor Samsung. The many expenses the firm had to pay in form of settling charges and other violations further increased the law turnovers (Miller & Jentz, 2013). Apple’s use of child labor in its supply chain served to add more on its negative reputation as an evil, profit-mongering organization since activities of child labor are associated with evil and inhuman people. This kind of disregard to human life coupled with its disregard to environment has made the company to have a very bad reputation in the past (Burke, Martin & cooper, 2011). All these have been translated to other activities, which have finally contributed directly or indirectly to poor performance on corporate social responsibility scale. Apple Corporation in order to ensure that its suppliers adhere to wage and benefit standards need to come up with an effective regulation and auditing program. The program should involve regular and unexpected auditing of the various suppliers to ensure that they comply with wage standards. The regular inspections will ensure there is consistency in the operations of the suppliers and will rule out any possibility of a supplier mistreating an employee and remain unnoticed. The unexpected checks on the other side will ensure that the suppliers are keen to meet the requirements of the agreement since they will be expecting to be reviewed any time. In order for the program to be successful the management of Apple need to establish effective audit team that is highly professional and experienced to avoid incidences of incompetence prevailing. Apple also needs to come up with very strict policies for the suppliers that are found violating the requirements of the agreement signed. These strict policies can involve a supplying agency being barred off from future involvement with Apple if found breaking the terms of the contract. The rebellious agency should be sued for breaching the contract in a court and therefore receive the relevant disciplinary actions. There is also a need for initiating programs that will ensure suppliers who effectively reward their employees are rewarded in order to encourage the positive behavior. This can be through the loyal companies being entrusted with more profitable opportunities that will make them to perform well hence mutually benefiting the two parties involved. All these actions will ensure that the suppliers adhere to the wage and benefit requirements and thus will improve the image of Apple globally. Apples customers just like any other consumer would be unwilling to pay more for the products offered incase Apple decided to revise its prices upwards in order to provide better wages for suppliers’ workers. This is because it is always difficult to convince consumers of the rationale behind an increase in price no matter the good intentions it may have since they will perceive the whole process as being exploitation. Therefore, because the overall marketing strategies of Apple are relatively good as depicted by the considerably smooth flow it has enjoyed, the corporation should avoid any measure that will lead to price increase. Generally Apple is a successful organization and in order for it to improve its competitive advantage in the global marketplace it needs to be more ethically and socially responsible. This will improve its reputation and hence enjoy good success just like Google Company, which has enjoyed success after it successfully created a perception that it is a caring company (Hopkins, 2007). There is also a need for Apple to improve its innovation performance so that it can outdo its competitors and consequently secure its position on the top. This is because the success of firms in the technology industry mainly depends on the level of innovation employed. Google Company has already embraced this fact and it currently tops on the list of companies with many innovations. It is evident that despite the bad history Apple has in corporate social responsibility it is currently taking the right steps towards being socially responsible. The reputation of the corporation is expected to continue improving if it continues upholding the various marketing strategies it has put into place. References Burke, R. J., Martin, G., & Cooper, C. L. (2011). Corporate reputation: Managing opportunities and threats. Farnham, Surrey: Gower. Hopkins, M. (2007). Corporate social responsibility and international development: Is business the solution?. London: Earthscan. Icke, D. (2013). The perception deception ; or its all bollocks -- yes, all of it. Ryde, Isle of Wight, UK: David Icke Books. Miller, R. L. R., & Jentz, G. A. (2013). Business law today: The essentials. Mason, Ohio: South-Western. Yang, G. (2014). Advanced materials and information technology processing. Southampton: WIT Read More