Luxury Brands: What Are They Doing About Social Responsibility?

Primark, an Irish clothing retailer company was set up and headquartered in Dublin in 1969. Nowadays, there are over 250 stores across the United Kingdom, Ireland, Europe and the United States. Moreover, Primark operates with about 700 suppliers in China, India, Bangladesh, Turkey and Eastern Europe. Primark takes corporate social responsibility for the shareholders, owners, customers, suppliers as well as employees. Corporate social responsibility is that a company not only creates profits for the shareholders, but also undertakes the social responsibility for customers, employees and environment, including complying with business ethics, rights of workers and the rules of environmental protection. In order to develop continuously, corporate social responsibility plays an significant role in a company, which drives stakeholders have reliance on the company. This essay focuses on the ways in which Primark taking its duty to society and the ways in which the company should have done better.

Admittedly, more and more brands and retailers are taking action to respond to the ethical and sustainable issues. From the consumer side, there is an apparent growth of ethical purchase. Kate Spade, as an American luxury fashion brand, undergoes ethical enhancements of its manufacturing process in Africa. However, instead of transforming this approach into a charitable purpose, Kate Spade chooses to retain its high-quality standard and beautiful products to attract customers . This report will first focus on the elements Kate Spade practically supports in Africa, then review the performances of their program, using a comparable retailer’s moral action as a comparison. We will eventually conclude by examining the positive and negative impacts of such a policy for Kate Spade.

This expansion demonstrates how the luxury industry is now run by massive corporations whose focus is only on growth, visibility, brand awareness, advertising, and most importantly, PROFITS! With growth and expansion, has come a decrease in quality and rarity. The luxury garments produced are mostly not handmade but are even outsourced to large factories in places such as China and Turkey. Also, to meet quarterly turnover projections, “designers churn(ed) out increasingly trendy collections of clothes, handbags, and shoes.” (Thomas, Pg. 246) With hundreds of new stores around the globe the surplus of designer labeled merchandise is immense hence, the proliferation of outlet malls.

or so many years our society has been thinking of forming new creative and innovative businesses, which would be more environmental and customer friendly. Nowadays a large number of different companies follow the social, ethical, as well as moral consequences when it comes to their decision making. One of the relatively new concepts involving economic and social concerns is Corporate Social Responsibility. Many of us apply this approach not only at work, but also in everyday life without even recognizing.

With the rapid development of social economy, the public tends to focus on the social responsibility of the company, as well as feedback to the society, rather than pay close attention to how to create interest in the company. Especially, environmental protection and human rights has became the most pressing social phenomenon. Under this

The consumption of luxury goods in China is mounting sharply. Not only those born to elite families, but also many common people are greedy for luxury brands (China, a Booming

The author who inspired the topic of this thesis is Dana Thomas. As a fashion writer, Dana Thomas, has analyzed the changes in luxury fashion business. Thomas has been writing about fashion for the past twenty-five years in various journals such as Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, New Yorker, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Financial Times, and more. Dana Thomas’ two books, Deluxe and Gods and Kings, are the inspiration for this thesis. Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Lustre goes into great detail the secrets of the leading luxury industry brands, namely Prada, Gucci and Burberry, to showcase the “New Luxury” of today and how “luxury lost its luster” by featuring the manufacturing and logistical processes. Thomas exposes that many luxury brands use the same Asian factories that mass-market retailers employ, which raises questions concerning quality and craftsmanship for luxury brands.

With an increase awareness of animal cruelty and environmental issues, the luxury goods industry should be familiar with the ecological concerns. Ecological trends could influence consumers purchase decisions as well as the perception of the brand.

Henninger, et al., (2016), assessments found that large, fast fashion firms are primarily responsible for disseminating the company’s core message and information on it’s sustainability initiatives. In spite of, many argued small progress still creates greater change, an owner-manager states: "If I'm 100% ethical and I have 5,000 customers and a [large retailer] is like 0.05% ethical and has 5 million customers they're actually reaching more, doing and making better change, even though what they do in entirety isn't great” (Henninger et al., 2016 p. 411-414). Nonetheless, the efficiency towards fast fashion sustainability is increasing. Women’s Wear Daily (2017), reported that brands such as, Reformation are becoming the leading pioneers in

All in all, sustainability and luxury can work together and we have found the way, beacuse our products are undoubtedly and absolutely based on recycling, saving resources, and the environment.

According to Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, the modern day corporate social responsibility goes far beyond the old philanthropy of the past that is donating money to good causes at the end of the financial year and is instead an all year round responsibility that companies accept for the environment around them, for the best working practices, for their engagement in their local communities and for their recognition that brand names depend not only on quality, price and uniqueness but on how, cumulatively, they interact with companies’ workforce, community and environment. It is necessary to move towards a challenging measure of corporate responsibility, where judgment results are not just by the input

Corporate Social Responsibility, a theory that has evolved since the 1990s, seeks to see businesses be responsible for their actions socially and environmentally. There is an increasing trend by businesses to adopt Corporate Social Responsibility Practices. This paper attempts to define the reasons why this is so, and what strategic issues are faced by companies who adopt these practices. The issue of Corporate Social Responsibility will then be highlighted in a case study of De Beers, the world's leading diamond producer.

The overall sales of luxury goods in the year 2009 is expected to be more than US$150 billion and Asia contributes 10% to it. The concept of luxury is now not confined to only to Europe and US, the Asian subcontinent contributes majorly to it, with India and China as the newly emerging markets. Professor James Twitchell (2002) comments on the democratization of luxury and the changing consumer psychology These new customers for luxury are younger than clients of the old luxe used to be, they are far more numerous, they make their money far sooner, and they are far more flexible in financing and fickle in choice. They do not

Corporate social responsibility has been one the key business buzz words of the 21st century. Consumers' discontent with the corporation has forced it to try and rectify its negative image by associating its name with good deeds. Social responsibility has become one of the corporation's most pressing issues, each company striving to outdo the next with its philanthropic image. People feel that the corporation has done great harm to both the environment and to society and that with all of its wealth and power, it should be leading the fight to save the Earth, to combat poverty and illness and etc. "Corporations are now expected to deliver the good, not just the goods; to pursue

Corporate Social Responsibility Corporate social responsibility (CSR, also called corporate conscience, corporate citizenship, social performance, or sustainable responsible business/ Responsible Business) is a form of corporate self- regulation integrated into a business model. CSR policy functions as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby a business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards, and international norms. CSR is a process with the aim to embrace responsibility for the company's actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere  who may