Analysis Of The Impact Ethics Has On Change In An Organization On The Example Of Marc Jacobs Company
Marc Jacobs is an American fashion designer, who created his line of clothing, accessories and cosmetics. The company works backwards, therefore it was a secondary business, which depended on their materials to be delivered, and then the brand was responsible for making their pieces. The brands is getting more and more successful because it’s strengths are in diverse product portfolio and falling in line of price expectation of high to middle class customers. However, the weaknesses are low social media presence and lack of classic luxury style. As for the opportunities the brand has more room for growth, it is planning to expand its market further to China and the consumers are valuing quality and ethical views more than the price. That’s the main aspect, which will be looked at in this essay. The impact ethics has on change in an organization will be examined.
To begin with, originally the brand was working by testing their cosmetic products on animals and using real fur in fashion pieces. However, after an incident on the New York Fashion Week 2018, a Protest against animal cruelty by PETA (people for ethical treatment of animals) occurred. A PETA-branded placard read: “Wear your own skin.” And further slogans to persuade the community to change their ethical behaviors. It was a massive event, which leaked into press, and social media, which spread the articles around their customers and decreased their demand of products among the market. In result, after the event, Marc Jacobs has committed to being fur-free by December 2018. Many social occasions were run by the company to encourage other brands to stop using animals for their benefits. In addition, there was information which isn’t officially confirmed yet, but Marc Jacobs was launching their new makeup collection and organized charity events and actions against animal cruelty by uniting with Non-Profit Organizations which share their ethical beliefs.
Secondly, Marc Jacobs as a designer also was the creative director of the French design house Louis Vuitton from 1997. He made reforms in the company, so it’s fur free since 2014. Even though this fashion house has been always obsessed with animal skins and furs, the employees started to switch their production to resources, which don’t require any animal cruelty. At some moment the company was under the threat by competitions from other brands, but the change in their ethical views changed the competition among other brands at the market.
Thirdly, for last 10 years Marc Jacobs was trying to expand its shops in China, but the laws in Eastern Asia are okay with torturing the animals to receive goods to make profit, which is against views of Marc Jacobs. It would be a great opportunity to expand into China, since it’s economy is second biggest in the whole world, but because of their loyal customers being against killing animals, the brand stopped putting its main emphasis into expanding their market in China. Even though multiple companies in China fight against animal cruelty for 5 years already, little change in the law has been made. This is because a big portion of their income in fashion industries is made through companies who don’t want to follow the laws (CO2 emissions, animal cruelty, forced labor).
Instead, right now the company is trying to expand through social media and become more popular in Europe. Moreover, the brand is trying to overcome other companies in the market with similar concept and compete against them. Therefore, Marc Jacobs stopped focusing on expanding among Eastern Asia as much, rather then working on the territory he already has and expanding there by working on marketing strategies.
To conclude, in this company the ethical behavior has really changed the demand of the products among the market. It is a great example of a successful change inside the company’s structure, which has brought many benefits and opened many opportunities to expand. There is a tendency for more and more companies to switch to cruelty free production of their goods, which impact our environment in an extremely positive way.
