Benny Wong May 2, 2020
You may have heard of the companies Patagonia and Starbucks. However you may not know that they are prime examples of companies whose values translate into better marketing. In this article, I will be discussing the importance of utilizing similar techniques for your own business.
Patagonia is a outdoor clothing company, which has used organically grown cotton for all of its products since switching from pesticide-heavy cotton crops in 1994. Patagonia has altered its entire supply chain to ensure environmentally friendly, safe working conditions. Furthermore, Patagonia provides excellent health insurance and gives paternity and maternity leave to all of its workers. Because of Patagonia’s awareness of its brand as an outdoor clothing company, they wanted to keep in line with the values of their customers. Customers who purchase Patagonia think of the company as a ethically sourced company, compared to Nike, who had come under fire for outsourcing cheap labor in Asian countries. Therefore, it is important to have a good brand name with certain values, and to act on those ideals with ethical actions.
Starbucks, a very well known Coffee company, is known for 100% sustainably sourced coffee. They use a system called C.A.F.E (Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices) in order to optimize their sustainable sourcing. There are four ideas at the heart of Starbucks’s C.A.F.E sourcing system: quality, economic transparency, social responsibility, and environmental leadership. Starbucks strives to set fair prices, and to make sure every part of the process of coffee making is ethically done. The standards set by Starbucks is recognized as the industry standard for ethical sourcing. Despite their huge profits, Starbucks is an example of a company that remains sustainable in a time where profits come first and ethics go to the wayside. Therefore, it is important to make a profit as a business, but in order to improve your reputation and to bring in more sales it is important to be aware of environmental factors.
Desperate times call for desperate actions. The environment is being affected by the corporations and businesses of the past who focused purely on profit. Just look at how carbon emissions from the auto industry have contributed to the ozone layer of the atmosphere being destroyed. We as humans have stripped the Earth of its resources, and built man made objects and civilizations on top of natural landmarks. It was necessary for the development of the human race, but in hindsight we were taking more than we were giving back. Therefore, it is time for a new generation of entrepreneurs and businesses to embrace change, and to set the precedent for ethical practices that will be embraced generations from today. We only have one planet, and it is our job as the people of tomorrow to give our children a better place to live.
Young Business Entrepreneur 