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Die vorliegende Bachelorarbeit gibt einen Überblick darüber, inwiefern die gängigen Nachhaltigkeitslabels in Deutschland eine Hilfe für den nachhaltigen Konsumenten sind.
Dazu wurden 8 handelsübliche Labels miteinander verglichen. Das Hauptproblem der Labels war die fehlende Glaubwürdigkeit, aufgrund von fehlender Transparenz. In einem zweiten Schritt wurde ermittelt ob, und wenn ja, um wieviel sich die persönliche Zahlungsbereitschaft auch tatsächlich erhöht. Festgestellt wurde, durch Auswertung diverse Studien, dass sich die persönliche Zahlungsbereitschaft durchaus steigern lässt. Dazu muss die Preisbildung allerdings transparent nachvollziehbar sein. Es lässt sich sagen, dass sich die Zahlungsbereitschaft um ein Fünftel steigern lässt. Durch die Auswertung diverser Studien wurden Barrieren ermittelt, welche einen nachhaltigen Konsum erschweren. Auf Grundlage dieser Barrieren, wurden Handlungsempfehlungen entwickelt, durch die diese Barrieren überwindet werden könnten. Besonders interessant ist diese Arbeit für diejenigen, die den nachhaltigen Konsum fördern möchten. Dazu gehören die Initiatoren der bisherigen Labels, sowohl als auch zukünftige Initiatoren.
This bachelor thesis aims at pointing out the importance of sustainability in the apparel industry. Furthermore it contains tools which help companies to implement, improve and monitor social and ecological behaviour within the supply chain of the apparel industry.
The three tools examined are the following:
- conducting audits at the suppliers’ production facilities, - obtaining certifications and - recycling of used textiles.
They mainly refer to improving the suppliers’ ability to act in a sustainable way. The third tool, recycling, aims at building a cycle of resources. After a theoretical presentation, the companies Hess Natur Textilien GmbH and Hennes & Mauritz AG are analysed regarding to their sustainability strategies in their supply chains. Hessnatur is seen as pioneer in the market for natural textiles and H&M is offering low-price clothing.
The results show, that the apparel industry is highly affected by unsustainable behaviour. Manufacturing clothes is labour-intensive, it is consuming many resources and therefore has consequences for people and the environment.
Audits and certification proved to be important tools for implementing sustainability in supply chains. Both companies use them, but they have different approaches. The idea of sustainability is characteristic for the whole business policy of Hessnatur, while H&M added this concept to its existing policy some years ago. Due to those different starting points, Hessnatur was able to build closer relationships with their suppliers than H&M. To sum up, there is not one perfect strategy for sustainability, but every company has to engage in increasing sustainability within the supply chain according to individual circumstances and to the firm’s individual character.
Modern Customer Relationship Management is becoming more and more demanding. Instead of creating competitive advantages through prices, it is more effective to focus on customer relations and their maintenance. Therefore, corporations have to manage a large amount of information to appeal and to tie customers. Simultaneously, due to the huge spread of mobile devices and the extension of broadband networks communication habits are changing and speed of communication is increasing continuously. Clients and co-workers expect faster responses, not only because of the use of the internet but even more because of the use of mobile services. Finally, the way of working has changed considerably during the past years. Nowadays, employees need flexible access to organizational data as they can manage their working time mostly by themselves. Flexible access may be necessary at customer appointments, at the home office or during business trips. Accordingly, mobile software solutions which are easily operable and tailored to individual requirements are in great demand. Mobile CRM is supposed to accommodate this demand. However, the question arises as to whether mobile CRM is really able to meet the companies’ needs and to solve these issues.
Due to continuous changes in consumer needs, new product development (NPD) and innovation are some of a company’s key factors of success and competitiveness. In order to be successful, companies have to understand consumer needs and ‘translate them into new products’1. If changing consumer perceptions and their requirements are not respected by a firm, a product’s sales will decrease as people no longer feel satisfied with the old product and require new functions. Therefore, a major task in business is being close to the customer. In order to collect ideas about product perceptions, institutions and departments within a company staying in direct contact with consumers can be essential. One department that represents a customer-oriented sector is sales, as their day-to-day business includes communication with customers.
However, failure rates of new product launches are still very high. According to a study of Serviceplan and Gfk where 265 newly launched products were analyzed, 70% of these failed and were no longer bought after only one year.2 A firm’s difficulties in generating ideas in the early stages of NPD have been ‘identified as major cause of notoriously high failure rates of new products’3. One possible reason is that information received by the sales department is not communicated clearly enough to Research & Development (R&D), which is in charge of developing new products. For this reason consumer needs are often not adequately integrated into the process of new product development and relevant information concerning their requirements can get lost.
The question as to how the customer-oriented sales department can be better involved into the process of new product development in order to ensure the success of new product introductions will be discussed in the following.
In summer 2015, the FIFA Football World Cup 2006 in Germany was brought back to the public interest due to the publication of corruption allegations against the organising committee, which allegedly bribed FIFA officials in order to bring the World Cup to Germany. Henceforward, the mega-event that was commonly regarded as Germany's summer fairy tale is no longer illuminated in such bright light.
The population in the U.S. is getting more and more characterised by cultural diversity. “By 2020, minority groups will account for the majority of the U.S. population.” Especially, the Hispanics are becoming more significant as they represent the biggest minority. To successfully adapt to the changing composition of the population, marketers should adapt and segment the marketers according to the individual taste and preferences of the targeted consumers. Nevertheless, some companies ignore these developments and still use mass marketing to reach the consumers. In the following, the impact and importance of Hispanic-Americans will be examined. Is the Hispanic population worth pursuing? By giving some information on ethnic marketing and ethnic groups, the background and the sub-cultures of Hispanic Americans, evoking the characteristics of the Hispanic shopper and the importance of the Hispanics for the U.S. market, the previous question can be clarified at the end.