Marketing Case Study: Patagonia, A Critique Company

Introduction
Patagonia is a unique company, not because its owner is environmentally conscientious but because the company itself goes over and beyond the legally required compliance in caring for the society, the employees and the environment. In fact its mission statement clearly shows its focus on the environment stating “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis”. (Patagonia, 2015)
The company started because of the passion of its founder, Yvon Chouinard. As an avid climber he was dissatisfied with the quality of climbing tools available in the market and decided to take matters into his own hands and manufacture the tools. Slowly, the company transformed
This fact has allowed Yvon to not solely focus on profits or growth and to instead focus on creating value for all the stakeholders as well as to ‘do good’ for the environment. Sometimes these initiatives can cause problems. For example, a plan to replace plastic buttons with rain forest nut buttons was scrapped as they could not survive washing. The company was swamped with returns because of this. However, overall the customer response for these initiatives is very positive.
And it is this vision of Yvon that has defined the strategy and goals of Patagonia. In any company, the founders play a huge role in defining the culture. In case of Patagonia, Yvon’s impact has been increased manifold due to the fact that it is a privately held company as well as Yvon’s idealism and self-assurance. (Stevenson,
These benefits communicate to the employees that the company cares for them and not just about the work they do which can leads to an increase in employee motivation and loyalty. Employees are also given 100% heath care coverage and 2 months of leave to new parents irrespective of their gender. (Henneman, 2011) It allows them to put in work that is of a higher quality as they are relaxed and stress-free.
Alignment with employee values
Since, Patagonia does not focus solely on profits its values are much better aligned with the personal values of employees. Since, employees are not asked to look for ways to defer taxes or cut costs at the expense of quality, their life becomes more cohesive with the work they are doing allowing them to put in more effort. With two-month paid sabbatical to work on environmental projects, the company gives employees to feel they are contributing positively towards the environment.
Benefit Corporation
Patagonia was the first company to register as a benefit corporation in California which states the duty of executives towards employees, society as well as the environment and not just profits. This type of act can create a lot of good-will among the employees as well as lead to an increase in their sense of security and pride in the company. All these lead to more committed and loyal