Patagonia Shines During Recession: A Case Study

Gavin Elznic
Intro to Business
Donna D’Costa

Patagonia Shines During Recession Patagonia was successful throughout the recession because of their loyalty. They stayed loyal to making environmental friendly products. This helped them greatly throughout the depression because those staying loyal also meant that the customers would stay loyal to the company. The customers would keep paying for the product because it was durable, environmentally friendly, and getting what one is paying for. Also they found money efficient ways to save cost in producing products, such as recycling old products to help produce a new one. All of these in which helped them thrive through the depression which out having to go into debt. They also monitor that
company to keep the business running smoothly. Patagonia retained its strong values by treating employees with respect, which promoted a balance between work and their personal lives. Patagonia is staying environmentally friendly with their practices with such adoptions like using organic cotton and recycling. Patagonia will recycle their own product which had reached the end of its use and they will make it into a new product. This is called Common thread recycling. With these changes it helps drive consumers to be environmentally concerned and pay more attention to the product they are purchasing. Patagonia shows that they are truly trying to make everything more environmentally friendly products, in which consumer appreciate. This makes them more loyal to the company. Many people in the United States have the traditional 40 hour work week which consist of the five 8 hour days which a fixed start and ending time. While that may be the most common there are other ways companies let you put in your hours. Such as flextime, which allows an employee to choose their starting and ending time as long as they work a specific core period. Another is compressed work-week which may entail you to work a 40 hour week in 4 days. There is also strategy called job sharing which two people do one job. These strategies help in different scenarios and companies. Benefits are the nonfinancial forms of compensation that employees receive such as health insurance, disability, life insurance, ect. I think the policies at Patagonia motivate them to work there because not only did they strive to make everything environmentally friendly. They tried to make the workplace a friendly place to work at. They made a strong balance between work and personal life. Which they used the flextime scheduling. Other benefit that the company provides is an onsite child care, paid maternity/paternity, and paid leave for volunteering. I think all of these benefits make it an enjoyable place to work at for an employee. Like in Hawtorne Studies, where Elton Mayo researched at a work plant, he discovered that social and psychological factors help influence productivity and morale. I think I would choose to buy Patagonia products during a recession because they are working for a greater cause I think. They go up and beyond to strive for more environmentally friendly products. Also the way they treat their employees, shows that the company cares about more than just a profit. Which I find a rewarding feeling if I purchased the product, also that you are paying for something that was made to be durable and last.
Challenges of Working at Home
1. Working at home is a challenge for many employees because many have a hard time balancing personal life and work.
2. One can created boundaries between life and work by having a clear office space that is pretty much a desk and materials for work. Also they could maintain a strict schedule that is devoted to work. People can also go to coffee shops or libraries with the advances in technology to get away and get their job done.
3. I think I would be more productive working in a rented places or an out of home area because I need a place where I can get away and focus on just work. If I was at home I would not get anything done because I know that I would not be able to balance my life and working schedule without it being corrupted by something.
4. I asked my roommate, Sam about their thought about working at home. She thinks that it may sound nice to work at home for once, but just like me she knows she wouldn’t get anything accomplished. She went on and said that she would have to be in a location where no one could interrupt her and she could solely think about her work.
Silly Bandz: A Flash in the Pan or Here to Stay I feel that silly bandz are more of a fad, which will soon run out.
The marketing value of the product would probably the amusement that one would get from the product. Consumers pay money to have the product which is silly bandz to say they have them because it was a trend. This leads to the marketing concept that people wanted them because other people had them. This fulfilled the company’s goal to have children wanting them to collect and trade. Silly bandz targeted market where to children. It was something Robert Croak thought children would be drawn to collect and trade. With the many different shapes and colors to attracted children to the product and them being placed in stores where children would see them. Most of the time the product would be at eye level of a child. Many places sold the product such as grocery stores to malls. Silly bandz where priced at lower price where parent’s would buy them but the price was also enough to make a profit. Croak had the product all over the internet where he used it on social sites to where it went viral. So silly bandz where pretty much everywhere for children to see and want. He also signed deals with marvel comics and Justin Bieber to make silly bandz with their likeness to also persuade kids into wanting this
product. I think silly bandz don’t really have a future in the market anymore. The fad wore off and went into a different direction. Robert Croaks did a good job using a simple made product to make a profit by using social media and other promotional things like using Justin Bieber to give the product more hype. Also him having them available almost anywhere made it easier for his targeted market to get a hold of it.