Fashionforward was an auction online where various styles were represented. It was possible to register at the site for $ 30 and have an opportunity to bid on exceptional deals. The auction reached various groups of population, including local communities and college students.
Carly LeBlanc was an intern hired to promote marketing activity of the auction and for the moment of hiring the auction did not have any strategy to target consumers. Marketing knowledge of LeBlanc were used to promote the auction on the internet at first in order to get the benefits form viral technologies, such as Twitter or Facebook.
LeBlanc revamped the Facebook of the auction in order to give it a friendlier look – she added discussion boards, quizzes, albums, etc. For the period of three months a fan base was established and the whole project resulted in the prominence of the company, which allowed the auction to increase the amount of items which it offered.
The success drew attention of CEO of the company, who challenged LeBlanc to launch a new marketing campaign in her own campus and receive 100 new clients registered within a week. To reach this aim, LeBlanc contacted sorority of her college and after she promised to provide a free T-shirt with the name of the sorority, she received 300 new clients in one night.
The next day LeBlanc reported about her success and she believed that an easy and effective strategy of drawing more clients was developed by her. She planned to order T-shirts of various designs for various sororities with the logo of the auction on each one.
However, LeBlanc had to face a difficult ethical question – whether she should order the shirts from a Chinese company which provides them at low prices, or to use service of the fair-trade company in San Francisco. The conditions of the second one were saver, but the wages were higher for those who made the clothing. This caused each shirt cost $ 28, 65, while those from the Chinese company cost $ 5.50. Moreover, the site of the company promised free and fast delivery for the total sum of $ 1.100.
There were several factors which influenced her decision. First of all, she remembered that the company needed focusing on making the most money during its first two years; the T-shirts form China were cheaper, so she could experiment with the design, graphics, colors, etc.; if the module worked, she could spread the activity to other campuses; LeBlanc thought about production of free shirts by the Chinese company for promotion of its label at the Facebook page of the auction; she wondered if choosing a low-cost option would affect her grade for internship in the company.
Moreover, it was very important for LeBlanc that Chinese had very difficult conditions of work – low wages, severe working schedule, low regulations of safety. Moreover, she was concerned about opinion of the clients about the company if they get to know that using the T-shirts made by such hard work, …