What Is Nike's Credibility?

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Nike, the largest shoes corporation in the world, has been having issues with negative publicity for the past few years. The negative publicity is a reflection company's labor practices over in China, Indonesia, South Korea, and Vietnam. Major human rights groups and activists feel that the laborers are not receiving the proper wages and have substandard working conditions to that hinder the workers from making the best quality products. The main problem is directly linked to the Nike Code of Conduct and how it isn’t being enforced with the proper procedures. In Indonesia, where Korean suppliers owned a large share of Nike factories, several instances of human rights violations were brought to the foreground by non-government entities.…show more content…
These tactics, such as speeches, special events, newsletters, annual reports and news releases, were meant garner change to a specific audience, which was the public. The goal of Nike’s public relations plan is to increase public interest. Following much criticism, Nike attempted to improve its reputation among the people. Nike looked to counter the negative allegations of substandard labor and human rights violations through an extensive public relations campaign. The public protested against Nike, these protests took the shape of boycotts and picketing of Nike’s stores, universities even began canceling their deals and affiliations with Nike to produce the sports brands athletic goods. They developed advertising tactics. “Universities formed a large portion of Nike’s market and repercussions had already been felt in this niche with several deals being canceled, letters detailing what should be viewed as acceptable standards in the factories and stressing Nike’s commitments to corporate responsibility were sent to United States universities. Some representatives from Nike went to the Universities and spoke directly to students, in order to assure them of Nike’s intent toward responsible corporate citizenship. Also, numerous press conferences and college newspapers were planned across the United States. Nike used many tactics to…show more content…
In Nike’s, the issues are those of human rights and conditions for workers in factories in developing countries. In the face of constant accusations, Nike has developed a labor specific response. In response to the criticism of its overseas labor practice, Nike has made several concessions toward improvement. Nike created a new position for a vice president for corporate and social responsibility. “As a part of a movement toward corporate responsibility, Knight stepped down as CEO in 2004 although he still remains as chairman of the Board. His reason was to put someone in who was has an expertise in corporate responsibility.” This action within itself shows that Nike is taking necessary responsibility toward its mistakes and the company will make a full commitment to make betterment on many of the ethical issues they are facing. This new position is also a way Nike tries to portray its new image of a company that will promote good work and positive culture in its organization. However, they went ahead and found a way that could effectively wear away its new reputation as an unethical business concern. For instance, the company hired well-known independent auditors to look into the practices and standards of the violations of labor rights in its associate companies. Besides, a bare minimum wage plan was

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