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Corporate Responsibility and Marketing Strategies
Tracy Crayton
Contemporary Business; BUS 508
Dr. Laura Jones
Strayer University
April 25, 2014

Corporate Responsibilities and Marketing Strategies Apple Corporation is well known for employing technological masterminds. The company has undergone extreme successes and failures since its humble beginnings. One such failure was made known to the public in 1996 at the famous “MacWorld” Expo when Apple announced that it was taking a $68 million quarterly loss (Goodell, 1996). Fast forward to 2006, Apple finds itself in the hot seat for violations of worker rights, deaths and even suicides (Chun, 2011). What does all of this mean? Can a company produce a great product and literally get away with murder? Will society look away because we love our iPads and iPhones?
This essay will exam Apple’s ethical and social obligations and the consequences of violating these obligations. It will also present processes that may be implemented to assist Apple in adhering to wage and benefits standards. It will address concerns in regards to passing costs of improving to customers and the customer’s willingness to pay more for the highly desired products. Finally, Apple’s marketing strategy will be observed in order to determine recommendations to improve its competitive advantage.
Overview of Apple
Apple Inc. is a global corporation, based in Cupertino, California, that produces technology ranging from computer servers to software. The name given on April 1, 1976 by founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniac was Apple Computer (Steinwart & Ziegler, 2014). The name was later changed to Apple Inc. The release of the Apple I pioneered Apple’s product line, and was a huge success. It was followed by the Apple II, Macintosh and Power Mac lines, which performed poorly in the existing market of the 1990s (Steinwart

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