Task 1
Introduction
For this task I must talk about the social implications that the actions of a business has on the society as a whole, I must consider the issues that may arise in areas of activities and consider how the business deals with the problems. The business that I have chosen to look at is, L’Oréal and how they have dealt with the issues that have arisen within the business, the issues I will look at are: * Human resource management: Discrimination, worker surveillance * Production: Animal testing, genetically modified foodstuff * Sales and marketing: Inappropriate advertising, spamming, spoofing
Human resource management
Discrimination
Discrimination is when a person is treated unfairly and people are biased which result in the person not being able to chase an opportunity, or unfair treatment when the business is selecting people, handing out promotion to the employees, or transfer to a different department etc. Discrimination are usually based off the grounds of age, disability, ethnicity, origin, political belief, race, religion, sex etc. These factors that have no affect on the persons ability to be able to perform well etc.
L’Oréal has created many advertisements that advertise the companies products and everything that they sell, however, L’Oréal have been accused of racial discrimination in one of their recent advertisements that they have made about a shampoo that they have created and advertised. The French company that is well known and popular around the world with the slogan “Because you’re worth it” has been accused of racial discrimination because they have specifically went out and advertised the shampoo only using a group of white girls to use the product within the advertisement. There was a fax sent out by the company that says that the Garnier’s models that will be using the shampoo in the advert should be BBR, which stands for "bleu, blanc, rouge", the colours of the French flag. The fax also said that Garnier's models should be aged 18 to 22 and wear size 38 to 42 clothes. Thérèse Coulange, the person who sent the fax, said that the letters "BBR" only meant that whoever applied for the role should be able speak proper French. However, the court said that the BBR meant, in the recruitment stage in the French world, for white French people born to white French parents. The court that was handling the case had given fines to L'Oréal and Adecco which came to 30,000 euros (£25,500) which was given to the business by the Paris Appeal Court but it told the appeal court judges to reconsider damages also amounting to 30,000 euros each to SOS Racisme, the anti-racist campaign group that brought the case to court.
This would have had a very bad impact on the business in many ways, it would have affected the business in relation to the customers. After the discrimination against different races of people, the people with different ethnicities will be put off and offended by the business therefore, the amount of customers that would purchase from the store would be decreased incredibly, this would have a massive impact on the business as the amount of revenue made by the company would be affected. As well as the amount of people that visit the store, the reputation of the business would be affected as well, this would result in the loss of customers as the business would have a bad image, however, as well as the customers, the suppliers of the business etc. Would also be put off by the business which could have a massive affect on the business and could damage the company. As well as the customers and the suppliers being affected, the employees within the business would also be affected, the employees already working in the business could leave the business due to being offended and as well as that the people who would be looking for a job, might do some research and find out that they have discriminated people of different backgrounds and lose interest therefore the business could lose out on potential employees as well as current employees.
In my opinion, the company could have many ways of gaining the respect and the reputation back from the public after discriminating the different people with different backgrounds, however, I would recommend that they should take the advert down and create another one with people with different ethnic backgrounds and show the public that everyone is an equal and same as each other with the same values.
Worker surveillance

Worker surveillance is the use of various methods of workplace surveillance to gather information about the activities and locations of staff members. Businesses monitor employees to improve productivity and protect corporate resources. The main intention is to prevent unacceptable behaviour in the first place and, should that effort fail, to curtail the behaviour before it can have a negative effect on the business.
Production
Animal Testing
Animal testing is any scientific experiment or test that a scientist performs on them where the animals must have to go through a test where they are most likely to be caused pain, suffering or harm to be able to find out whether or not a drug or cosmetic can be dangerous or harmful to a human being. These animals can undergo many things, these usually are: * injecting or force feeding animals with potentially harmful substances * exposing animals to radiation * surgically removing animals’ organs or tissues to deliberately cause damage * forcing animals to inhale toxic gases * subjecting animals to frightening situations to create anxiety and depression
In August 2015, L’Oreal replied to a customer question where they had stated that L’Oréal no longer tests any of its products on animals or any of its ingredients, anywhere in the world. The only way that they would perform any kind of animal testing would be when regulatory authorities told them to do it for safety or regulatory purposes. L’Oreal had also said within their website that Since 2013 L’Oréal does not test any of their own product or ingredients on animals. They had also said that they do not ask their suppliers to perform any experiments or tests on animals for them. When a supplier recommends an ingredient they always ask the supplier to check the safety records of the ingredient to check whether or not any testing has been conduced on any animals to be able to create the ingredient. If the supplier did create the ingredient by testing on animals before March 2013, then the business can keep the ingredient, otherwise the business would not have kept the ingredient and would have gave it back to the supplier. Since L’Oreal were trading with China where it was the law to carry out tests and experiments on animals because of regulatory authorities before they could have been placed on their market, the business got the worst rating for animal testing.
Performing any experiments and tests on animals can have a massive affect on the business in a bad way, it can give off a very bad reputation and bad image to the business. Animal testing can put off many customers and will affect the business’s revenue and will give the business a bad reputation which will also make the business lose customers. Since the amount of people that have acted out against the company and frowned upon them, the business had decided to donate $1.2 million to the US environmental protection agency in order to help prevent and abolish animal cruelty and testing on animals and experimenting to make ingredients etc.

Genetically modified foodstuff

Genetically modified food are foods that have been acquired from organisms that have had their DNA modified or changed in a certain way that would not have happened naturally or by itself, e.g. through the introduction of a gene from a different organism. Currently available genetically modified foods stem mostly from plants, but in the future foods derived from genetically modified microorganisms or genetically modified animals are likely to be introduced on the market.

Sales and marketing

Inappropriate advertising

Inappropriate advertising is when a business creates an advert to advertise their business or one of the products that they are selling or want to sell, however, inappropriate advertising is when the advertisement is deemed offensive, discriminating, misleading or if the product or business is falsely advertised, to be able to put up on the television, radio or any other forms of advertising. The ASA (Advertising standard Authority) is a company that decides whether or not an advert is inappropriate or not to be able to advertise and if not they will remove the advert and not let it show on any form of advertisement etc.

L’Oréal has had experience when it comes to inappropriate advertisement, L’Oreal, has recently made an advertisement featuring Cheryl Cole, where she is advertising a shampoo that the company had created, when promoting L'Oreal Elvive Full Restore, Cheryl Cole was stating in the advert that after using the product her hair felt "stronger, full of life, replenished, with a healthy shine". However, the advertisement was then attacked by the public that the advertisement was misleading and not appropriate because Cheryl Cole was in fact wearing hair extensions which makes it misleading as the hair extensions were not her real hair which was mentioned within the advert saying “styled with some natural hair extensions” After the advert was released, the Advertisement Standard Authority got forty complaints from the public that the advert was not appropriate and misleading as it exaggerated the actual benefits that the product gives and some speculated that product could not be used with hair extensions in. However, L’Oreal had made an argument backing the advert up saying that the advert did not state that the customers who would make this purchase would look exactly like Cheryl Cole and that the customers should understand that the effects of the product would depend on the hair and the hairstyle of the customer who makes this purchase. The Advertisement Standard Authority agreed with L’Oreal and said that the advertisement does not say that the customer’s hair would look exactly like Cheryl Cole and said that the viewers should understand that the advert says it would be similar to the hair of Cheryl Cole, which was professionally styled and groomed before the shooting of the advertisement.
There are many impacts that the inappropriate advert that L’Oreal had made would have on them, since the business had created a misleading advert, it gives the impression that it isn't a trustworthy business. Both existing and new customers may feel betrayed and are more likely to go somewhere else for the same products or services. The company may also get a bad reputation as a misleading organisation, which means decreased revenue etc. In the future.