Marketing Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility Assignment: Unraveling the CSR and Supply Chain Crisis at Langstaffs

MARKETING ETHICS AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ABS BBA in MARKETING Assignment 2025

CSR / Ethics / Sustainability Issues

Case Scenario: Langstaffs (3000 – 3500 words)

Read the Langstaffs Case Scenario regarding the poor sustainability practice in its supply chain and answer the following questions, in a report style, using appropriate frameworks from the course:

Langstaffs (established 1969) is a UK importer of quality garments, sourcing from all over the world, but mainly Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bulgaria. Langstaffs prides itself on its corporate responsibilities, insisting that wages paid to staff are above any legal in-country minimum wage, or where there is no legal minimum wage, are at a rate above or equal to the national average. Nurseries must be made available for childcare in any factory supplying
Langstaffs. No employee in any supplier is allowed to be under school leaving age, and suppliers must sign up to the Langstaffs Code of Practice.

Initially supplying low-cost economy fashion stores, Langstaffs gave its products the label of the chain they were supplying, and built a business of $120m turnover. Supplying only five percent of any store’s stock at any one time, Langstaffs clothing was available on every high street in the UK, although the customer was unaware of the common origins of the clothing
in the different outlets. Some outlets have expanded into continental Europe, opening branches in Madrid (Spain), Florence (Italy) and Copenhagen (Denmark), and taking their current fashion ranges with them. This market development has significantly extended Langstaffs’ business.

Such growth and expansion increased the buying power of these outlets. The result was increased pressure on Langstaffs’ prices and on the volume of clothing items ordered, resulting in decreasing margins and decreased time to deliver, and forcing Langstaffs to widen its own supplier base.

At this point, Langstaffs took the strategic decision to move from its traditional ‘white label’ clothing to developing its own brand and labelling the clothing with its own name. It then sold the goods as a medium price range product to the clothing sections of department stores, for onward sale to the public under the Langstaffs label. In this way Langstaffs could offer a quality garment through a more prestigious outlet, re-establishing the margins required in the business plan. At the same time, Langstaffs raised capital by floating on the Stock Exchange and increasing borrowing.

Langstaffs’ brand was based on quality and medium price, but above all on the company’s strong socially responsible position. Through a wide public relations programme, supported by the celebrity endorsement of a famous actress, Langstaffs has established itself in this market and is highly regarded for its whole-hearted approach to social responsibility. The actress is well-known for her concerns about sweatshops (small factories where employees
work long hours in bad conditions for very little money) and made several visits to Langstaffs’ factories before agreeing to endorse the company. So successful was this strategy that Langstaffs was able to withdraw from its low margin business entirely.

In your role as the company’s CEO, you found the Langstaffs name spread all over the front page of one of the main daily newspapers, as well as social media. Apparently, in a UNICEF report, a number of the factories supplying Langstaffs were criticised for malpractice in terms of staff treatment over sick leave and health issues. Further work by the paper’s reporters has uncovered widespread non-enforcement of the Langstaffs Code of Practice in a number of its suppliers’ factories.

You have been asked to return a call from the Chief Buyer of your major outlet, and you have also been contacted by the actress’s agent. Further calls from other buyers come in during the morning. You have an appointment to see the CEO, in one hour’s time.

The above data has been based on a real-life organisation, but details have been changed for assessment purposes and do not reflect current management practices.

Questions

1. What has this issue got to do with marketing, as it sounds more like an operational supply chain problem?

2. Identify and prioritise, the stakeholders affected by the issue and evaluate in what way were they affected?

3. Justify whether the issue was a legal / regulatory, ethical, philanthropic or was it all three?

4. Can the issue be considered as solely economic, environmental or social or a combination of all three, once again, justify your answer?

5. To what extent can the issue be blamed on poor governance?

6. In the absence of a contingency plan, prepare an appropriate plan to appease prioritised stakeholders, clearly identifying and prioritising the key actions Langstaffs should take to respond to the crisis, which includes considering he financial implications of this apparent breakdown in corporate social responsibility (CSR).

7. Develop an outline (not full) integrated stakeholder engagement communications plan for stakeholders to present to management, to show how Langstaffs could re-establish and rebuild the corporate image damaged by the media.

Guidelines

• Use in-text citations to support theories, frameworks, and data used in your analysis
• Word limit is 3000–3500 words.
• Use APA format (7th edition) for all citations and references.
• Where applicable, integrate real-world examples from other companies, to support and strengthen your arguments.
• Provide a brief overview of the case, key issues identified, main analysis, and
  recommendations through an executive summary in 100-150 words.
• Give a conclusion at the end of the case study, summarise key insights and reinforce the rationale behind the recommendation.

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