'Globalization: Toms a Commodity Fetish Essay\r'

'Globalization is the internationalist entice, change, and interaction within or amid countries and or nations. This frames an paper of connectedness mingled with the facilitating nation and the nation being regularized. Within this interaction and influence on some other nation in that respect becomes this desire to become a â€Å"trendsetter” done the economic custom of harvest-homes and other conf ingestiond commodities without the public. One such(prenominal) example bay window be seen by and with with(predicate) the united States which is associated with so some different types of brands such as Coca-Cola or Nike. These influences and trends though brush asidenot be simply primed(p) anywhere, sooner they ar developed and strategic anyy pattern of where they would be best placed and as well(p) alternated to fit within a new surroundings for optimum consumption. These changes faeces either hinder a harvest-home or can help it through with(pr edicate) the counsel in which it is advertised and accepted into the topical anesthetic market.\r\nSuch an example can be seen through TOMS shoe community where their goal is â€Å"to show how together, we can farm a better tomorrow by taking compassionate action today” (Toms.com). TOMS’ vexation deterrent example of buy a gallus bemuse a mates is marketed to the U.S. in a personal manner that plays with people’s emotions so that their proceeds becomes a juju through the idea that once a pair of piazza is bought people argon doing nigh for another person; in particular children in other countries without position. This correlates with both Marx’s unattackableness fetish theory, the cultural imperialism theory and Mazzargonlla’s idea of the opposition of doublery through the direct way TOMS is enjoin to the consumer and as well how on that point is an indirect influence from the TOMS shoe corporation onto the other various coun tries that they vex their stead to through the positive find outry that is take a crapd through the global impact that the corporation is exhausting to solve.\r\nTOMS was started by fonether Blake Mycoskie in 2006 after he had ka pitch(p) to Argentina in 2002 and saw the extreme meagerness and health conditions and in particular children without spot (toms.com). The real product came from an Argentine shoe called an alpargata which was worn by the topical anesthetic farmers in the region; it’s a canvas or fabric material with pencil eraser soles. Mycoskie took the alpargata to the U.S. save changed and reinvented it for the American market so that at that place could be a product that made a positive impact, which ultimately translates to the â€Å"One for One” campaign, where with e actually one pair of situation bought another pair would be dign to a child in bespeak (toms.com). The reason for the issue and logical assertion of plaza is due to t wo reasons first some(prenominal) children in impoverished places run in aras that render precarious terrains, such as a lack of unpaved roads. Second, on that point be likewise health mis handsomes that ar transmitted from the soil which is received by not vesture spot.\r\nLastly TOMS did some research and found that many schools require children to wear garb to the classroom and without fit out or even the right color of shoes that child would not be able to go into the classroom (Daniel:2011:2). With this Mycoskie was able to start a vocation that at one time has manufacturing sites in China, Argentina, and Ethiopia (Daniel:2011:4). These return factories atomic number 18 divided up up into two â€Å"departments” where the Argentinean and Ethiopian factories argon where the donated shoes atomic number 18 produced honorable and the China factory is where the shoes that go to the linked States are produced (toms.com).\r\nBecause TOMS is a personal co mpany meaning that they are â€Å"a business company takeed either by non-governmental makeups or by a relatively small event of shareholders or company members which does not move outer or trade its company shares to the general public on the stock market exchanges, plainly rather the company’s stock is offered, owned and traded or transfer hush-hushly” (businessnow.com). This then allows TOMS to be more(prenominal) private and less in the open simply about what is way out on in their factories and other various production stages.\r\n further, TOMS is open about their manufacturing practices and according to the TOMS website they ensure that no children are slopening(a) in the manufacturing process of their shoes. As well they want to help their supply employees through training them and educating them in the get it onledge of what human trafficking is and as well sla really prevention. They â€Å" get topical anaesthetic anaesthetic fatigue standar ds”; which fluctuate from place to place which gives a very(prenominal) vague reality of what their â€Å"real” standards are. TOMS’ website does regularize that all factories are audited by third parties, each(prenominal) employer signs a code of conduct in which they are agreeing to follow the stipulations to TOMS company, in that location are fixedness visits made by TOMS production staff to make sure they are working and adhering to the code of conduct and other various working standards, and that all their standards are based off of the International Labor Organization Compliance Standards (toms.com).\r\nThe goal of such standards, then, is to establish a human race large-minded stripped-down level of protection from inhumane labor practices through the adoption and implementation of said measures. â€Å"It is the aim of international labor standards to ensure the provision of such rights in the workplace, such as against workplace aggression, bully ing, discrimination and grammatical gender inequality on the other hands for working diversity, workplace democracy and empowerment”(ilo.org). The basic stages of the production of the shoes goes from a team that draws up the ideas of the shoes, to a mock make-up of the shoe, then the design goes to the factories where they are made and then shipped to the U.S. where they are distributed to the various relaters and non-profit fundamental laws that they assistant with for â€Å"shoe drops.” Overall though, on that point is little instruction of the production stages and how the production facilities are like; which causes concern seeing as how they eat built their image on doing good for others and want to restrain a positive impact on the local economies.\r\nIt becomes significant to acknowledge that TOMS is a â€Å"for-profit company with giving at its core” (toms.com). TOMS partners up with other various non-profit organizations that run parallel goals and standards as TOMS does. This then delegacy that each non-profit organization that TOMS partners with take to meet certain criteria. in that respect are six requirements that the organizations film to ful involve to be able to partner up with TOMS. First they need to have repeated giving which is where the potential organization must have the capability to be dynamic within the same communities on a invariable basis throughout the years. Second they need to have high impact which means that the organization’s missionary work and goals need to support health and tuition in a fashion that underlies the principle of giving a child an prospect they normally would not have.\r\nThird enhancing impact through partnership, TOMS strives to make an aright impact in communities where they donate and the partnering organization ineluctably to have their mission and goals coincide with TOMS’. Fourth, they need to be considerate of the local economy so that there is n ot a electronegative impact on the economy moreover a positive one. one-fifth they need to be able to receive monumental shipments of TOMS’ shoes so that they may distribute the shoes to the places they focus on. Lastly, the potential partnering establishment needs to be comprehensively founded on health and education, so that the statistical distribution of the new shoes not save supports TOMS’ mission but runs parallel with the establishments’ goals (toms.com). These non-profit organizations are not only an important verbalism to the overall business of TOMS through the ability to give out the donated shoes but as well to spread the explicate about TOMS to the various communities that they reach.\r\nNon-profit organizations play a key case throughout the TOMS company process. Without these partnering organizations there would not be as frequent â€Å"shoe drops.” These â€Å"shoe drops” are where the donated shoes are given to the children in the targeted area. for each one organization plays a key role through liberation to different places that they see fit and in need of shoes. Even after the shoes have been delivered, TOMS continues to maintain relationships with its giving partners and the communities (toms.com). TOMS constantly monitors its partners for accountability. Additionally the organization recognizes that one pair of shoes is not going to last for the child’s entire lifetime.\r\nâ€Å"Therefore, as the children grow out of their shoesâ€approximately each six monthsâ€TOMS provides replacement shoes to these same children on a regular basis” (Daniel:2011:5). A roll is set up with the identified community and local giving partner to maintain a regular Shoe Drop for the children. TOMS’ believes that repeat giving allows it to pick up the local’s needs more thoroughly. TOMS also works to adapt its products to account for the region’s terrain, weather, and educat ion requirements (toms.com). However, despite the use of these non-profit organization partnerships there is quiet down a need to spread the word about what the TOMS company is all about and what they are trying to do.\r\nThe TOMS company does not use received advertising in the wizard that they use video or newspaper ads rather they use kind media to spread what they are doing through the various outlets such as viral videos, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Tumbler, and Youtube. Its approach has allowed TOMS to reach a vast interview worldwide. TOMS maintains its own blog to naturalise the public about current events in the company. Additionally, many consumers produce their own digital content regarding their experiences with TOMS garment. By encouraging events and word-of-mouth communication, TOMS is allowing consumers to do much(prenominal) of the selling for the company. There is a very strong need for participation from the consumers to spread the word and the idea basis TOMS; so much so that they invite the consumer to be part of the â€Å"movement” (toms.com). The movement for TOMS is a wide range of various activities that the consumers can participate in; from on campus programs, one day without shoes, and most importantly buying their shoes so that another pair can go to a child in need, in other words â€Å"One for One.”\r\nThe images that are presented in these pictures and information videos there becomes a very powerful image behind them. This coincides with Mazzarella’s argument that the image is a powerful image and how that powerful image then is a created for a local identity on a particular product for each specific place. With TOMS there is a sense of creating a local identity through who the audience is but there is more of an idea that anyone can join in what they are about and doing no matter the age or stage of live one is in. Because, the TOMS Company is asking participation from the consumer they in essence are also asking them to create a meaning behind their purchase and consumption of their shoe product; this in turn causes the shoes to become fetishized. The shoes take on a new meaning for the consumer other than honorable another pair of shoes. They become a symbol of hope, a chance for a child, a generous gift, and an opportunity for change for the consumer (cite).\r\nAccording to Marx’s theory of the commodity fetish when an object is treated as animate it becomes a fetish. As well Marx argues that capitalism produces its own fetishes through turning basic human needs such as food, warmth, shelter, and shoes into wants; they try to entice the consumer. The consumer does not think then of the use rank the product just becomes something that they want and more practically than not the wants are very shallow (Marx). However, TOMS tries to put an anti-shallow want on their shoes through the use of playing with the consumers emotions. TOMS plays at the heart-strings of t he consumer so that there becomes an aroused link amid the consumer and the product; if the shoes are bought then a child is getting helped. As Marx points out there is an emotional quality in the product and this is often leavened through the way in which it is advertised. Even though TOMS does not use the constituted ways of advertising they do however, put a positive feeling into their information videos that add and heighten this emotional affect.\r\nTOMS shoe company falls into this idea of a commodity fetish because TOMS is asking the consumer to fill in the space between the product and the means of it; to fill in the gap according to Marx. TOMS makes its product seem so enticing for the consumer to do good that often times it is forgotten that the company is a for-profit company and it about gets seen as a non-profit company because of the way in which the company haves forth what it is trying to do. This in turn changes the meaning of the shoe from just a shoe into wh at the consumers want it to mean.\r\nThe meaning of the product is not just individually made but fondly created and functioning but the use hold dear remains the same; the meaning of the commodity is neer locked down rather it is invariably change and fluxing with the social aspect and get filled with personal lives and not just the companies meaning (Marx). However, even though there is a positive spin on go through TOMS shoes it’s important to look at how TOMS only releases certain information on what they are doing and their product; they present anything that they do in a way that they are always doing good and secret code bad. This in turn ties in with pagan Imperialism.\r\nCultural Imperialism is the indirect influence of one refinement onto another. It can be argued that spell TOMS is having an impact and therefore influence on the cultures that they donate the shoes and have factories in they are in essence having a more influence on the American economic c ulture through the way in which they have â€Å"revolutionized” the way in which to build a business model (Mendez:2011:7). They did this through the way in which the company was created under the premise that sales equal the good done. Mycoskie said, â€Å"…we know every day that we’re going to give away one pair of shoes for every one we sell, and that’s that. If we can’t make the business work that way, then the business just doesn’t work.” Many small businesses have now started to model their practices after this one-for-one model however they have not been as successful as TOMS particularly if these companies are truly non-profit organizations (theworld.com). According to a bulwark Street Journal â€Å"Toms is going a tread further than most in blurring the difference between brand and charity; the brand doesn’t make it outside the charitable work.”\r\nWhich helps explains why they have been so successful in sell ing their product because they are blurring those lines between the product brand and the charity aspect which often times is not the case when a major company wants to do charity work. Because of this blurring of the lines between corporate and charity this causes an influence in the joined States corporate culture. Even though it may not be global in the sense that it’s an American company influencing the American corporation world it still is a type of cultural imperialism. However according to Mazzarella cultural imperialism is the tool that is used to create chaos in which only the ad companies only have the solution to. Again with the way in which TOMS places their imagery through social media sources there almost becomes an indirect way that they are trying to demonstrate the good they are doing in the forefront while whatever other impacts they may be occurring to the roadside so that it advances there is no influence created by TOMS and its industry both throughout the world and the United States local economy.\r\nOverall, TOMS shoe company is one that wants to bring good to those in need. However, there are some(prenominal) questions that arise such as if they are doing what they say they are why are their production facilities and practices so hidden? Or why don’t they allow people to see just how much the difference in facilities in the United States and their factories in Argentina, Ethiopia and China? Lastly are they truly only having positive impacts to the local economies in which they donate their shoes or are they also having a negative one as well? The company is very open on the good they are doing and create a very powerful image that at one time relates to the fetishism of their shoes with the consumer and their desire themselves to have a positive impact through their consumption of a product rather than guilt. As Mazzarella states the â€Å"global is constructed topically just as much as the local is constructed globa lly” (2003:17).\r\nThis can be seen through how with the local imagery that is created in the United States that is seen as a positive image of TOMS is directed to the rest of the world even though while it may appear very true there are still many things about the overall corporation the TOMS company keeps hidden from the consumers eyes. This then is also how their cultural imperialistic impact is played through how the positive image is translated from the local to the global. Overall, TOMS offers a solution to short-term symptoms of pauperization but does not address the root cause of poverty (Costello:2012:12). In conclusion it might be better to buy a pair of shoes for half the price and then write a check for a foundation that support the local economies infrastructure that TOMS is impacting so there can be more of a long-term impact rather than a short-term. However, there is a desire to create a positive impact and while there can never be a arrant(a) model to creat e a business that is always creating a positive impact the TOMS company just might be on to something.\r\nWorks Cited\r\nBartter, Jacqueline. â€Å"A New Model of Corporate Social Responsibility.” Iprs.uscs.edu. University of California, San Diego, 2012. Web. 13 Oct. 2012. http://irps.ucsd.edu/assets/001/503681.pdf Costello, Amy. â€Å"Buy One and Give One, Inside TOMS Shoes”. Tiny Spark. Chronicle of Philanthropy. March, 15, 2012.\r\nF., Daniel. â€Å"Toms: One For the Movement.” University of New Mexico, 2011. Web. 13 Oct. 2012. http://danielsethics.mgt.unm.edu/pdf/TOMS%20Case.pdf Marx, Karl, and David McLellan. Selected Writings. Oxford [Eng.: Oxford UP, 1977. Print. Mazzarella, William. Shoveling Smoke: Advertising and Globalization in modern India. Durham: Duke UP, 2003. Print. â€Å"TOMS SHOES LOGO.” TOMS Shoes & Eyewear authorized Store. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2012. â€Å"International project Organization.” International Labour Orga nization. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2012. â€Å"TOMS Shoes: Does Buy-One-Give-One Work? | PRI’s The creation.” PRIs The public RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2012. â€Å"Www.TheWorld.com: The World’s Home Page.” Www.TheWorld.com: The World’s Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012.\r\n'