Abra, Gordon. "Group Communication in Multi-contexts." The University of California, Santa Barbara, 10 Mar. 2020. Lecture. Presented by Dr. Gordon Abra, a sociology and communication lecturer for a variety of courses ranging from power in communication to criminology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, this lecture outlined the history of diamonds, the DeBeers corporation, and how DeBeers designed the greatest marketing campaign of all time. The campaign was designed with the help of the Ayers advertising agency to instill the cultural significance that a diamond is forever. Before this campaign, a diamond was worthless. After the campaign, each and every person knew how much they should spend on a diamond wedding ring. The cut, carat, clarity, and color of diamonds (made up criteria by DeBeers & Ayers) became something men and women saw as an indicator of love. Something that was once worthless now has gained entire culturally and monetary value through only the existence of a spectacularly clever marketing campaign. As a whole, Dr. Abra's lecture beautifully outlines the entire history of diamonds from their first discovery all the way up to present day, covering the blood diamond controversy, advertising strategies, the cultural significance of diamonds, and much more. This lecture was incredibly eye opening as it shed light on a "luxury item", and the players that made it such, in a wholly informative manner. The story, information, and lessons contained in this lecture inspired this project itself. The information that lies within the history of diamonds and the DeBeers corporation is not well known, but it is more than relevant and significant to daily life. Today, humans are constantly bombarded with products to buy through advertising, marketing, and more, but the story illustrated in this lecture precedes and illuminates what goes on behind the scenes to make many products today seem valuable and culturally relevant.

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Becker-Leifhold, Carolin, and Mark Heuer, editors. Eco-Friendly and Fair. E-book, New York, Routledge, 2018. Eco-Friendly and Fair, by Carolin Becker-Leifhold, a research assistant at the University of Ulm, Germany, and Mark Heuer, an Associate Professor of Management at the Sigmund Weis School of Business at Susquehanna University, spend the vast majority of their book discussing the modern fast-fashion industry. Both leading researchers in the field of sustainable fashion, the author's book provides a detailed study of consumer insights that could possibly lead to a more sustainable fashion industry that minimizes the negative environmental and societal impacts of fast-fashion. "The fast fashion business model thrives on the "buy now or lose out" marketing approach on steroids fed by social media, and also on the seediness of corrupt governments with lax enforcement of labor, environmental and safety regulations" (Becker-Leifhold & Heuer). The background information that this book offers about the fast-fashion industry aided this project as it provided a good frame of reference for where fashion has gone since disasters such as the one at Rana Plaza.

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Bergenstock, Donna J., and James M. Maskulka. “The de Beers Story: Are Diamonds Forever?” Business Horizons 44, no. 3 (2001): 37–44. Authors Donna J. Bergenstock, an assistant professor at Muhlenberg College, and James M. Maskulka, an associate professor of marketing at Lehigh University, use this journal article to give a brief history of the De Beers corporation and diamonds while also indicating where De Beer's marketing is heading in the future. The article features detailed, through-provoking insights surrounding both the economic and cultural impacts of De Beers marketing strategies by explaining how the company has become a diamond cartel in many ways. De Beers controlled both the supply and demand of around 75% of the world diamond supply at the writing of the article; hence, they retained total control over how many diamonds were on the market at a given time, and for how much money. Bergenstock and Maskulka perfectly illustrate this idea by explaining how, "De Beers’ operating strategy has been pure and simple: to restrict the number of diamonds released into the market in any given year and to perpetuate the myth that diamonds are scarce and should therefore command high prices. To this end De Beers functions much like any other cartel" (Bergenstock 1). As well, the article delves into how the company uses their Central Selling Organization (CSO) to control profits and sell diamonds to other worldwide sellers. Specifically, the De Beers CSO is important in the United States as current anti-trust laws prohibit DeBeers from doing business in the country. The CSO becomes crucial for De Beers so that they may still sell to diamond sellers in the US through their London headquarters. As a whole, these points, along with much more about the future of De Beers and diamonds, makes this journal article an extremely worthwhile and useful read to further any knowledge on the nuances of this topic. 

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Carrigan, Marylyn, et al. “From Conspicuous to Considered Fashion: A Harm-Chain Approach to the Responsibilities of Luxury-Fashion Businesses.” Journal of Marketing Management, vol. 29, no. 11–12, Routledge, Aug. 2013, pp. 1277–307. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/0267257X.2013.798675. When the world found out about the conflict diamond controversy, the De Beers corporation, and the diamond industry as a whole, had to immediately cease business in any of these conflict areas such as Angola and Sierra Leone. Public perception was so bad that a brand like De Beers truly had no other choice. Today, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a crucial part of any business model as consumers are more likely to purchase a product if they believe the company they are purchasing the product from is socially responsible. This point, and many more along this line in relation to the multi-billion-dollar luxury brand industry, are explored in this article by Coventry University Business School and University of Salford authors Marylyn Carrigan, Caroline Moraes, and Morven McEachern. As consumers become more aware of CSR, companies have a massive opportunity to capitalize on marketing how their products are made in a humane, socially responsible manner. This article examines many of the ways in which this change has occurred through defining and studying the 'harm chain' and the various 'institutional forces that can cause harm'. This article also outlines many of the regulations and accusations that the luxury industry has faced in recent years in order to reduce accounts of "animal cruelty derived from inhumane factory farming of animals for fur coats; environmental degradation and workers’ health damage resulting from the use of unregulated pesticides for cotton production; and employee exploitation as a consequence of low wages, excess working hours…and health and safety neglect in working conditions for apparel employees" (Carrigan 1288). Again, providing a relevant framework of how many luxury brands deal with human-rights accusations, as well as where luxury brands may be attempting to go in the future with CSR, this article beautifully complements the ideas explored with De Beers marketing strategies and how the blood diamond controversy impacted such strategies.  

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"CCC Annual Report 2019." Clean Clothes Campaign, cleanclothes.org/file-repository/skc_ccc_jaarverslag_2019_vdef.pdf/view. Accessed 11 Sept. 2020. Modern fashion is backed by a plethora of problems. On the Clean Clothe's Campaign website, and in their 2019 annual report, they summarize a few of the most common problems from poverty wages, unsafe workplaces, little to no job security, unsafe supply chains, waste and pollution, to gender discrimination. Their 2019 report, in particular, goes through each of these issues and details the work the organization has accomplished recently in relation to that issue. The report also explains and offers crucial facts and statistics for a better understanding of this issue. For example, the report explains why Bangladesh is the 2nd largest exporter of clothing worldwide. As a whole, the Clean Clothes Campaign seeks to improve working conditions and empower workers across the globe by educating consumer, lobbying companies, and offering aid to supply chain workers in need. The organization is made up of a network of over 230 organizations that work in a broad spectrum of fields.

 

 

Corporate Human Right Benchmark - 2019 Key Findings. Corporate Human Rights Benchmark, www.corporatebenchmark.org/sites/default/files/2019-11/CHRB2019KeyFindingsReport.pdf. Accessed 11 Sept. 2020. The Corporate Human Rights Benchmark, is "a unique collaboration led by investors and civil society organisations dedicated to creating the first open and public benchmark of corporate human rights performance" (Corporate Human Rights Benchmark - 2019 Key Findings). Their yearly benchmark reports detail how companies from around the world fare when it comes to violating human rights during. This could include anything from poverty wages, the destruction of sacred land, to modern day slavery. The goal of these reports is to drive change throughout various industries. As a whole, the 2019 report turned out to be incredibly useful for this project as it made clear what brands and companies continue to violate human rights even today. Their report shows that companies such as Hermes and Prada ranked in the second lowest category. This information, as well as a great deal of more statistics and details about methodology, shed light on how even though these brands present themselves as shiny, clean, and professional, that is purely a facade.

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Davidson, Nigel. The Lion That Didn’t Roar - Can the Kimberley Process Stop the Blood Diamonds Trade? ANU Press, 06. The Kimberly Process Certification Scheme, created in 2002 by the joining of forces of De Beers, other major corporate entities, and governmental organizations, was designed to designate when diamonds were generated legitimately from rough-diamond trade or from incredibly serious human rights violations. Understanding the Kimberly Process and whether or not it has been successful is crucial to understanding where the blood diamond controversy has evolved up until today. The story presented here is also critical to understand when looking at how other luxury brands may deal with conflict and controversy down the line. The Lion that Didn't Roar, by Dr. Nigel Davidson, goes into great detail surrounding the Kimberly Process as he discusses whether or not it truly has been effective in achieving its goal of ending conflict diamond trading. Davidson, who has spent years working in Australia, Rwanda, Tanzania, the Australian Capital Territory Department of Justice and Community Safety, and with implementing various human rights acts, frames this discussion by first defining and outlining anything and everything related to diamonds up until today. The book provides an excellent frame work for viewing the conflict diamonds controversy in both the past and the future while also educating the reader on every detail that makes the issue so complex. 

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Fashion Transparency Index - April 2016. Apr. 2016. Fashion Revolution, www.fashionrevolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/FR_FashionTransparencyIndex.pdf. Accessed 11 Sept. 2020. Fashion Revolution, who's mission statement claims that, "We campaign for a clean, safe, fair, transparent and accountable fashion industry. We do this through research, education, collaboration, mobilisation and advocacy," publishes yearly reports in which they rank worldwide brands in terms of how transparent their supply chain practices are. The organization, made up of designers, academics, policymakers, retailers, marketers, workers, trade unions, and fashion lovers, strives to demand better of the fashion industry when it comes to their supply chain practices by pushing people to ask the question #whomademyclothes. Their 2016 report details how various brands, such as Gucci, Chanel, Prada, Hermes, and many more. The report also details the areas in which these brands fell short starting that, "These companies have little to no information about their supply chain practices available to the public. Many of these companies seem to do little more than have a Code of Conduct in place – whilst this might have been best practice in the 1990s." This report proved to be incredibly useful for the purposes of this project as it provided hard evidence as to why certain brands, such as Chanel, who ranked the lowest, may be involved in unclear supply chain practices.

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Hira, Anil, and Maureen Beson-Rea, editors. Governing Corporate Social Responsibility in the Apparel Industry after Rana Plaza. E-book, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. This book, which features contributors from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and many more, delves into the world of how clothes are truly made by using the Rana Plaza factory collapse in 2013 to frame the entire issue being discussed. The book discusses the little progress that has been made to workers conditions while also addressing many other issues workers experience that caused the incident in 2013 at Rana Plaza. As well, the book addresses possible future governance models for supply chains, the economic perspective of the issue, and why transparency is so important in addition to many other topics. Once again, an incredibly useful source, this book revealed the truth behind Rana Plaza and exactly why the tragedy occurred. The book perfectly brings the reader up to speed with the events since the factory collapse while also providing useful information for where fashion's production may go in the future.

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Janssen, Catherine, et al. “The Catch-22 of Responsible Luxury: Effects of Luxury Product Characteristics on Consumers’ Perception of Fit with Corporate Social Responsibility.” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 119, no. 1, Springer, 2014, pp. 45–57. Brands are consistently being accused of a variety of human-rights violations. For example, Gucci has been accused of mistreating its employees at stores in Shenzhen, Dolce & Gabanna, as well as Prada, have been accused of exploiting immigrants in factories, and the "blood diamond" controversy has still not entirely left people's minds. These are just a few examples that authors Catherine Janssen, Joëlle Vanhamme, Adam Lindgreen, and Cécile Lefebvre discuss in their article that outlines how consumer's perceive corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. The article, an extremely useful, unexpected, and detailed examination of luxury brands, goes into detail about how many of these CSR initiatives, put into place by companies such as Armani, Chanel, and Cartier, have little to no impact on whether or not a consumer will choose to purchase a luxury product or not. This idea is further explored and illustrated by the idea that, "because CSR-associated self-transcendence values appear to conflict with luxury-associated self-enhancement values (Schwartz 1992; Torelli et al. 2012), the notion of “responsible luxury” could be regarded as a contradiction in terms" (Janssen). In contrast, “luxury could be associated with openness and conservation values, which are highly compatible with CSR-associated self-transcendence values (Schwartz 1992), such that luxury and CSR are parts of the same principle" (Janssen).The authors tie all of these concepts together, and attempt to  better understand how these two conflicting viewpoints come together, by researching an explaining what they see as the two defining characteristics of luxury: scarcity and ephemerality. This article proved to be incredibly useful for the purposes of this project as it gave context to the effectiveness of many CSR campaigns luxury brands enact while also defining, explaining, and researching a variety of nuanced aspects of what humanity defines as ‘luxury’. 

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Kwon, JaeHwan, et al. "Effective Luxury-Brand Advertising: The ES–IF Matching (Entity–Symbolic versus Incremental–Functional) Model." Journal of Advertising, vol. 45, no. 4, 2016. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/00913367.2016.1226995. Accessed 11 Sept. 2020. The authors of this study are able to reveal some fascinating findings regarding how various people respond to different types of advertising by luxury brands. Essentially, the study finds that "entity theorist consumers are more attracted to the symbolic value appeals of luxury brands, whereas incremental theorists are more attracted to functional value appeals" (Kwon). The study also provides great background information about the rise of luxury brands in recent years while describing the various reasons for this growth. Furthermore, the authors describe some of the various motivations that have been found for consumer's purchasing 'luxury' products. These motivations range from signaling social status or prestige, supporting self-identity, and the need for social conformity. The information present in this article perfectly complemented the other research about luxury brands that was used for this presentation. These motivations, in addition to the study's findings about different ad appeals, bolstered the information about how these brands are able to use advertising to attract consumers and establish a brand image.

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McNeil, Donald G., Jr. "A Diamond's True Price." The New York Times, 17 Dec. 2006, www.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/weekinreview/17mcneil.html. A Diamond's True Price provides another perspective on the blood diamond controversy that is often not explored. For many in African countries ripe with Diamonds, they provide a vital way to make money for many people. That money can mean food, health care, and does not always mean war nowadays. While discussing some of the modern examples in Africa where diamonds are not inherently tied with conflict, the article does address the atrocities that occurred in the 80s and 90s in countries like Sierra Leone, Angola, and The Congo. Also explaining many of the advertising techniques and locations in which De Beers mined, McNeil's article expertly outlines all the various nuances of the blood diamond controversy in both the past and the present. As well, the article tells a few stories about human experiences in the middle of the much larger story. This helps the article feel more grounded, personal, and emotional. These key, unique, elements of the article supplied this project with a great resource for reading about what is still happening in Africa today in relation to conflict diamonds.

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Saunders, Lucinda. “Rich and Rare Are the Gems They War: Holding De Beers Accountable for Trading Conflict Diamonds.” Fordham Int’l LJ 24 (2000): 1402. Rich and the Rare Gems They War, written by Lucinda Saunders, and published in the Fordham International Law Journal, details the horrific, shocking, and entirely true blood-diamond controversy that De Beers became a key player in. The civil war in Sierra Leone, which took place from the early 1990s through the early 2000s, was sparked by the rise of insurgent groups. Who were these insurgent groups funded by? How did they purchase weapons, and other infrastructure elements in order to enact a civil war? The answer always returned to the De Beers corporation and diamonds. With a keen eye for how this conflict impacted everyday citizens, Saunders outlines how De Beers were the true instigators of the civil war in Sierra Leone and other African countries. "Experts claim that political ideologies do not motivate this insurgent group. Instead, they argue that control of diamond production is a root cause behind the war in Sierra Leone...The insurgents would not have the money to buy arms and commit human rights abuses without the willingness of diamond buyers to trade with them" (Saunders 1403-1406). The article then goes in-depth regarding international law, the situation that caused the blood diamond conflict, a similar situation in Angola, the corporate structure of De Beers, how De Beers retains control over the diamond market, and whether or not De Beers can be held accountable for all of the human rights violations they are sparked throughout the world. Saunder's journal article provides a great deal of useful background information as well as possible future outcomes in relation to conflict diamonds that is incredibly useful for the background information needed for this project. 

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Thomas, Dana. "Why We Won't Learn from the Survivors of the Rana Plaza Disaster." The New York Times, 24 Apr. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/style/survivors-of-rana-plaza-disaster.html. Accessed 11 Sept. 2020. The Rana Plaza disaster is one filled with horrific images, stories, and heartbreaking losses. This New York Times article, by Dana Thomas, who has written over a hundred articles for the newspaper, provides the human element to the Rana Plaza story. Apart from the facts, this article tells the stories of how a few survivors of the disaster are still coping today. The mental and physical harm they experienced is displayed by Thomas here in an unforgettable way that excellently appeals to pathos. The Rana Plaza disaster, the deadliest modern garment accident in modern history, ended up killing around 2,500 and injuring 1,100 more. The severity of the disaster cannot be understated, but has much changed since? This article answers that question by addressing how some improvements have been made to factory countries throughout Bangladesh although there are still countless sweatshops throughout the country. The article also details many safeguards that were put in place since that have undoubtably saved lives, but how many of these may be expiring soon. Through and through, this article provided an excellent human angle to the tragedy in Bangladesh while also providing relevant details about the story.

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Zheng, Jin-Hui, et al. “The Impact of the Strategic Advertising on Luxury Fashion Brands with Social Influences.” Mathematical Problems in Engineering, vol. 2013, Hindawi Limited, 2013, pp. 1–16. ucsb-primo.com, doi:10.1155/2013/534605. This study, conducted by researchers Jin-Hui Zheng, Bin Shen, Pui-Sze Chow, and Chun-Hung Chiu, aims to see just how impactful a strategic advertising campaign can be for a luxury brand. The findings of this article lie in the shadow of the luxury brand, De Beers, that pioneered many of the advertising strategies used by luxury brands today. Thanks to these advertising strategies, which appeal to engraining the brands themselves into ideas of wealth and status, many of the luxury brands discussed in this study, from Chanel and Dior, to Louis Vuitton, already have a significant amount of cultural significance. This increasing cultural significance, which goes hand in hand with cultural relevance, has led to consistent increase in sales for many of these luxury brands. Clever, effective, advertising can only improve the brand's image, sales, and social status. "As such, advertising is a common tool that luxury brands rely on in building brand salience. Advertising influences not only the “immediate” purchase but also the long-term brand equity of the luxury brand," (Zheng 1) according to the authors of the study. Many brands attempt to achieve this brand salience, and long-term brand equity, by striking a balance between brand exclusivity while still being accessible to the masses. This study builds off of this framework and seeks to explore how various social influences can impact how a brand chooses to advertise its products to consumers. Specifically, the study looks at how luxury fashion brands allocate their advertising money to be most effective in achieving social relevance, long-term equity, brand salience, and elitism while also still being accessible to enough consumers to produce profit. This study was able to provide a great deal of modern context, compared to the 20th century example with De Beers, in relation to established luxury brands.