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A. How did you find this company? What are the main facts about its activities?
Nice Things is a clothing brand that makes clothes for 0 year old girls to 90 year old women, and is a part of the Spanish company Intermalla S.L. created by Paloma Santaolalla and Miquel Lanna who opened the first nice shop in 1995 in Barcelona. From then, they have extended their shops in France, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom and Greece. Their mission is to make clothing and complements with soul, with which women feel that every day is unique and special. The designs of the clothes have a personal style and are feminine, original and comfortable. Besides, the collections transmit optimism and happiness throughout the colors and prints of the clothes. They show with their designs that clothes are not simply garments, they transmit that clothing is a way to make girls and women feel comfortable. Nice Things’ team wants to share their point of view about fashion with their customers and as customers we were very positively inspired by this company. For this reason, they motivate their clients to participate as models in their catalogues, showing to the people that their clothes are wearable by real and authentic women.
B. What are the Ethical challenges this company is addressing?
As we can see, Nice Things has been involved in many ethical and social problems of nowadays and has increased the responsibility of the company to a higher extent. Not only do they exert effort on those projects, but also on daily and normal aspects of social behaviors such as transmitting a positive attitude towards life. It seems to be not only about clothes, it is about an attitude. Through the main activities and projects that Nice Things conducts, several ethical challenges have aroused our interest. The company tries to make children understand that they are able to live with such a problem like a severe illness, giving them reasons to believe and go ahead. What they want to transmit to those children is that they are not a “strange character” among all children. From the parents’ perspective, Nice Things makes an effort to convey joy to the parents when they realize their children are ill but not different. Parents should learn how to treat them in front of other children and the whole society. Another challenge Nice Things has is to help directly these children not only by means of money, but also physically and emotionally. It could be that a child may have a lot of monetary resources and a high quality of life but on the other hand he might have a lack of human support and no experiences with others.
C. What makes this company really inspiring to you and why would you trust it?
Nice Things tries to involve the human being in all their projects and beliefs. This fact has been for us one of the most important which makes us believe this firm behaves ethically. Why do we trust them? Which message is Nice Things transmitting to everybody? It is not all about money since it is not the only way to help children who suffer from a disease. The company transmits the message that people can get together and can share their own experiences and personal situations to show everybody that we can look beyond simple facts or a medical diagnosis. In that sense, the attitude we adopt to face a severe illness is even more important than some other things. It is by transmitting a positive attitude and with a willingness to help children that the firm can make people believe and hope for the best. Hence, once they believe things become possible and children that suffer from cancer can live like other children it makes it easier to do so and overcome difficult situations. Besides, the company is actively involved in all types of positive events that can bring joy to individuals and families. They have a contagious positive attitude towards life.
D.What are the possible challenges facing the company in the future and how do you think this company may improve?
A possible challenge might be that Nice Things wants to be considered as a real ethical company in the future, showing that they really believe on the projects they are doing and not merely worrying about investing a certain amount of money on the project itself and involving the whole production process into eco-friendly initiatives.
Also, the retail sector is a really competitive one and since their prices are high, people might continue purchasing cheaper products from other shops. Thus, it is important to highlight and inform about all the social and humanitarian initiatives behind the brand name to compete in another level than most common clothing brands. As for the competition with other ethical shops, Nice Things will need to promote its products to a higher extent and adapt its price-quality relationship to its customer’s expectations since they might also compare with other ethical shops.
On the other hand, one of the challenges of the company is to diffuse the right message to a broad extent and inform even more about the events they organize because the brand name is not as well-known as it could be, actually most of their customers are not aware of their social projects. Since they have shops in many countries but their actions are mainly done in Spain and Nepal, clients from other countries will not agree to contribute with them if they are not encouraging projects there as well. The company may find new opportunities to improve by expanding their message and their activities in more locations to reach more people that will be interested in their activities.
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