Introduction:

The body shop’s first outlet was opened in 1976 in Brighton by Anita Roddick, selling a range of 25 home made, hand mixed, natural, health and beauty products.

It soon became apparent that customers were willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products, leading to rapid expansion of the company.

Today, The Body Shop has a global network of over 2000 outlets. They are a powerful international retail brand and have won awards such as coming in #28 in the “Superbrands” list in 1997, as well as being voted the 2^nd most trusted brand in the UK by the consumers association in 1999.

Corporate Vision and Values:

The Body Shop was one of the first few companies that became synonymous with the earlier Social Responsibility Model (SRM), and then now the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Brand Strategy:

       Target Market:

·      From the very beginning, products were largely aimed at young females between 16-25, and 26-35.

·      However, there were also product lines for mature skin, thus catering to a smaller extent, to the special needs of elder women as well.

·      Products for men also targeted males between the age of 16-35, who could be loosely described as urban and cosmopolitan.

·      Products were generally very affordable and thus suited the younger population.

·      After becoming part of L’oreal’s corporation, The Body Shop repositioned, introducing a line of “design your scent” and “spa wisdom” to entice more mature and affluent customers.

·      Catered to what is referred to as “masstige”- a cross between prestige and mass market, offering both teens and older, wealthier consumers, thus fighting for consumer share of customers who would usually shop in department store beauty halls instead.

·      Thus, it can be said that the body shop’s target customer group is now much wider, ranging from 20-55 year olds, includes both races, but are primarily female and younger.

·      The body shop also targets those who have an environmentally conscious ethic, looks after him/herself, and believes in the goodness of natural, organic products.

Positioning:

·      Brand name:

o     The body shop has a strong brand name, which has developed through the years and stuck on.

o     Often, when one thinks of scented, natural, ethical products for the body, The Body Shop is the first thing that comes to mind.

o     The name “Body Shop” itself associates it with its products.

·      Brand Image:

o     High moralistic standards

§      Anti-animal testing

§      All natural ingredients

o     Passion for people and products

§      In house fair trade project (which asks for fair trade in ALL countries)

o     High quality, relatively reasonable price

o     GREEN

 

·      Service Standards:

o     High standard of service

§      Shop assistants in body shop boutiques are highly knowledgeable and helpful about products, they have training for every product line, therefore staff know exactly what ingredients are used, and why.

o     Ability to tailor products due to customization

§      “Design your scent”

o     Shopping in body shop is like a personal shopping experience

§      As compared to big drug stores where employees are not trained in product knowledge.

 

o     Brand Personality:

§      Natural, Green, Ethical!

§      All about beauty.

§      Fresh, fragrant.

§      Reliable, dependable

§      Global presence & community

 

o     Packaging:

§      Themed by collection

·      Labels look different, colour coded. Etc: everything in the white musk collection has the same floral design on the labels, which are all white; whilst everything in the tea tree collection have green labels.

§      However, bottle shapes are similar throughout the collections, helping to create brand identity

·      Etc, body butter products all come into the same circular tub, regardless of weather it’s scent is strawberry, mango or pink grapefruit.

§      They all carry the same logo, the simple but recognizable Body Shop logo.

 

o     Product Guarantees:

§      Satisfaction Guaranteed

§      Ethical Production

·      Fair Trade

·      Anti-Animal Testing

§      Natural Ingredients

 

Brand Proposition:

Product and Price:

·      Make up (7.80 to 15.60)

o     Bronzing

o     Cheeks

o     Eyes

o     Lips

o     Nails

o     Brushes

·      Skin Care (2.40 to 19.55)

o     Cleansers

o     Toners

o     Moisturizers

o     Eye care

o     Lip care

o     Exfoilaters and masks

o     Skin protecting SPF

o     Accessories

o     Make up remover

·      Bath & Body (6.40 to 13.70)

o     Body butters

o     Body Scrubs

o     Body Moisturizers

o     Spa/Treatments

o     Hand products

o     Feet products

·      Hair (2.30 to 7.80)

o     Shampoo

o     Conditioner

o     Treatment

o     Styling

o     Accessories

·      Men’s: (5.35 to 9.75)

o     Shave

o     Fragrance

o     Face Care

o     Hair & Body

o     Accessories

·      Fragrance: (3.50 to 15.65)

o     “Design your scent”

o     Eau de toilettes / perfumes

o     Perfume oils

o     Body Mists

o     Body Cleansing

o     Body Moisturizing

·      Home Fragrance: (3.40 to 15.65)

o     Scented oils

o     Burners

o     Diffusers

o     Candles

·      Shop       by line:

o     Almond

o     Aloe

o     Body Focus

o     Classic rose

o     Cocoa butter

o     Coconut

o     Hemp

o     Mango

o     Neroli jasmin

o     Passion fruit

o     Peppermint

o     Pink grapefruit

o     Satsuma

o     Seaweed

o     Shea

o     Strawberry

o     Spa wisdom

o     Tea tree

o     Vitamin C

o     Vitamin E

o     White Musk

o     Wise Woman

 

·      In June 2007, Body shop became 100% vegetarian except for ingredients such as gelatin.

·      In 2006, they spent $12 million on community traded products, and therefore plan to have 65% of their products to be community traded ingredients by 08/09

·      Pledged that by 2010, their products will be completely free of artificial preservative

 

Promotion:

·      Loyalty Program:

o     “Love you body” card

§      5 pound to buy any product, 10% of purchases for a year, 20 pounds worth of free products, and exclusive members privileges 

·      Weekly / Monthly promotions

o     Etc, this month 20% of all make up products, limited time only.

 

·      Promotions done mainly through postal, web mailing and in-store promotion

·      Point-of-sale Activity

·      Collaborations with other Influential Companies or with Charities

o     Etc MTV/BODYSHOP fight against aids campaign, helps increase brand awareness, brand values and increase sales.

·      In house PR

o     Rarely does advertising, relying instead on:

§      Editorial PR, relying on good editorial reviews in magazines to speak for them

§      Prime-site shop windows: prime positioned windows often promote not only products, but brand image as well ( etc campaign causes, green notions)

 

Place:

1.  Body Shop Boutiques

·      More than 2000 stores worldwide

·      Prime locations, easily accessible, wide spread

·      Flagship store in Covent garden: first to take on new retail concept (stone floor, free standing floor unites creating more spacious image, glass shelving and backlit walls for a conducive shopping environment)

·      This new retail design rolled out across The Body Shop network in 2004, at the rate of 250 branches a year.

 

2.  Internet Based Virtual Presence

·      User friendly website

o     Blog

o     Media Centre

o     Online Shop

·      Online Promotions

o     Etc, free gift when you spend 25 pounds, online only.

·      Increases accessibility both to people who do not have shops near them, as well as people who do not have the time to go and shop

·      Free standard delivery for orders above 20 pounds.

 

3.  “Party at Home”

·      Body shop comes over to customer’s house, and helps to throw a party, where consumers can invite friends over to try new products and learn beauty tips from consultants.

·      Bringing the store to your house, and delivering purchases made thereafter.

·      Various themes.

 

Recommendations:

1.   Magazine Collaborations

·      To reach out to their newer target customer groups, (such as the men or the more mature women), they can colloborate with magazines, thus still keeping to their no-advertising tradition

·      This can be done for example, by giving out mini tubes of products as samples through various magazines.

·      Etc, “GQ” can give out mini tubes of shaving cream whilst “Women and Home” and “Easy Living” could give out anti-cellulite or anti-aging cream samples.

 

2.   Competitions

·      Instead of just telling people about their ethical values and practices, they could collaborate with Green Peace or other such organizations to organize a quarterly/monthly competitions for a whole year, whereby ordinary people (potential consumers) can win a trip to say, Kenya, Africa or Morocco, all expense paid, to actually visit the farms and production factories and see first hand the kind of ethical values that Body Shop practices.

·      The winners of the trips would then have to write a blog which would be linked to Green Peace and Body Shop, detailing their experiences and so on.

·      As this information is not written by staff of the Body Shop themselves, the credibility tends to be much higher.

 

3.   In-House Magazines / More PR

·      Instead of standing firm in their policy whereby they choose to let their values speak for themselves, they can adapt this to being more informative without having much advertising

·      Ever since L’oreal has taken over, there has been generally a negative impact of the brand’s image in consumer’s minds due to confusion as L’oreal used to practice animal testing and so on.

·      In actuality, Anita Roddick sold to L’oreal as L’oreal has already stopped practicing animal testing for 5 years. She also worked out a deal whereby selling to L’oreal would encourage L’oreal to practice ethical values on all their brands. Either way though, Body Shop would still function as an entity of its own, despite being under an umbrella brand. The profits of the sale to L’oreal were also COMPLETELY donated to charity. However, this was all NOT made clear to the public, thus creating controversy and negative impacts, which might not show that significantly in sales, but is detrimental to brand image.

·      The Body shop can produce a quarterly in-house magazine which can serve as a platform for providing information such as the case above, as well as introducing new product ranges and sharing beauty “how-to” and secrets. The in house magazine could also feature articles for point #2 (competition), and other charity causes that the Body Shop supports. It can serve as quite a powerful advertising tactic, for both product sales as well as brand image boosting.

Labels: Brand Elements, edwin phiri, weekly assignment

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