Research Paper on The Body Shop

Some businesses such as The Body Shop seem to be taking a lead on ethical issues.
Rather than simply responding to consumer pressures they have taken a stance and
declared themselves committed to certain standards.
The Body Shop believes in 'Delivering Value' which looks at conventional accounting
areas such as profitability, relationships with customers and staff, and relationships with
suppliers (all of which have an ethical dimension); 'Social Responsibility' which looks at
areas such as ethical policies (particularly in regard to investment), charitable support and
community involvement; 'Ecological Sustainability' which looks at areas such as
ecologically sound purchasing of supplies, recycling waste, energy consumption and
provision of ecological financial products and services and 'environmentally friendly'
making sure that their products are 'green' , not animal tested and 'kind to the
environment'.
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According to Anita Roddick, the founder of The Body Shop “If I wanted to maximize my
profits, which is supposed to be this country's duty of business, I would have to lie and
sell anti-aging cream, which is one of the greatest, most insidious lies out there. I am not
intending to do that even though it is one of the most profitable products in the beauty
industry. If I wanted to maximize my profits I would take the two or three months that we
do campaigning, which comes to about 3-4 million quid, and put it into keeping the
shareholders happy. But I am not interested in maximizing the wealth of shareholders; I
am interested in keeping my company breathlessly alive and socially active and yes, we
get great dividends”
The Body Shop saves a huge amount of money by not advertising, and by not going
around in Lear jets, or having compensation packages like many others do. Instead they
use this money in their social activities.
The strong organizational culture of the Body Shop is very much compatible with
diversity and change. The Body Shop operates in my opinion, as a multinational
company only because the major changes are dictated from England and Anita Roddick
has control of each promotion and product that each store carries. All the bureaucratic
systems are formed to send information and data respecting new owner applications and
informational material directly to Anita Roddick herself and she operates in England and
makes decisions from that one country.
This form of company relies heavily on accurate transfer of communication, which has so
far in this case proven effective. Who knows were the future will take this organization
but it seems to be always one step ahead of change. Through Anita's passion and her
belief that business can be fun, it can be conducted with love and can be a powerful force
for good; she had already had the basic fundamentals of today's business ethics. Working
within today's rapidly changing business environments, it takes passion and ingenuity to
stay competitive.
The Body Shop’s value’s, both functional value and personal values, is brought to the
forefront of marketing today. The old standard's of competition; Quality, Price and Time
(if you want something today and of high quality, it will cost you) are no longer valid.
Technology has neutralized time and quality and one can only survive through price wars
or cost cutting for a limited time. In addition, the consumers have much more control or
say in today's marketplace, making these three elements of equal demand and maybe
even expected by the consumer.
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Innovation is reached beyond new product development to create and communicate value
and connects with the values of the consumer's life. Innovation is now extended to a
meaningful connection between you and the consumer. The Body Shop goes past the
economic economy to a values economy. To ensure that all employees and potential
employees are treated fairly and without unjustified discrimination regardless of their
color, creed, race, ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, disability or
age.
According to MANAGING DIRECTOR, of THE BODY SHOP “I want to run a business
the sort of way I'd like to be treated if I were an employee, I think it's just making people
feel good about coming to work, feeling part of a family type of relationship with each
other, and, it certainly is, just the way I want to be seen as a company that puts a lot of
value in employees.”
If an employee needs time off for a religious holiday, this should be accommodated
within the usual holiday entitlement but such a request for leave on specific dates will not
unreasonably be refused. A pregnant employee, or one who has recently given birth, must
not suffer any disadvantage because of her condition. The Hospice will consider
employees and potential employees for part time work or for job-share where this is
practical within the demands of the job in question. All decisions to refuse part time or
job share applications must be fully justified by the needs of the job. Ability, performance
and the job market should determine pay differentials. Virtually all non-retail companies
strive for extra sales and bigger profits. You can present programs designed to get it for
them! And your Greenhouse product line will provide the punch they need to make the
programs work.
For years what made the Body Shop successful was that it didn't charge franchise fees or
royalties, preferring to let the franchisers pocket them. Most of the company's earnings
came from wholesaling the merchandise it makes, much like Italy's Benetton, which
wholesales clothes to its stores. Body Shop is revamped its product line while trying to
maintain its green ideals. The results have been mixed. Rather than perfecting sales in its
existing shops, the company charged into the top malls in the U.S. over the past two
years, in hopes of gaining a foothold against the fast-expanding Bath & Body Works. It
did not work. The U.S. operation lost $3.7 million in the first six months of fiscal 1996
on sales of $46 million. Same-store sales fell by 8%.
As Body Shop expands, it is sticking to its more profitable franchising strategy, the
approach that made it successful in the first place and this should be kept in the future as
well. In mature markets like UK, the Body Shop's biggest, with 44% of its revenues, the
company should launch new marketing strategies to revitalize sales. Since the country is
nearly saturated with stores, the company should begin a program of direct mail and in-
home sales.
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It's going to take years to tell whether the new marketing and sales strategies can turn
around the company's fortunes and to know to what extent Roddick will let her
professional managers run the business at the expense of her beloved environmentalism.
In the meantime, the fact that there's hardly a financial analyst who has much positive to
say about the company's prospects suggests that, for now, investors should probably stick
to buying the Body Shop's soap but not its shares.
Is "Relationship Marketing" Killing The Body Shop?

Is The Body Shop’s Relationship Marketing effort slowly killing the brand’s equity? It is
for me. See, I want to believe that The Body Shop has great products that are special and
worth every bit of what I pay. It’s why I started buying their products in the first place. I
suppose in some way I want to feed my own sense of self-indulgence and self-worth. I
enjoy discovering products that are unique and really work for me. I know I feel good
about supporting a company that has earth-friendly, people-friendly, animal-friendly
practices. And whenever I think of adding “The Body Shop” to my errand list for more
Body Butter, more Hemp Hand Protector for my husband, or new make-up for my
daughter, I don’t want to worry about whether I remembered the coupons, or if it’s going
to be on sale. However, being a member of the Love Your Body Rewards Club enhances
very few of these feelings.Instead, I’m bombarded by promotionally-based, time-
sensitive emails pushing featured products. While I receive the member 10% price
discount, I am rewarded with additional “prizes” only if I play their Loyalty game right.
When I forgot my card (which I paid $10 for) the sales clerk made it sound like such an
inconvenience to call for my member number that I abandoned the idea of accumulating
my points. In store, clerks initiate their conversations with discount talk like, “Did you
come in to see what was on sale?” and try to convince me to spend a more to get “a
second valuable bonus gift” that anyone could get.

Regrettably, The Body Shop’s relationship marketing, e-commerce, and in-store practices
leave me questioning the validity of their prices, the value of their products, and have me
feeling like they’re any run-of-the-mill health and beauty brand. What a disappointment.

Here are 5 Brand Killing Observations about The Body Shop’s recent marketing and in-
store experiences:

• Death by Manipulation
“Limited time only!”, “Get 20% off all gifts from May 5th – 7th”, “Offer ends at
11:59 pm ET” are all examples of time-sensitive offers designed to initiate
immediate response. But they train me to wait to buy my favorites until the next
limited time offer is available for that item (which might be never?). Can you see
why I’m getting really tired of feeling manipulated to buy their choices on their
timetable, not mine?
• Death by Value Confusion
“Buy 2, Get 1 Free”, “$10 Off any purchase of $35 or more”, “Sale – Save up to
50% OFF” are the offers flowing through my inbox at all times. The “On Sale”
impression of The Body Shop windows at the mall has never seemed higher to
me. If so much merchandise is on sale so often, and they can afford to offer 50%
discounts, well, maybe it’s not as good as I thought it was. And now, I would feel
foolish and ripped-off ever paying full price.
• Death by Lack of Differentiation
The Body Shop current marketing is largely devoid of good brand-deepening
stories. Emails provide very shallow product descriptions. The website only
scratches the surface about unique ingredients. Salespeople aren’t telling me
 snippets of the “Made with Passion” story – not at the brand or the product level. I
used to learn something new about The Body Shop at every visit - something that
stuck with me and validated my choice to pay more for this way to smooth skin or
clean hair. Not any more.
• Death by Harassment
How many times in one month do you want to receive special offers from a
retailer? I received 7 from The Body Shop one month this spring. Each one
featured a different product or offer. I don’t want to revisit making a decision in
this category that frequently. So why does The Body Shop assume I want to
consider 7 different special offers in the same month? Are they desperate?
• Death by Unsatisfying Experiences
In the store the other day, my whole impression was of marked-down
merchandise just waiting to be purchased by people looking for a good deal - not
by people highly motivated to enjoy the unique effectiveness of The Body Shop
products. I felt older than I wanted, blasted by loud music my teenage daughter
would more appreciate. And there was nothing done to make me feel special as a
Love Your Body Club member.

So, if you’re a retailer, or someone running a consumer brand, how can you do better
than The Body Shop? Start out by writing yourself a list of questions like:

• What is the overall branding effect of the relationship, e-business, and in-store
programs that I want to create? Separately, and together?
• Do I have functional silo-ization in my team that ends up causing consumer
experience disconnects?
• If I have direct-response or database experts in charge of running a relationship-
building program, how do I guide them better to build the brand?
• What should my relationship program really be trying to achieve? Short-term
sales steering via discounts at a lower margin, or longer-term building of deep
belief in the products to drive higher margin?
• Should I be thinking about programs that reward members with exclusive added-
values, not just monetary offers?
• How do I avoid discount schemes that drive price-value confusion and erosion?
• How special can I make the in-store and e-business experiences for my program
members?

When you focus your programs on continually deepening the essential reason your brand
exists, you will keep your initiatives working much harder to build the brand. The
reward? A core of appreciated customers who are highly committed to using your
products more exclusively – and probably with much less margin and brand eroding
discounting. Isn’t that what you are after?
WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE BODY SHOP?
- a criticism of 'green' consumerism -
The Body Shop have successfully manufactured an image of being a caring company that
is helping to protect the environment and indigenous peoples, and preventing the
suffering of animals - whilst selling 'natural' products. But behind the green and cuddly
image lies the reality - the Body Shop's operations, like those of all multinationals, have a
detrimental effect on the environment and the world's poor. They do not help the plight of
animals or indigenous peoples (and may be having a harmful effect), and their products
are far from what they're cracked up to be. They have put themselves on a pedestal in
order to exploit people's idealism - so this leaflet has been written as a necessary
response.

Companies like the Body Shop continually hype their products through advertising and
marketing, often creating a demand for something where a real need for it does not exist.
The message pushed is that the route to happiness is through buying more and more of
their products. The increasing domination of multinationals and their standardised
products is leading to global cultural conformity. The world's problems will only be
tackled by curbing such consumerism - one of the fundamental causes of world poverty,
environmental destruction and social alienation.

FUELLING CONSUMPTION AT THE EARTH'S EXPENSE

The Body Shop have over 1,500 stores in 47 countries, and aggressive expansion plans.
Their main purpose (like all multinationals) is making lots of money for their rich
shareholders. In other words, they are driven by power and greed. But the Body Shop try
to conceal this reality by continually pushing the message that by shopping at their stores,
rather than elsewhere, people will help solve some of the world's problems. The truth is
that nobody can make the world a better place by shopping.

20% of the world's population consume 80% of its resources. A high standard of living
for some people means gross social inequalities and poverty around the world. Also, the
mass production, packaging and transportation of huge quantities of goods is using up the
world's resources faster than they can be renewed and filling the land, sea and air with
dangerous pollution and waste. Those who advocate an ever-increasing level of
consumption, and equate such consumption with personal well-being, economic progress
and social fulfilment, are creating a recipe for ecological disaster.

Rejecting consumerism does not mean also rejecting our basic needs, our stylishness, our
real choices or our quality of life. It is about creating a just, stable and sustainable world,
where resources are under the control of local communities and are distributed equally
and sparingly - it's about improving everyone's quality of life. Consuming ever more
things is an unsatisfying and harmful way to try to be happy and fulfilled. Human
happiness is not related to what people buy, but to who we are and how we relate to each
other. LET'S CONSUME LESS AND LIVE MORE!

MISLEADING THE PUBLIC

Natural products? - The Body Shop give the impression that their products are made
from mostly natural ingredients. In fact like all big cosmetic companies they make wide
use of non-renewable petrochemicals, synthetic colours, fragrances and preservatives,
and in many of their products they use only tiny amounts of botanical-based ingredients.
Some experts have warned about the potential adverse effects on the skin of some of the
synthetic ingredients. The Body Shop also regularly irradiate certain products to try to
kill microbes - radiation is generated from dangerous non-renewable uranium which
cannot be disposed of safely.

Helping animals? - Although the Body Shop maintain that they are against animal
testing, they do not always make clear that many of the ingredients in their products have
been tested on animals by other companies, causing much pain and suffering to those
animals. They accept ingredients tested on animals before 1991, or those tested since then
(if they were animal-tested for some purpose other than for cosmetics). There continue to
be concerns about the enforcement of their policy. Also, some Body Shop items contain
animal products such as gelatine (crushed bone).

Caring for our bodies? - The cosmetics industry, which includes the Body Shop, tries to
make women - and increasingly now also men - feel inadequate and insecure about their
bodies, and pushes the message that people need 'beautifying'. Women especially are
often put under pressure to conform to the impossible physical ideals set by money-
oriented industries and the media. Let's appreciate everyone's natural beauty and dignity.

LOW PAY AND AGAINST UNIONS

The Body Shop pay their store workers low wages at or near the expected minimum
wage and well below the official European 'decency threshold' for pay. The company is
opposed to trade unions, ensuring that they keep labour costs down and that employees
are not able to organise to improve their working conditions. None of their workers are
unionised so employees are forced to channel their grievances and demands through
procedures completely controlled by the company. This isolates workers and denies them
collective bargaining power.

EXPLOITING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

The Body Shop claim to be helping some third world workers and indigenous peoples
through so-called 'Trade Not Aid' or 'Community Trade' projects. In fact, these are
largely a marketing ploy as less than 1% of sales go to 'Community Trade' producers, and
it has been shown that some of these products have been sourced from mainstream
commercial markets. One such project, which has been the centrepiece of the company's
marketing strategy for years, is with the Kayapo Indians in Brazil. The Body Shop have
claimed that by harvesting brazil nut oil (used in hair conditioner), the Indians are able to
make sustainable use of the forest thereby preventing its destruction by mining and
logging companies. But only a small number of the Kayapo are involved, creating
resentment and internal divisions within the community. As the Body Shop are the sole
buyer of the oil, they can set any price they like. The project does nothing to safeguard
the Indians' future interests. Furthermore, the company have used them extensively for
PR purposes for which they have not been compensated.
Such projects take attention away from the need to oppose the threats to the survival of
indigenous peoples. Rather than encouraging them to be tied into the market economy
controlled by foreign companies, people should be supporting their freedom to control
their own land and resources and therefore their future.

One recent Body Shop advertisement extolled their commitment to indigenous peoples
and the American Express card (the ultimate symbol of consumerism). At the time
American Express was a major backer of a massive hydroelectric scheme due to flood
vast areas of Cree Indian land in Quebec against Cree opposition.

CENSORSHIP
As the Body Shop rely so heavily on their 'green', 'caring' image, they have threatened or
brought legal action against some of those who have criticised them, trying to stifle
legitimate public discussion. It's vital to stand up to intimidation and to defend free
speech.