Body Shop Analysis Essay Example

London Stock Market with an initial price of 95p per share. Shortly after its listing, the value of the company's shares skyrocketed by a staggering 500%.

The Body Shop successfully promoted their business through environmental and social campaigns, highlighting their commitment to "Natural Ingredients". In 2006, the Body Shop was acquired by L'Oreal for ? 652 million, establishing it as the world's second-largest cosmetic franchise. With a presence in 61 countries and over 2,400 stores globally, they provide a diverse range of more than 1,200 products for both men and women. It is worth mentioning that all of their products are created using natural ingredients and do not contain any harmful substances.

The Body Shop has established a solid reputation through its diverse selection of hair, body, and facial care products. Additionally, the company prioritizes eco-friendly packaging solutions that are recyclable. The brand's commitment to ethical practices and tangible actions resonates with women who value authenticity over mere rhetoric (The Body Shop, 2012).

The Body Shop incorporates "sesame seed oil" and "marula oil" as the primary components in their products, highlighting their natural origins.

• They offer a diverse range of items such as makeup, body butters, haircare, and skincare for both genders. Additionally, they provide fragrances, soaps, and shower gels.

Remarkably, the Body Shop does not possess an advertising or media department. They prioritize ethical values over marketing campaigns. Instead of traditional magazine and newspaper advertisements to reduce product costs, founder Anita Roddick's approach revolved around conferences and campaigns.

The Body Shop is confident in the impact of their outlets and awareness campaigns, such as "Activate Self-Esteem," in promoting their product. They are currently working on a

new marketing campaign called "home business." As part of this initiative, experienced marketing consultants from The Body Shop will personally visit customers' homes to demonstrate the product and raise awareness. Currently, this campaign is being tested exclusively in the United States with hopes for future expansion.

1. Scope:

The research project aims to provide a comprehensive overview of Body Shop's brand management, presenting all the necessary information and statistics for a complete understanding of the company. It starts by analyzing Body Shop's past performance.

The market standing of Body Shop is analyzed using current information, and suggestions are given for areas of improvement. This report provides the methodology used, including the type of research and data collection methods. Assumptions made in the research are stated, and limitations regarding the methods and sources of information are acknowledged.

The conclusion was reached after conducting extensive supportive analysis, with limitations in information regarding future growth. To assume the future growth of the company, I relied solely on SWOT analysis. Brand positioning and values entail a comprehensive program that combines people's feelings, associations, experiences, perceptions, and attitudes towards the brand.

Consumers do not judge a brand solely based on its name; they are looking for a specific solution to their needs. The brand positioning strategy encompasses various steps, such as the brand's logo, name, colors, distribution and communication channels, and the message conveyed. According to Kotler and Armstrong (2008), a detailed brand position strategy serves as a guideline for how a particular brand is presented to consumers. The Body Shop follows an operational brand strategy that focuses on expanding core business activities related to brand

positioning in order to enhance and maintain performance. To ensure long-term success, the Body Shop has adopted a joint approach to public reporting and performance measurement. However, in the previous year, the Body Shop encountered challenges in achieving their brand positioning goals. Although they were initially successful, they were able to identify and rectify their mistakes.

Body Shop's current brand positioning strategy revolves around soliciting input from key stakeholders in order to accomplish long and short-term goals, while also boosting stakeholder values. This strategy centers on three main objectives.

1. Increasing the value of the brand.

2. Enhancing operational efficiency.

The company is additionally focusing on enhancing stakeholder culture and integrating market needs into their brand positioning strategy.

2. The Body Shop's Eco-Friendly Logo

The Body Shop, a prominent beauty brand, has long been known for its commitment to using "natural ingredients." This positioning has played a significant role in the company's achievements as customers value not only personal satisfaction but also environmentally friendly choices when selecting skincare products.

The Body Shop has achieved its status as a 'Green Company' by using an environmentally friendly logo as a brand positioning strategy. The company effectively promotes its brand by utilizing natural resources, resulting in positive outcomes. Body Shop is widely known as a unique brand and is now considered an icon by marketers, thanks to the marketing team's expert positioning. What sets the brand positioning of Body Shop apart is their avoidance of traditional advertising methods to create brand value. Instead, they recognize social activism as an effective approach to promote their brands.

The success of Body Shop hinges entirely on its outstanding business model

and effective brand positioning. Proper brand positioning allows the brand to generate value and this is evident in the company's profitability. The company's profit is heavily influenced by word of mouth and PR. The products are straightforward and rooted in the needs of ordinary people. 3.

Brand Characteristics: The distinct attributes of a product that a company designs and promotes to establish and sustain a competitive advantage determine the value of a brand. The more unique attributes a brand possesses, the longer it will benefit the company (Moore, Pareek, 2010).

The Body Shop's brand characteristics include:

• No Animal Testing. Protection of our Planet.
• Direct Marketing.

No Animal Testing:

The company can always have two types of customers. One is referred to as actual customers while the others are potential customers.

Both importance and brand characteristic are attributed to The Body Shop's commitment to not testing any of its products on animals. This proactive stance has led to increased customer loyalty and the attraction of new potential customers.

Protect our Planet: Social Activism is another characteristic that the Body Shop is utilizing. They have consistently worked on raising awareness through seminars and programs. These social interactions serve the purpose of communicating the message that Body Shop products are environmentally friendly and contribute to environmental protection. Direct Marketing: Due to their high level of social involvement, the Body Shop has incorporated direct marketing as a tool to promote their products. They are using direct marketing as a brand characteristic tool.

Through direct marketing, the company is able to achieve two goals. Firstly, it helps in keeping product costs low by eliminating the need for advertising. Moreover, direct marketing allows the

company to create awareness of their product (Dufour, Lamothe, 2009).
Directly reaching and delivering the product to the customer is essential in marketing as it enables a company to maintain a competitive edge over others by doing so correctly, at the right time and place.

The Body Shop has achieved widespread customer satisfaction by effectively incorporating the key elements of marketing. The company's products directly influence customer happiness through their numerous advantages, leading to increased loyalty.

The Body Shop provides a diverse selection of skincare products, eco-friendly alternatives, and affordable prices to its customers. With 2,400+ locations across 65 countries, the Body Shop ensures accessibility worldwide. Their extensive product line caters to all skin types and categories, enhancing customer satisfaction. What sets them apart is their dedication to using natural resources in their skincare offerings, which appeals to environmentally conscious individuals.

These products are all cruelty-free, making them an ideal option for customers. The Body Shop prioritizes low advertising budgets and finds awareness campaigns more successful than traditional advertising methods, resulting in the utilization of direct marketing strategies to reduce promotion costs. Consequently, this affects product prices by offering affordable mid-range choices to customers and ensuring their satisfaction.

Brand communities play a crucial role in helping companies understand consumer attitudes and meet their needs in today's competitive world. By forming a connection between consumers and a brand, these communities provide valuable insights into consumer behavior. As a result, companies actively seek this information to effectively assess and fulfill consumer needs.

Establishing a strong connection with consumers is essential for the company's success, and brand communities play a vital role in achieving this goal. The Body Shop's direct marketing efforts are a

positive move towards building a brand community, which focuses on connecting with consumers. Implementing a membership program is one of the initial steps in developing such a community.

By collecting customer data, Body Shop can effectively gather information on individual customers. With this data, they can strategize and implement engaging activities to connect with their customers. As businesses increasingly rely on online platforms, Body Shop can capitalize on this trend to cultivate a more robust brand community. Social bookmarking, newsfeeds, forums, blogs, and even cell phone communication all contribute to creating a brand community for Body Shop.

The quicker the results will come, the stronger the communication is. The Body Shop will benefit from strong customer engagement in every step.

6. Brand Equity

Brand equity indicates the position a brand has achieved through name recognition and goodwill over a specific period of time.

Having a strong brand equity gives the company an advantage over its competitors and enables it to expand its product line. This is because customers are more inclined to pay a higher price for the same product line when the brand has a solid reputation.

In conclusion, The Body Shop has achieved successful operation for over thirty years.

Anita Roddick effectively implemented her correct ideas, which led to significant and ongoing growth for the company. The incorporation of natural product and social activism elements played a crucial role in establishing and maintaining Body Shop's credibility and brand strength. Subsequent to L'Oreal's acquisition, the company has further enhanced its business operations.

Despite previously experiencing success, the company is now facing difficulties due to rival products. Competitors such as Nivea have capitalized on Body Shop's mistakes and introduced

superior alternatives. Consequently, Body Shop must revamp its marketing and product placement strategies, focusing on the promotion of new products and innovative promotion techniques.

To effectively promote and raise awareness of the Body Shop brand, it is essential to utilize both electronic and print media, as well as collaborating with well-known individuals to endorse skin products. This approach is crucial for the Body Shop's marketing strategy.

7.2 The Body Shop Case Study

To simplify the process and establish a strong brand image, it is vital for companies to prioritize creating brand awareness.

By employing the basic 4 P's of marketing, The Body Shop has effectively established brand recognition. They offer an extensive selection of products, including 400 primary and 500 secondary choices. All their merchandise is crafted from natural resources and devoid of any harmful substances. Their brands are derived from ingredients like herbs, flowers, and vegetables. To entice customers, they offer a complimentary perfume bar for enhancing the fragrance of lotions and oils.

The Body Shop provides hand and body massage services with their trained staff, which has had a positive impact on customers. In terms of packaging strategies, the company prefers simplicity and emphasizes the quality of the product rather than its appearance.

The Body Shop keeps its packaging simple because it is involved in a bottle recycling campaign. Recent developments at the Body Shop have resulted in the addition of new product labels and a proliferation of sophisticated products. When customers choose a new product, they are given the opportunity to test it before making a purchase. Customers can easily test any skin product before making a decision. The Body Shop utilizes direct marketing techniques

and sells products through its own distribution channels. In the United States, customers can order Body Shop products by mail.

The Body Shop has benefited from the convenience of maintaining brand equity. Their promotional strategy focuses on accurately advertising the actual benefits of their skin products, rejecting the common practice of presenting an idealized picture to customers. Instead, they employ traditional techniques to only advertise what the product truly offers.

The Body Shop has always been appreciated by customers for its honesty. Their pricing strategy involves offering high-quality brands at a lower cost. To cater to different age groups, the company introduces more than five product varieties. On average, the prices of Body Shop products are around 10% to 15% lower than those of competitors. This approach has enabled the Body Shop to stay competitive in the market.

Making profits with principles is the new addition to Body Shop's marketing mix strategies. The company has integrated this principle, named "making profits with principles," into its approach. Body Shop adheres to fair trade principles, ensuring that profits are derived from ethical deals. They only promote products and services that they are confident in delivering. Moreover, the company actively fulfills its social responsibilities to enhance brand awareness significantly.

Through effective application of the marketing mix, the Body Shop has successfully built a strong brand reputation. Additionally, during the course of conducting an in-depth brand analysis for this assignment, I have thoroughly examined all aspects related to the branding of the Body Shop. This examination includes a comprehensive exploration of each stage of the product's lifecycle, from its growth to maturity.

A detailed analysis is conducted to determine the historical location

of the Body Shop and its future direction. This assignment highlights the process of positioning a brand in the market and effectively reaching the end consumer. Additionally, it emphasizes the significance of the message conveyed from the company to the consumer. Ultimately, it is crucial for a company to continuously seek new strategies for brand positioning and promotion.