Introduction
The Body Shop or The Body Shop international is an acclaimed cosmetics chain based in England. They have more than 2400 shops and operational in more than 60 countries worldwide. It is now a part of L’Oreal Cosmetics Group (Schwartz 192-206).
Body Shop as a retailer and producer
In the year 1986, The Body Shop formed an alliance with Greenpeace for a whale saving campaign. This is the beginning of the social activities for the company. After that they are involved in a lot of social programs. They also support local charitable programs, community events and other social gatherings for different socio-economical causes. The company criticized the cosmetics industry for their less environment friendly causes and tried to step their best foot forward to do something to solve the issue (Wycherley 120-127).
The company has recently published an article where they have clearly mentioned their policy on this issue and the article is named as “Policy on Animal derived ingredients”.
They have clearly mentioned that their products do not pose a threat to animal welfare. They basically deals with products derived from vegetables and even in some cases they had to use animal derived ingredients they make it sure that it is totally acceptable to the vegetarians. They have made clear their commitments:
- The company has made it clear that they, to meet the needs of their vegetarian clients will use any ingredients that will cause the death of any animals or any thing that is somehow made from animals (Haake and Seuring 284-294).
- To ensure that the products are of higher standards than that of the common market, the Body-Shop group will benchmark their products against the companies they still use the animal by-products.
- They have also clearly stated that they will provide all the information on the ingredients used in their products and even provided the list where they use animal by-products. The animal by-products used by the company are honey (which is named in the labels as Mel), Beeswax (which is termed as Cera Alba), Lanolin and Shellac (TheBodyShop 1).
The Cause of Consumer Attraction
It is noted that the Body Shop is one of the store that are visited by men and women in the same numbers. The popularity of body shop is enviable for any cosmetics company. And one of the causes is that they always are very clear about their policies and try to s be honest to the consumers. Sometimes the Body Shop is called as “the Champion of Ethical Beauty Products” (Bastin 19-38). One of the chief attractions of the Body Shop is its founder named Anita Riddick. She initially started the shop in the year 1976, but her business ideas made the sales grow annually by more than 50%. During her life time she was a symbol of “innovation, social responsibility and integrity” (Schwartz 192-206) and her death was termed as a social loss for Britain. But the sale to L’Oreal has made the company loss in its sales.
History
The Body Shop or Body Shop International is a privately owned company by Anita Roddick setup in 1970s to deliver world leading assistance to self pampering by providing cosmetics with an eye of social reform by using various issues related to environmental friendly approaches. At present they cover over 50 countries and the number of stores exceeds 2000 mark (Grandey and Diamond 338-350). Their main marketing strategy is based on different variables.
First, they use vegetable based cosmetics products like Body Butter, hemp and the Peppermint Foot Lotion. Thus they focus on the cosmetic industry with a blend of natural ingredients thus posing an environmentalist approach. Secondly, they cover a wide range of price thus they can get hold of the entire market segment. Thirdly they indulge in different environmental issue like Protect Our Planet, Defend Human Rights and Activate Self Esteem.
While most of the strategies work quite well for the company, few however back fired badly. Anita Roddick in the 1970s once visited a shop named “Body Shop” in USA. She was inspired by the shop and tried to start her own shop. In the year 1976 she opened her first shop. Since its opening it has seen dynamic growth and in 1987 she brought the rights of the name “Body Shop” (Haake and Seuring 284-294). The company even was expanding in a rate of 50% annually. The popularity of Body Shop was increasing rapidly. The company’s interest in social causes is one of the factors of its popularity too (Wycherley 120-127).
Recent Sale
Body Shop is recently taken over by the cosmetics giant L’Oreal in a total of 652 million pounds. But there are some issues in this takeover. Experts believe that this takeover will affect the business of the company a lot. In a survey it is seen that many users have dumped the product after its sale to L’Oreal, the French Cosmetics giant. Even the great Anita Roddick is also accused that she had abandoned her principles as she sold the company to L’Oreal. Actually L’Oreal has not yet abandoned animal testing, which was strictly prohibited in Body Shop (Schwartz 192-206). On the other hand still L’Oreal is the World’s number one cosmetics company.
Even, the satisfaction rating for the company has dropped to 14 points while it was earlier 25. Anita Roddick has said that L’Oreal wanted to learn how cosmetics can be made without animal by-products and since Body Shop is the pioneer in this aspect in the cosmetics industry, they wanted to learn it from the best. That was the cause for the sale of Body Shop (Grandey and Diamond 338-350).
But the move has not got down well with the public. L’Oreal issued a statement that they only use a few specimens on animals to test the safety standards of the products only. But the sale will surely have plenty of growth opportunities for both the companies. Though, one has to keep in mind that some of the customers of Body Shop will stay away from the company for more organic products. On the aspect of Body Shop, if it stands in its ethical matters and by the help of the huge research and development facilities of L’Oreal as well as their worldwide marketing blitz, it will ultimately the company into another multinational giant (Schwartz 192-206).
Conclusion
In this context it would be relevant to mention that consumer behavior is one of the most important aspects for a business to grow and from a managerial point of view it is the most involved factor in the aspect of business development (Bastin 19-38). Thus, the outlook of a company is to develop a profile that would be sustainable consumer relation and The Body Shop is successful to attain this accomplishment.
Works Cited
Bastin, Ruth. Surrender to the Market: Thoughts on Anthropology, The Body Shop, and Intellectuals. The Australian Journal of Anthropology 14.1, (2003): 19-38.
Grandey, Audrey and James Diamond. Interactions with the public: Bridging job design and emotional labor perspectives. Journal of Organizational Behavior 31.2-3, (2010): 338-350.
Haake, Henry. and Stuart Seuring. Sustainable procurement of minor items – exploring limits to sustainability. Sustainable Development 17.5, (2009): 284-294.
Schwartz, Burt. Environmental strategies as automorphic patterns of behaviour. Business Strategy and the Environment 18.3, (2009): 192-206.
TheBodyShop. Policy on Animal derived ingredients. thebodyshop. 2006. Web.
Wycherley, Ian. Greening supply chains: the case of The Body Shop International. Business Strategy and the Environment 8.2, (1999): 120-127.