MCOM4040: Analyzing The Body Shop's Marketing Strategy, 2018

This report provides a comprehensive marketing analysis of The Body Shop, a British skincare and cosmetic company. It examines the company's understanding of customer needs, wants, and demands, highlighting its commitment to environmental and social issues. The report analyzes The Body Shop's marketing orientation, focusing on its societal marketing concept and promotional strategies. A detailed assessment of the marketing environment, including social, environmental, and economic factors, is presented. The report also includes a competitor analysis, comparing The Body Shop with companies like Lush, Weleda, and L’Occitane based on factors such as store presence, pricing, quality, and promotions. Finally, the marketing mix of The Body Shop is discussed, covering product and service offerings, pricing strategies, and place strategy, emphasizing the company's diversified product portfolio, premium pricing approach, and extensive distribution network.

Introduction
The Body Shop is a British skin care, cosmetic and perfume company founded in the year 1976
by Dame Anita Roddick having its headquarters situated in London, United Kingdom. It started
its business as a small outfit in Brighton selling just 25 products. Currently, it offers a wide range
of 1,000 products which are sold in more than 3,000 stores in 66 countries. The Body Shop
employs over 22,000 employees who make their best possible efforts for the purpose of
achieving the objectives of the organization. The company was owned by L’Oreal between 2006
and 2017. However, it was further sold by L’Oreal to Nutura in the year 2017 (The Body Shop,
2018).
The company is committed towards the achievement of its mission i.e. to enrich their products,
planet and people. They adopt fair strategies while working with the suppliers and farmers and
take every possible step for the purpose of helping communities thrive and protecting the animals
by being against animal testing.
As a marketing executive of The Body Shop’s marketing team, this report has been prepared
with the basic purpose of addressing the importance of needs, wants and demands of the
customers, marketing orientation, analyzing the marketing environment of the company along
with its marketing mix.
Needs, Wants and Demands
a) For the success of a business, it is important to understand the needs, wants and demands of
the customers so that right products and services can be offered to them. Therefore, it is
important for The Body Shop to conduct proper analysis of the needs, wants and demands as
its customers belong to diverse category of middle to upper class. Their needs and demands
are different and is required to be identified for the purpose of catering them properly.
Nowadays, almost every customer of beauty care products believe in choosing the retailers
who take environmental and social issues seriously. The customers are increasingly getting
concerned regarding the importance of sustainability (Ghazali, Soon, Mutum & Nguyen,
2017). The Body Shop have been able to maintain its sales as it takes a number of steps for
addressing social and environmental issues such as it protects the planet by producing

products with the help of natural ingredients. Moreover, it supports community trade and
activated self- esteem, acts against animal testing and defends human rights. In this way, it is
able to meet the demands of the customers. Moreover, the customers also want a brand which
has a strong brand image associated with the beauty products (Armstrong, Adam, Denize &
Kotler, 2014).
b) Marketing orientation/ concept can be defined as the philosophy of the company that focuses
on discovering and meeting of the desires and needs of the customers with the help of its
product mix. A number of marketing policies have been adopted by The Body Shop for the
purpose of promoting its brand name in the consumer market. Societal marketing concept has
been adopted by it in which it emphasizes that plant- based materials have been used in the
products. It advertises its products main through the use of social media platform and fashion
magazines (Grant, 2016). Its products are also marketed on its own website. The brand has
also established tie- ups with a number of online shopping portals for selling its products
online. The latest incentives and offering of the brand are updated from time to time on the
website of the company. Social and environmental campaigns are also used by The Body
Shop for the promotion of its brand in the consumer market. It targets those customers who
appreciate the use of eco- friendly products even after its high prices (Homburg, Jozić &
Kuehnl, 2017).
Marketing Environment
a) The marketing environment can be defined as the combination of the force and factors (both
internal and external) which affects the ability of a company of establishing a relationship
and serving its customers. Marketing environment analysis is of great significance to the
organizations. Environment has an enormous impact on the organizations and there is a need
to understand the events and trends of the market for satisfying the needs of the customers.
The functioning of all departments is affected by the changes in environment. Therefore, it is
necessary to screen the environment on regular basis for overcoming the challenges arising
from changes in environment (Pudaruth, Juwaheer & Seewoo, 2015).

b) The social and environmental factors can have a great impact on the business operations of
The Body Shop. The most important social factor in case of The Body Shop is the brand
loyalty of the customers. The products offered by The Body Shop are all relevant to the
beauty industry. Customers try a number of products till the time they find the product that is
best suitable for them. After that they become brand loyalists. There are a number of
companies which constantly fight for getting the attention of the customers (Lim, Chae &
Jeon, 2014). They make changes in the packaging of the products, sizes of containers, etc. to
win the battle. Furthermore, the battle expands to the internet and forums. Bad reviews can
had a bad impact on the sales of the products of The Body Shop.
The economic factor having effect on the business operations of The Body Shop is the
recession- resistant industry. The industry was capable of surviving the great recession of
2008 but it ultimately resulted in making the customers more conscious regarding prices.
Beauty products have become a necessity for the consumers these days due to which the
industry is capable of generating higher revenues (Anderson, Grose, Pahl, Thompson &
Wyles, 2016).
c) There is a great relevance of The Body Shop in conducting a competitor analysis. The
competitor analysis helps The Body Shop to frame its strategies in accordance with the
strategies adopted by the competitors such as Lush. Other competitors such as Weleda,
L’Occitane and Yves Rocher are also focusing on environmental protection and natural
ingredients. Competitor analysis will also assist in analyzing that brand like Maybelline New
York, who are not the direct competitors, it also a threat as it has also positioned itself for the
protection if the environment and against animal testing (Jin, Ji & Gu, 2016). Also, the
analysis will help in concluding that different consumers are being targeted by the
competitors by making the use of low price policy (SI & Praveena, 2015).
d) Competitor Analysis-
Basis Lush Weleda L’Occitane
Number of Stores Lush has 105 stores in
UK and greater than
Weleda has 253 stores L’Occitane has 74

900 stores in 49
countries across the
globe.
in UK. stores in UK.
Price Lush keeps the prices
of the products
affordable and
reasonable. It keeps
packaging expenses to
minimum so that the
price does not get
affected.
Premium pricing
policy has been
adopted by Weleda
for maintaining the
image of the brand in
the market.
L’Occitane has the
image of a high end
brand and therefore
keeps the prices high.
Benefits Lush is one of the
most loved brands of
UK and embrace new
tech, social and
ecommerce platform
for its rise.
Weleda uses germ oil
which is important
ingredient for the
scalp. Such
ingredients can attract
the customers towards
the brand.
L'Occitane maintains
one to one relation
with customers and
takes constant steps
for improving the
customer experience
(Khan, 2014).
Quality Lush uses quality
ingredients in the
products obtained
from ethical sources
that ensure freshness.
The brand Weleda
makes every possible
effort for maintaining
holistic quality from
source to product.
The products by
L’Occitane are made
from natural
ingredients and follow
strict and rigorous
quality and
traceability criteria.
Promotions Lush enters into
campaigns, charities
and works towards
environmental
protection, animal
welfare, etc. which
Weleda offers
seasonal and festive
offers and discounts
from time to time for
attracting the
customers.
L’Occitane frequently
offers promo codes
for offering discounts
to the customers.
Loyal customer card
provided by it offers

also promotes the
purpose of this brand.
additional discounts to
the customers.
e) The Body Shop has 200 stores in UK. Its competitors Weleda have greater number of stores
(253 stores) than The Body Shop. The Body Shop should aim at increasing the number of
stores in order to be competitive in the market. Other competitors such as Lush and
L’Occitane have less number of stores in comparison with The Body Shop but are
performing well in the market. Also, all the competitors are offering competitive prices and
uses natural ingredients due to which The Body Shop is required to keep the prices to
minimum so that the customers prefer their brand. Competitors are focusing on offering
various benefits to the customers such as better customer experience and provide quality
products. Lush, Weleda and L’Occitane are making promotions in innovative ways for
grabbing the attention of the customers. The key areas to be considered by The Body Shop
include promotions and number of stores (Voigt, Buliga & Michl, 2017).
Marketing Mix
Product and Service Offerings- More than 1,000 products are offered by The Body Shop. The
products are natural and eco- friendly that features ingredients such as marula oil and sesame
seed oil. It offers a diversified product portfolio including the products for every skin type and
age (Hanssens, Pauwels, Srinivasan, Vanhuele & Yildirim, 2014). Different products are offered
for different skin concerns such as radian skin, hydrated skin, blackheads, sun protection, etc. Its
diversified product portfolio includes shampoos, combs, conditioners and brushes for hair, soaps,
scrubs, gels, lotions, body oil, etc. for body, sun protection, exfoliators, etc. for body along with
the exclusive range of make- up and perfumes (Kostyra, Reiner, Natter & Klapper, 2016).
Pricing Strategies- the main target of The Body Shop is the women belonging to urban class and
cosmopolitan cities who are beauty and health conscious and belongs to high income group. It
has recently men in their list of target customers and has also started marketing products for
them. It keeps the range of its environmental friendly products slightly high but still they are
appreciated by the customers. Premium prices are charged for the premium products and lot of

competition is faced in this category. It also attracts the customers by adopting various strategies
(Scott & Vigar‐ Ellis, 2014). For example, discounts and promo code.
Place Strategy- the product presence of The Body Shop is spread over 3,000 outlets in 66
countries including Saudi Arabia, Canada, Belgium, France, Korea, etc. Some are owned by the
company itself while some are running through the franchising system. It has a strong
distribution network that brings the raw material and sends the final products to the customers.
The supplier network is effectively organized for obtaining raw materials from the local
communities (Brunk, 2017).
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that The Body Shop is taking every possible step for meeting the
needs, wants and demand of the customers. The Body Shop makes the use of plant- based
materials in the products and markets its products through social media platforms, fashion
magazines and on its own website. After the marketing environment analysis of The Body Shop,
social and environmental factors such as brand loyalty and recession – resistant industry are
found to be affecting its business operations. The competitor analysis on the basis of number of
stores, prices, quality, promotions and quality assisted in coming to a conclusion that The Body
Shop needs to focus on increasing the number of stores and should make effective promotions.
The marketing mix of The Body Shop focused on product, price and place. Overall, the company
is performing well, but still efforts are required to be made in the areas of marketing of the
products.

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