Marketing and Communication - Analysis of The Body Shop
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This report analyzes the marketing and communication related aspects of The Body Shop. It includes an analysis of the needs, wants and demands of the customers, marketing environment, competitor analysis, and marketing mix. The report concludes with recommendations for The Body Shop.
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Running head: MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION Marketing and Communication Name of the Student Name of the University Author’s Note
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1MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION Table of Contents Introduction......................................................................................................................................2 Overview of the Company...........................................................................................................2 Purpose........................................................................................................................................2 Needs, Wants and Demands............................................................................................................2 Importance to Understand the Needs, Wants and Demands of the Customers...........................2 Identify and Discuss the Market Orientation/Concept................................................................3 Marketing Environment...................................................................................................................3 Relevance of Marketing Environment Analysis..........................................................................3 Analysis of Two Macro Environmental Factor...........................................................................4 Relevance of Using Competitors Analysis..................................................................................5 Competitor Analysis....................................................................................................................5 Marketing Mix.................................................................................................................................7 Product and Service Offerings.....................................................................................................7 Pricing Strategies.........................................................................................................................7 Place Strategy..............................................................................................................................7 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8 References........................................................................................................................................9
2MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION Introduction Overview of the Company The Body Shop is a leading cosmetic company operating mainly the in the regions of United Kingdom (UK). The specialization of the company can be seen in the skin care products and in the perfumes. Dame Anita Roddick is the founder of the company who established The Body Shop in the year of 1976. Dame Anita Reddick started the company as a small business having a portfolio of just 25 products (thebodyshop.in 2018). After that, L.Orea acquired The Body Shop for£652 million in the year 2006. After that, Natura acquired The Body Shop from L’Oreal for£880 million in the year 2017. At present, The Body Shop is operating under Natura. The presence of large number of outlets of The Body Shop can be seen in the 66 countries all over the world including UK and the company has an employee base of 22,000 people. (thebodyshop.in 2018). Purpose The major purpose of this report is to conduct an analysis and evaluation on the marketing and communication related aspects of The Body Shop. The first part of the report involves in analyzing the needs, wants and demands of the customers of the company. Task two involves in the analysis of the marketing environment of the company and the analysis of the competitors is a major past in this section. The third part of the report involves in the analysis of the marketing mix of The Body Shop. Needs, Wants and Demands Importance to Understand the Needs, Wants and Demands of the Customers Basic requirements of the customers are considered as need and increase in needs leads to wants. Demand is there in the presence of willingness and ability of the customers to pay (Baker 2016). The following are the reasons for The Body Shop to consider these three aspects:
3MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION ď‚·Marketing executives of The Body Shop must have understanding about the needs, wants anddemandsofthecustomersforstrategicdecisionmakingalongwiththe implementation of them (Baker 2016). ď‚·At the same time, the knowledge about these aspects is essential for them for the identification of target markets along with the target customers. ď‚·Marketing executives become able to effectively promote the products of The Body Shop when they know the specific needs, demands and wants of the customers (Lovelock and Patterson 2015). ď‚·All these aspects together help in the maximization of the sales and profit of the company. Identify and Discuss the Market Orientation/Concept Businessorganizationshavetheoptiontoadoptamongfivetypesofmarketing orientation concepts like marketing concept, product concept, production concept and selling concept. The product concept states that the customers use to favor those products that are superior in quality, performance and innovative features (Urde, Baumgarth and Merrilees 2013). As per the production concept, business organizations can easily sell the production having high quality. The concept of selling orientation states that the business organizations use to sell the existing products with the help of promotional techniques. The marketing orientation concept focuses on the want of the customers for the production purpose. From the characteristics of The Body Shop, it can be observed that the aim of the company is to continuously improve their products so that they can fulfill the needs of the customers in the most effective manner. For this reason, the marketing executives of The Body Shop have made the improvements in the cosmetics their major priority for the development of marketing strategies. Thus, the above discussion indicates that The Body Shop has adopted the production orientation concept for their business (Mokhtar, Yusoff and Ahmad 2014). Hence, the product orientation of The Body Shop suits the business model of The Body Shop.
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4MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION Marketing Environment Relevance of Marketing Environment Analysis Business organizations have to operate in the marketing environment irrespective of size and types of industry. Marketing environment analysis is regarded as a major strategic marketing tool for the marketing executives that helps them in the identification of external as well as internal factors having impact on the operation and performance of the organizations(Proctor 2014). The relevance of the analysis of marketing environment is shown below: ď‚·The analysis of the marketing environment helps the marketing executives in future marketing planning by making them fully aware of the current marketing situation. ď‚·With the knowledge from the marketing environment analysis, the marketing executives of the companies become able in predicting and acknowledging the needs, wants and demands of the customers (Proctor 2014). ď‚·Most importantly, companies can gain effective understanding about their competitors from the marketing environment analysis (Eagleet al.2013). Analysis of Two Macro Environmental Factor Environmental Factor:This aspect consists of all those aspects that create influence by the surrounding environment. This aspect of PESTEL is important for certain companies like manufacturing organizations, production units and others as they have negative influence of their business activities on the environment. One major factor having impact on the business operation of The Body Shop is the effects of the business operations of The Body Shop on the environment. For the purpose of environmental protection, The Body Shop is needed to make compliance with different kinds of environmental laws and regulation like Fair Trade law. For this reason, the company is needed to incur huge costs that affect the profitability of their business (Burns, Bush and Sinha 2014). Thus, it can be said that this factor creates threat for the business operation of The Body Shop.
5MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION Social Factor:This aspect takes into consideration the social environment of the companies and measures the effect of trend, culture, population, demographic and others on the business operation as well as business performance. One major social factor having impact on the operations of The Body Shop is the change in the preference as well as lifestyle of the customers. For this reason, the company has to change the attributes of their products and for this reason, the company has to incur costs. At the same time, the company has to put focus on making their products environmental friendly as most of the customers have become conscious about the impact of the products of the companies on the environment (Kumar, Rahman and Kazmi 2013).For this reasons, this aspect creates both opportunity and threat for the company. Relevance of Using Competitors Analysis Competitor analysis is considered as a strategic tool that is used for the identification of a company’s competitors along with the determination of their strengths and weaknesses relative to the products and services of the companies. For this reason, it is considered as an integral part of the marketing plan. The relevance of analyzing the competitors for The Body Shop is shown below: The marketingexecutivesof The Body Shop will be able to identifythe major competitors companies of the business with the help of competitor analysis as the identificationofthemajorcompetitorsisrequiredforthepurposeofproduct differentiation (Wrenn and Mansfield 2014). At the same time, the competitor analysis makes the company aware about the market position of their major competitors. By knowing the market position of the competitors, the marketing executives can identify the differences and similarities in strategies as compared to their competitors. Competitor Analysis Criteria The Body Shop (Main Company) Beauty Without Cruelty (BWC) (Competitor A) Lush (Competitor B) Barry M (Competitor C) Products Cruelty free cosmetics Vegan cosmetics, beautyVarious beauty products, Different kinds of color
6MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION products and fragrances (thebodyshop.in 2018) products and fragrancescosmetics, perfumes, hair and skin care products products and cosmetics No. of Stores 3049 stores in UK 500 stores in UK1000 stores in UK 750 stores in UK Price Prices of the products are high due to the presence of premium cruelty free cosmetics and products High price of the products can be seen Affordable prices of the products can be seen High price of the products can be seen BenefitsThe main benefits of the wide range of cosmetics come in high quality. At the same time, the company provides cruelty free cosmetics and has abandoned testing on the animals The company does not use any ingredients from the animals. The customers can get wide range of products with high quality (beautywithoutcruelty.com 2018) The company is specialized in providing their customers with wide range of therapist cosmetics products (lushusa.com 2018) The company provides their customers with large range of cosmetic and beauty products specialized in colors StabilityFinancial growth of the company over the years is the proof of the stability of the company The presence of financial growth can be seen in the company and it shows that the company is stable Both the growth in financial aspect as well as business aspect can be seen in the company Stability of the business can be seen from the growth in sales and financial condition of the company (barrym.com 2018)
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7MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION The above table shows some major differences as well as similarities among the five components of The Body Shop with its competitors. It can be seen that The Body Shop has more number of stores and outlets as compared to the other three competitors. However, similarity can be seen in the products of these companies. However, all these companies provide some specific benefits to their customers with their products. As per the above discussion, The Body Shop is needed to take into consideration two specific aspects. It can be observed that the company has charged premium price for their products and thus, people from all class cannot afford these products. After that, it can also be seen that the major competitors of The Body Shop have specific specification that provide them with benefits (Kozlenkova, Samaha and Palmatier 2014). Marketing Mix The Marketing Mix is referred as a strategic tool that assists the business organization in achieving the marketing objectives and targets. The 7Ps of marketing mix are product, price, promotion, place, people, physical environment and process. Product and Service Offerings The Body Shop is a leading cosmetic and beauty product company. The presence of various skin products can be seen in the product portfolio of The Body Shop for different types of skins. At the same time, there are many other products can be seen such as face treatment products, cosmetics, body gel, shampoo and others (Armstronget al.2014). Pricing Strategies The main target audience of The Body Shop is the customers that prefer the environment- friendly products even if the prices of the products are high. The company has to incur high cost and this aspect leads to the premium price of the products of the company.It shows the adoption of skimming pricing strategy by The Body Shop.At the same time, the presence of competitive pricing strategy can be seen in the marketing strategy of The Body Shop in which the prices of the products are determined based on the level of completion (Armstronget al.2014).
8MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION Place Strategy The Body Shop operates through 3049 stores; and the owners of these outlets are either the company or the franchisees. At the same time, the presence of the company can be seen internationally like Portugal, Belgium, Hungary, Korea, Japan, Canada and many others. One of the major reasons for the success of the company is the presence of strong distribution channel from the purchase of raw materials to the end product delivery. Moreover, the company uses differentmarketingchannelslikeB2B and B2C intheirmarketingstrategy(Kotlerand Armstrong 2013). Conclusion The above discussion shows that The Body Shop is a leading cosmetic company having presence in both UK and internationally. As per the above discussion, it is necessary to know the needs, wants and demands of the customers for the development of strategies, identification of the target customers and many others. The discussion shows that The Body Shop follows the product orientation concept for making their products more acceptable to the customers. The above study indicates towards the need for conducting marketing environment analysis for gain understanding about various aspects like the strengths, weaknesses and others. At the same time, The Body Shop needs to conduct the competitor analysis for understanding their position as compared to their major competitors for gaining competitive advantage. At the same time, The Body Shop is needed to lower the prices of their products in order to increase the customer base along with the profitability of the business.
9MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION References Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S. and Kotler, P., 2014.Principles of marketing. Pearson Australia. Baker, M.J., 2016. What is marketing?. InThe Marketing Book(pp. 25-42). Routledge. Barrym.com.(2018).BarryM-TheBarryMStory.[online]Availableat: https://www.barrym.com/the-barry-m-story [Accessed 3 Jul. 2018]. Beautywithoutcruelty.com. (2018).About Beauty Without Cruelty - Beauty Without Cruelty - BWC. [online] Available at: https://www.beautywithoutcruelty.com/about-us [Accessed 4 Jul. 2018]. Burns, A.C., Bush, R.F. and Sinha, N., 2014.Marketing research(Vol. 7). Harlow: Pearson. Eagle, L., Dahl, S., Hill, S., Bird, S., Spotswood, F. and Tapp, A., 2013.Social marketing. Pearson Education. Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G., 2013. Principles of Marketing (16th Global Edition). Kozlenkova,I.V.,Samaha,S.A.andPalmatier,R.W.,2014.Resource-basedtheoryin marketing.Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,42(1), pp.1-21. Kumar, V., Rahman, Z. and Kazmi, A.A., 2013. Sustainability marketing strategy: an analysis of recent literature.Global Business Review,14(4), pp.601-625. Lovelock, C. and Patterson, P., 2015.Services marketing. Pearson Australia. Lushusa.com. (2018).Our Story | Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics US. [online] Available at: https://www.lushusa.com/our-story.html [Accessed 3 Jul. 2018]. Mokhtar, S.S.M., Yusoff, R.Z. and Ahmad, A., 2014. Key elements of market orientation on Malaysian SMEs performance.International Journal of Business and Society,15(1), p.49. Proctor, T., 2014.Strategic marketing: an introduction. Routledge.
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10MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION Thebodyshop.in. (2018).About Us - Founder, Values & Story | The Body Shop India. [online] Available at: https://www.thebodyshop.in/about-us [Accessed 3 Jul. 2018]. Urde, M., Baumgarth, C. and Merrilees, B., 2013. Brand orientation and market orientation— From alternatives to synergy.Journal of Business Research,66(1), pp.13-20. Wrenn, B. and Mansfield, P.M., 2014.Marketing planning guide. Routledge.