In-Depth Market Analysis of The Body Shop International Ltd.

This report provides a comprehensive market analysis of The Body Shop International Limited, a British cosmetics, perfume, and skincare company. It delves into the company's background, target market segmentation (geographical, demographical, and psychographic), competitor analysis (L’Oreal Paris, Estee Lauder, and Clinique), brand positioning, and marketing communication objectives. The analysis highlights the company's commitment to ethical practices, social responsibility, and environmental issues, which contribute to its strong brand equity and loyal consumer base. The report also examines how the company tailors its products to different cultures and climates and emphasizes the growing trend of using organic ingredients. The Body Shop's strategies for marketing communication are geared toward enhancing the customer base by informing target customers about product knowledge, which is segmented based on gender, age, personality, lifestyle, income, religion, and education.

Running head: MARKET ANALYSIS OF THE BODY SHOP
Market Analysis of the Body Shop
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1MARKET ANALYSIS OF THE BODY SHOP
Executive Summary
Market analysis is an essential part of business strategy that allows any business to find
appropriate strategy to survive in a competitive environment. In this report, the market
analysis of a British body shop has been conducted. The name of the body shop business is
The Body Shop International Limited. The purpose of this study is to analyse the situation of
the market and to set up appropriate strategic objectives. From the report it has been found
that, the trends of using organic products like tea tree, seaweed and others also put impact on
the business of the company.

2MARKET ANALYSIS OF THE BODY SHOP
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Situational Analysis...................................................................................................................2
Company Background............................................................................................................2
Target market.........................................................................................................................3
Geographical Segmentation...................................................................................................3
Demographical Segmentation................................................................................................3
Psychographic Segmentation.................................................................................................4
Competitors............................................................................................................................5
Brand Positioning...................................................................................................................5
Marketing Communication Objectives......................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................9
Appendix..................................................................................................................................11

3MARKET ANALYSIS OF THE BODY SHOP
Introduction
The renowned British beauty and cosmetics brand, The Body Shop International Limited
was established in 1976 by the human rights activist and environmental campaigner, Dame
Anita Roddick, (Thebodyshop.com 2018). The mentioned organization possess a current
range of more than 1000 products which is sold over 3,049 owned as well as franchised
stores internationally over 66 countries (Ampofo 2016). The headquarter of the mentioned
organization is located at East Croyodon as well as Littlehampton in West Sussex. The Body
Shop Company is currently owned by Natura, a popular Brazilian Cosmetics company.
Previously, The Body shop was purchased by L’Oreal and was owned by the same between
the year 2006 to 2017.
Situational Analysis
Company Background
Brand Body Shop is a British cosmetics, perfume and skin care organization that was
incepted in the year 1976 by Dame Anita Roddick. The mentioned organization possess a
current range of more than 1000 products which is sold over 3,049 owned as well as
franchised stores internationally over 66 countries (Ampofo 2016). Headquarter of the
mentioned organization is located at East Croyodon as well as Littlehampton in West Sussex.
The Body Shop Company is currently owned by Natura, a popular Brazilian Cosmetics
company. Previously, The Body shop was purchased by L’Oreal and was owned by the same
between the year 2006 to 2017. In the year 2017, the management of L’Oreal decided to sale
Body shop to Natura for 880 million Pound (BARBER 2014). The product line of the Body
Shop includes both cosmetics as well as skin care products. The cosmetics range of the
mentioned organization includes foundation, BB Creams, Blushes, mascara, lip products that
includes lipsticks, lip gloss and lip balm, eye products like liquid eyeliners and kajals. The

4MARKET ANALYSIS OF THE BODY SHOP
market reorganization of the company is high and it is present at almost all the developed as
well as developing countries of the world. The total number of countries where the Body
shop is present is 66 currently.
Target market
In order to identify the target market of the body shop company, the segmentation
strategy has been implemented. By using the mentioned strategy, the company is able to
know about the specific needs of the each market segment (Cross et al. 2014). This made
them analyze whether the resources of the company is capable of meeting the requirements of
the target consumers. In the following paragraphs, geographical segmentation, demographic
segmentation and Psychographic segmentation is discussed.
Geographical Segmentation
The products of The Body Shop are recognized to be a part of luxury brand.
Therefore, the demography to which The Body Shop primarily caters comprise of upper class
women from cities or suburbs.
Being positioned in the luxury category, the brand is quite culture conscious when it
comes to distribution. As a skincare product it also puts emphasis on the weather of the
particular country where its products are distributed. For example, while distributing in
countries like Malaysia, which has a tropical climate with Islam as its dominant religion, The
Body Shop sells only those products that do not have alcohol in its composition.
Demographical Segmentation
The Body Shop has structured its market distribution based on several fundamental
characteristics such as gender, age, per capita income, occupation, religion, family life cycle,
education, nationality, family size and race.

5MARKET ANALYSIS OF THE BODY SHOP
 Age: The Body Shop delivers its wide range of hair care and skin care products and
perfumes to the age bracket of 20 years to 55 years old.
 Gender: The target customers of The Body Shop primarily consist of upper-class
women from high-income group background. However, these consist of facial hair
and body care products along with perfumes. Body Shop has recently taken to
producing a range of products for men as well.
 Income, Occupation, and Education: Occupation-wise, The Body Shop’s target
customers comprise of students, housewives and working adults, especially women.
Working women have to follow a stringent daily routine and a major number of them
do not get much time for skincare. Therefore, the brand has designed its products
specially keeping their demanding lifestyle in mind. Also, being in the luxury
category it offers to only those who are willing to afford its unique results at a
handsome price range.
Psychographic Segmentation
This particular segmentation is based on the target consumer’s personality, life-style
and most importantly, social class. Different people may have different taste or interest in
different products even though they are in the same demographic or geographic class.
Women, being the major consumers, their lifestyle, personality as well as social class
of women highly affects the mentioned segmentation (Grayson and Hodges 2017). The desire
of looking pretty is the chief reason behind buying the beauty products. Mover the trends of
using organic products like tea tree, seaweed and others also put impact on the business of the
company.

6MARKET ANALYSIS OF THE BODY SHOP
Competitors
The competitor analysis is done in order to understand the similarities, dissimilarity
and brand equity of its competitors. This in turn helps the organization to understand
access its competitor and gain competitive advantage from the same (Hopkins 2016). The
major competitors of the Body Shop organization include L’Oreal Paris, Estee Lauder
and Clinique. A better understanding of the competitors will provide with the help of the
competitor table which is present in the appendix.
Brand Positioning
Brand Domain The target market of the company includes
beauty a well as health conscious women who
belong to the middle class as well as the upper
middle class of the society.
Brand Heritage The body shop is the first organization in the
beauty and skin care industry that had
campaigned for animal test (Hasan 2018).
The company use organic ingredients as well as
product in order to provide the consumer the
benefit of nature in beauty products

7MARKET ANALYSIS OF THE BODY SHOP
Brand Values  Defending Human Rights
 Supporting the community fir trade
 Protesting against animal testing
 Protecting the planet
 Active self-esteem (Epstein 2018)
Brand Assets *( the criteria that helps consumers
to decide why to buy from body shop)
The Body Shop Company is a subject of public
interest.
Natural Ingredients and free from animal testing.
By the year 2008, the Brand ensured that all its
products are packaged in 100% PCR bottles.
The Body Shop has designed a trendy store by
the name ‘Shop me’ which displays its products
in front of back-lit hemp fabric.
The Target consumers, especially the members or
subscribers of their newsletters and e-brochures,
are always well-informed about the new
launches, attractive seasonal discounts, winter
treats and more offers that they could either avail
from Social Media like Facebook or mobile
coupons.

8MARKET ANALYSIS OF THE BODY SHOP
The mentioned company also offers an active
self- esteem workshop that helps the company to
obtain the goodwill of the consumers (Hasan
2018).
Brand Personality The business is ethical and is known to possess
ample social responsibility.
Brand Reflection The mentioned organization is highly committed
towards its bra value. The base of loyal
consumers as well as brand equity o the
organization is strong. The organization takes
environmental issues seriously and as a result of
this gains goodwill of the consumers.
Marketing Communication Objectives
The strategies of marketing communication are aimed at enhancing customer base by
communicating about the product knowledge to the target customers. The segmentation of
market, which forms an important determinant of marketing communication strategies, is
done on the basis of the target consumer’s gender, age, personality, lifestyle, income, religion
and education. The target customers were mainly upper-class women from suburban area and
cities. However, the brand has now targeted men as well, from high income category, and is
designing products to cater to their needs. Culture and weather are important because the
brand produces skincare products which are ideally different to suit individuals from different
climate zones (Bendell 2017).

9MARKET ANALYSIS OF THE BODY SHOP
The mentioned organization is highly committed towards its brand value. The base of
loyal consumers as well as brand equity o the organization is strong. The headquarter of the
mentioned organization is located at East Croyodon as well as Littlehampton in West Sussex.
The Body Shop Company is currently owned by Natura, a popular Brazilian Cosmetics
company. Previously, The Body shop was purchased by L’Oreal and was owned by the same
between the year 2006 to 2017. In the year 2017, the management of L’Oreal decided to sale
Body shop to Natura for 880 million Pound (BARBER 2014). The product line of the Body
Shop includes both cosmetics as well as skin care products. The cosmetics range of f the
mentioned organization includes foundation, BB Creams, Blushes, mascara, lip products that
includes lipsticks, lip gloss and lip balm, eye products like liquid eyeliners and kajals. The
market reorganization of the company is high and it is present at almost all the developed as
well as developing countries of the world. The total number of countries where the Body
shop is present is 66 currently.
The organization takes environmental issues seriously and as a result of this gains
goodwill of the consumers. In order to identify the target market of the body shop company,
the segmentation strategy has been implemented. The target market of the company includes
beauty a well as health conscious women who belong to the middle class as well as the upper
middle class of the society. By using the mentioned strategy, the company is able to know
about the specific needs of the each market segment (Cross et al. 2014). This made them
analyze whether the resources of the company is capable of meeting the requirements of the
target consumers. In the following paragraphs, geographical segmentation, demographic
segmentation and Psychographic segmentation is discussed. Being the major co summers, the
lifestyle, personality as well as social class of women highly affects the mentioned
segmentation (Grayson and Hodges 2017). The desire of looking pretty is the chief reason

10MARKET ANALYSIS OF THE BODY SHOP
behind buying the beauty products. Mover the trends of using organic products like tea tree,
seaweed and others also put impact on the business of the company.

11MARKET ANALYSIS OF THE BODY SHOP
References
Ampofo, B.A., 2016. STAYING AT THE TOP; BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE. International Journal of Management and Scientific
Research, 1(1), pp.1-14.
Bendell, J., 2017. Terms for endearment: Business, NGOs and sustainable development.
Routledge.
Butler, F., 2014. Valuing unpaid labour in community Fair Trade products: a Nicaraguan case
study from The Body Shop International. Gender & Development, 22(3), pp.533-547.
Chesters, A. (2018). A brief history of The Body Shop. [online] the Guardian. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2011/nov/21/brief-history-of-body-shop
[Accessed 29 Sep. 2018].
Cross, D., Kanellis, B., Rega, J. and Smith, M., Strategic Analysis Report.
Epstein, M.J., 2018. Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring
corporate social, environmental and economic impacts. Routledge.
Global Cosmetics News. (2018). THE BODY SHOP - Company Profile - Global Cosmetics
News. [online] Available at: https://globalcosmeticsnews.com/the-body-shop-company-
profile/ [Accessed 29 Sep. 2018].
Grayson, D. and Hodges, A., 2017. Corporate social opportunity!: Seven steps to make
corporate social responsibility work for your business. Routledge.