Strategic Marketing Principles: A Report on The Body Shop's Approach

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the marketing principles employed by The Body Shop. It begins with an introduction to marketing and its importance in a competitive environment, followed by an overview of the elements of the marketing process. The report then examines the benefits and costs of marketing orientation, alongside the micro and macro environmental factors influencing marketing decisions, including competitor analysis and PESTLE analysis. It delves into segmentation strategies, proposing demographic segmentation for Body Shop's new lip balm product. The report further discusses target strategies, specifically the differentiated strategy, and analyzes different buyer behaviors. Product positioning, including the 4Ps of the marketing mix, is also discussed, and the report concludes by emphasizing the importance of adapting to the dynamic nature of consumer needs. References are also included.

MARKETING PRINCIPLES

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Elements of marketing process..............................................................................................1
1.2 Benefits and costs of marketing orientation..........................................................................2
2.1 Macro and Micro environmental factors to influence the marketing decisions....................3
2.2 Proposed segmentation..........................................................................................................5
2.3 Target Strategy.......................................................................................................................5
2.4 Different Buyer's Behavior....................................................................................................5
2.5 Product Positioning................................................................................................................6
3.1 Developing products to sustain the market............................................................................6
3.2 Product Distribution...............................................................................................................7
3.3 Price Fixation.........................................................................................................................7
3.4 Promotional activity...............................................................................................................8
3.5 Additional elements of marketing mix..................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
In today's competitive environment, strategic dealing of business operations is of utmost
importance. Among all those operations, Marketing is the foremost functionality which further
concludes with the profits and revenues earned by the firm. Thus, carrying a strategic approach
towards marketing is always proved to be beneficial for enhancing the organization's growth.
Marketing is therefore; a process of attaining consumer's attention towards the goods and
services of a company. It is always successful when an organization builds a product followed by
an acknowledgement of the present consumer’s needs and demand in the market. This report
concludes the marketing principles of Body Shop, which uses varied range of elements and
procedures to conduct a fruitful strategy of marketing. Body Shop was established in the year
1976 by its founder Anita Roddick. It is a renowned British industry of cosmetics that specializes
in skin care products. Presently, it owes a wide variety of 1,200 labelled products of its own,
which is ruling over 2,500 authorized stores in around 61countries.
TASK 1
1.1 Elements of marketing process
Marketing process is a range of varied procedures to determine today's exact market
situation. It comprises various steps to investigate and discover the unsatisfied desire of the
customers. It effectively helps the company to build its production base by identifying the
present market scenario (Menegaki, 2012). It also helps the company to raise its sales, which
together results in attaining a huge amount of income in the form of increased profit and
revenues. Below are the stated elements of marketing procedures- Detecting recent market condition- It is a foremost step of the stated firm to conduct a
thorough analysis of the present market situation. It too helps the company to determine
its own market position. Followed by it, a company can easily identify its own strengths
and weaknesses. A proper and appropriate investigation can also lead the firm in building
effectual plans to meet out its current opportunities in the market and combating threats. Developing plans- It is a four process research plan to build an effective marketing
strategy of constructing a product which includes segmenting the concerned areas,
targeting customers, product positioning and its introduction in the market.
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 Applying Marketing mix- Once after determining the plan, it is a next step of defining few
parameters of the new product (Meraj, Fernandes and Ross, 2016). It involves developing
a product as per the product’s specification, designs, etc. Followed by deciding its price,
making plans for distribution and promotional activities are the major arenas of this
process.
 Modulation of plans- After launching the product according to the developed marketing
plans; it is the last step of determining the effectiveness of the applied strategies. It
requires a close monitoring of the efforts made for marketing. It helps in meeting out the
dynamic nature of consumer’s needs and demand by making modulations in the above
discussed strategies of marketing mix.
1.2 Benefits and costs of marketing orientation
Marketing orientation is defined as a primary strategic tool which is needed to be applied
for determining the unknowing facts of the market. It simply refers to identify the consumer's
ever changing requirements of their progressive lifestyle. Therefore, it is a continuous process
which is carried out by conducting a deep investigation of objects into the market.
Followed by varied benefits of getting a prompt response from the customers and making
improvements to increase the firm's and customer value, it too involves a huge developmental
cost for conducting extensive research work into the market (Alserhan, 2015). Therefore, the
process of marketing orientation in Body Shop too comprises both advantages and disadvantages
to the firm, as mentioned below-
Benefits Prompt customer response- It is the biggest advantage to the stated firm, when it builds a
product after considering the present market situation. As a result, the product will
effectively fulfil the customer's need and attain a high demand in the market. It will help
the company to achieve a better response of the customers by increasing its market
shares.
Cost
 However, in order to achieve a desirable market result, high developmental cost plays a
role of a major drawback. It is due to the extensive research work carried out by the cited
firm to identify and satisfy the current market scenario.
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2.1 Macro and Micro environmental factors to influence the marketing decisions
The success of an organization is always considered on the basis of various internal and
external factors that are continuously affecting the firm. These macro and micro environmental
factors are the main cause of defining the business growth. However, Micro environmental
factors state the present condition of internal environment that includes the organization's
stakeholders like competitors, customers, suppliers and investors, etc. These factors can be
directly controlled by the firm and thus has less effect on it. Contrary to that, macro
environmental factors define as the external factors that can be detected by carrying a PESTLE
analysis which effectively determines the political, economical, social, technological, legal and
environmental factors that directly affects the functionality of the firm (Hastings and Domegan,
2013). Below is the investigation of micro and macro environmental factors that influences the
marketing decision of Body Shop-
Micro environmental factors Rival Analysis- Body shop is one of the famous British brands of cosmetics. The product
offered by this firm is admired and used by all the citizens of the UK. Alliance Boots,
Lush, Bath and Body Work and Sephora UK are the few big competitors of Body Shop.
In this situation, it is important for the cited firm to carry a high level of determination to
beat its competitors at every level to successfully continue on the path of success and
growth. For this purpose, it is equally crucial for the cited firm to detect and identify their
competitiveness, so that it can easily compete with them.
Macro environmental factors need the recommendation of PESTLE analysis. It involves an
expansion of the below mentioned factors to determine the present market situation. It consists of
following steps-
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 Political- It defines the political stability of the country in which a firm is operating its
business. Body Shop too needs to maintain the required decorum and take effective
considerations to prolong the health and safety measures of the government. Economical- Being a multinational company, Body Shop has its suppliers all over the
world and therefore has a great impact of the varying exchange rates in different
countries. It is mainly because these exchange rates directly effects the firm's profit and
revenues. Social- These factors are highly reflecting the consumer's behavior towards the product
of a firm. Body Shop is equally affected by today's consumer awareness, which is
sustaining due to the unhygienic environment. Technological- Advancement in technology is continuously rising day by day and thus,
Body Shop too uses the latest techniques of developing a product and also to
communicate with its stakeholders from different locations, all over the globe. Legal- These factors reflect the legal terms and conditions to operate a business. It
consists of certain governmental policies, according to which the Body Shop needs to
comply its functions (Kleinaltenkamp, Plinke and Geiger, 2014). It includes some new
health and safety laws with high rise of concern among the consumers. For example,
plastic packaging is restricted by the government.
 Environmental- These factors are to stop the eradication of earth's flora and fauna and
maintain a balance among them. Therefore, the cited firm too uses a fair means of trading
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and developing its product. For example, animal testing is strictly prohibited to detect its
varied range of cosmetics.
2.2 Proposed segmentation
Segmentation is a profound tool to target the market by fragmenting the overall market
into groups with common demand of a particular product. Such kind of splitting is equally
beneficial for the company in order to control its costs and by together attracting numerous
customers. Segmentation is a process of dividing the market into parts which is majorly done as
per the features of a product (Smith, 2014). Body Shop opts for a “demographic segmentation”
of its product which concludes the person's age, gender, income and lifestyle, etc.
Therefore, Body Shop is introducing its new product of Lip balm for two different
segments of teenager girls and working women. Segmentation also has a huge impact on the
future measures of marketing strategies. It further helps the firm to determine the price fixation
and other promotional activities needed to carry a successful launch of the new product in
market.
2.3 Target Strategy
This strategy of targeting customer is the next step to approach numerous prospects of the
market. It is the sole responsibility of the firm to determine few effective measures in attracting
as many potential customers, as they can. Developing a target strategy needs utmost care and
sense of visibility to identify the exact requirement of the market. It further helps in promoting
the sales of a product and determines the firm's profitability (Armstrong, Adam, Denize and
Kotler, 2014). In the present scenario, Body shop makes a profound use of “differentiated
strategy” and targets the two main segments of women. This strategy requires broadcasting the
launch of its new product by reaching out all possible areas to meet out and cover the targeted
segments. In the present case, the cited firm can conduct campaigning programs outside
educational institutions and offices with a prior permission. They can also distribute frees
samples or discount coupons, etc.
2.4 Different Buyer's Behavior
Buyer behavior equally influences the decision making power of purchasing a product.
Therefore, there are various factors affecting the buying decision of a consumer. According to
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which a customer chooses and purchases a specific product, matching his selection level. These
are- Internal factors are certain psychological factors involving a person's motive, his own
perception of attaining things, the ability or knowledge of an individual and his attitude
or personality that reflects his lifestyle. Therefore, building more public interactions will
be the best recommendation for Body Shop to judge the mental perceptions of
consumer's.
 External factors are however few social factors, which consists of some kind of influence
by outsiders (Sheth and Sisodia, 2015). It can be an impact of family, an individual's faith
on any opinion leader advertising the product, a person's group or social class and
cultural beliefs, etc. For this purpose, Body Shop can make an effective utilization of its
own website. They can provide an option to its customers to jot down their reviews and
experiences of using its product.
2.5 Product Positioning
Positioning a new product in the market is of utmost importance where the firm together
needs to balance out between its cost and achieving a prompt response by the customer. It is
basically specifying the benefits of the product to attract several potent customers toward its
product. It is majorly done by broadcasting various benefits of the newly launched product with
different means of marketing mix. It consists of the 4P's which defines the product, its price,
place of availability, and different promotional activities carried out to launch the product. In this
present scenario, the major concern of Body Shop is its two segmented area of women. It has
introduced a new range of its Lip Balm which is manufactured by covering the first segment of
teenager girls, who are often school going girls (Lilien, Rangaswamy and Bruyn, 2013). They
spend their entire day in educational institutions and thus requires a natural and transparent
application of such products. It is also because they are not allowed to use such products in
school. However, on the other hand there are office going women, who are not restricted for
make up and thus can apply a slight coloring product on their lips. Therefore, by considering or
targeting these two main facts, Body Shop has effectively constructed the next levels of
positioning and promoting its new product.
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3.1 Developing products to sustain the market
For every organization, it is important to resist the competitive environment and work
accordingly. On the other hand, competitive advantage also enhances firm's value by
differentiating its product with the competitors. For this purpose, it is essential to assess the
benefit of one's product and further broadcast it to the consumer’s. In the current scenario, Body
Shop also attempts for the similar framework in which it effectively demonstrates the uniqueness
of its newly launched product (Lee and Yoo, 2012.). Due to which, it has done a thorough
comparison of its product with its competitors and together build-ed a positive impact on its
customers. It has declared the usage of natural elements to manufacture its new range of lip balm
for both the segments. The only difference among both was developing a coloring effect which
was too made by using natural fruit's essence and one can effectively sense that flavor after using
the product.
3.2 Product Distribution
Proper distribution of product is another crucial factor which defines the supply of
products to the targeted segments. Body Shop effectively determines the need base and thus
follow an effectual way of approaching people. It distributes products by both online and offline
means. It reflects the prompt utilization of its website and offline mean of purchasing the product
from its numerous retail stores, which is almost in every part of the globe. Therefore, the
teenager girls can buy the product by ordering it online from the website by checking different
ranges and their features, etc (Dibb and Carrigan, 2013). It is because, most of the time they
spend their day in schools and doesn't prefer to go outside without family. The cited firm too
provides an option of online reviewing its product. Thus, one can trust the genuineness of the
firm and make an online purchase. It too has easy return or exchange options. Contrary to that,
office going women prefers to visually buy the product by visiting the stores. There they also
provide sample options to try the product and later purchase it by opting for its trial method.
3.3 Price Fixation
Price has a huge impact on customers. Hence, the firm needs to go through a lot of
considerations before fixing the price of its product. It determines the further possibility of
succeeding in market with that particular product. It too shows a clear remark of consumer's
interest in the product. Therefore, Body Shop also determined the similar methodology of fixing
the price of its newly launched product (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 2012). In which, there are two
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different price range for the same product of lip balm. For teenager's, it has introduced a low cost
commodity, whereas, for office going women, the price of the product is comparatively high.
Price fixation is however a challenging task, where the firm has to calculate its production and
developmental cost and altogether it also needs to attract the crowd by giving a reasonable price
to them.
3.4 Promotional activity
It is another critical aspect of a firm where apart from meeting the other costs, the firm
also need to carry impressive promotional activities to attract the consumers. It basically refers to
the broadcast the product with its varied qualities and features among potent customers. Body
Shop also reaches out the customers by varied means of advertising activities (Chua and
Banerjee, 2013). It includes few effective sources like newspapers, television advertisements,
magazines and hoarding, etc. Apart from that, the cited firm too updates its websites on a regular
basis to inform the customers about its new launch's and other proceedings It also conducts
various discount and promotional offers by allotting coupons to the customers on their first time
purchase, etc.
3.5 Additional elements of marketing mix
Other than promotion, there are three more elements of marketing mix which effectively
demonstrates the varied means of launching a product. It includes the below mentioned
components- Product- It is the foremost step, in which the company is liable to define the pro's of its
newly launched product. It includes a close assessment of the product and later
broadcasting it to the users. Body Shop define usage of organic elements in building its
product as the biggest advantage. Place- It is the next step of placing the product so it can reach the prospected consumers
(Chaharbaghi and Lynch, 2010). One can easily purchase the product of the cited firm
either by visiting its retail store or ordering it online.
 Pricing- Pricing promotes the sale of a product and thus, the cited firm too manufactures
a varied range of its product, one can choose from. It carries a profound demographic
segmentation of its product which equally considers consumer's income.
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CONCLUSION
The above report depicts the importance of marketing principles and strategies for Body
Shop, that helps to build a proficient outlook towards marketing products. It together showcases
the varied elements of marketing mix with its different pro's and con's to the business. It also
carries a profound approach of detecting the environmental factors that could largely affect the
organization.
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REFERENCES
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