Marketing and Communication: A Detailed Report on The Body Shop

This report provides a comprehensive marketing analysis of The Body Shop, examining its approach to customer needs, wants, and demands, and its adoption of a product-oriented marketing concept. It delves into the relevance of marketing environment analysis, exploring both social and environmental factors impacting the company's operations. A key component of the report is a competitor analysis, comparing The Body Shop to rivals like Lush and Beauty Without Cruelty, evaluating their product offerings, pricing strategies, and market presence. The report further dissects The Body Shop's marketing mix, detailing its product and service offerings, pricing strategies, and distribution (place) strategies. It highlights The Body Shop's commitment to eco-friendly and natural products and ethical sourcing, offering insights into its competitive positioning and marketing effectiveness.

Running head: MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION
Marketing and Communication
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Overview of the Company...........................................................................................................2
Purpose of the Report..................................................................................................................2
Needs, Wants and Demands............................................................................................................2
Importance of Understanding Needs, Wants and Demands of the Customers............................2
Identification and Discussion of Market Orientation/Concept....................................................3
Marketing Environment...................................................................................................................4
Relevance of Marketing Environment Analysis..........................................................................4
Analysis of Two Macro Environmental Factor...........................................................................4
Relevance of Using Competitors Analysis..................................................................................5
Marketing Mix.................................................................................................................................5
Discussion of the Findings of Competitor Analysis....................................................................6
Marketing Mix.................................................................................................................................7
Product and Service Offerings.....................................................................................................7
Pricing Strategies.........................................................................................................................7
Place Strategy..............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................9

2MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION
Introduction
Overview of the Company
The Body Shop is a British cosmetic company specialized in skin care products as well as
perfumes and the full name of the company is The Body Shop International Limited. The
company was established in the year of 1976 and the founder of the company is Dame Anita
Roddick. The company was headquartered at Croydon, London, United Kingdom
(thebodyshop.in 2018). The initiation of the business of The Body Shop was done as a small
business in Brighton with just 25 products. In the year 2006, the company was sold to L’Oreal
for £652 million; and Natura bought the company from L’Oreal for £7880 million. At present,
The Body Shop has presence in 66 countries all over the world and employee base of the
company is 22,000. The Body Shop has a product portfolio of more than 300 products. One of
the major initiatives of The Body Shop was the prohibition of cosmetic testing on the animals. At
the same time, The Body Shop is regarded as the first company that introduced Fair Trade in the
beauty and cosmetic industry (thebodyshop.in 2018).
Purpose of the Report
The main purpose of this report lies in addressing different marketing related aspects of
The Body Shop. The presence of three sections can be seen in this report. The purpose of task
one is the analysis of the needs, wants and demands of the customers of The Body Shop. The
purpose of task two is the analysis and evaluation of various aspects of marketing environment in
The Body Shop. The purpose of task three is the analysis of the marketing mix related to the
company. A conclusion is drawn with the key findings of the whole report,
Needs, Wants and Demands
Importance of Understanding Needs, Wants and Demands of the Customers
In the development of effective marketing strategies, it is utmost important for the
marketing executive of The Body Shop to take into consideration the needs, wants and demands
of their customers. Needs are the basic requirements of the customers where wants of the
customers arises based on the needs of them. The demand of the products can be seen when the

3MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION
customers are willing to buy and have the ability to pay (Armstrong et al. 2014). Following
shows the reason for The Body Shop to underrated these three aspects:
o The marketing executive of The Body Shop needs to have understanding about these
three aspects in order to know about their target markets and target customers.
o The understanding of these aspects helps in taking strategic decisions and their
implementation (Boone and Kurtz 2013).
o It will be also helpful in the promotion of the products of The Body Shop with the help
of effective advertisements.
o It is largely helpful for The Body Shop for the maximization of sales as well as profits.
o The understanding of these aspects helps in knowing demographic, socio-cultural
dimensions as well as level of income on the buying behavior of the customers
(Armstrong et al. 2014.
o It is also helpful for The Body Shop for the production of sales in specific target market.
Identification and Discussion of Market Orientation/Concept
The presence of different marketing orientation concepts can be seen; they are Production
concept, Product concept, Selling concept, Marketing concept and Societal Marketing concept. It
needs to be mentioned that The Body Shop adopts the Product Orientation concept for their
marketing purposes (Achroll and Kotler 2014). According to the product concept, the consumers
will favor the products that offer the most in three aspects that are quality, performance and
innovative features. It can be observed that the main target of The Body Shop is to bring
improvements in their consumer and beauty products in order to cater to the needs of their
customers. The main focus of the marketing strategies of The Body Shop is to put focus on the
continuous improvements of the products as the quality of products and improvements are the
major parts in the development of marketing strategies. The adoption of product orientation
concept is majorly advantageous for The Body Shop as the company becomes able in the
elimination of the costs to determine consumer preference and the development of new products
as well as services (Achroll and Kotler 2014).

4MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION
Marketing Environment
Relevance of Marketing Environment Analysis
Every business organization irrespective of size and type operates within the marketing
environment. The following discussion shows the relevance of marketing environment analysis
for business organization:
o The understanding about the external and internal marketing environment is a crucial
aspect for the future marketing planning as the marketing executives are needed to be
fully aware of the current marketing scenario (Dawson 2014).
o This particular understanding about marketing environment assists the marketing
executives in acknowledge and predicting the needs, wants and demands of the
customers.
o This understanding is also essential for the companies to enter into new market as well as
capitalizing new marketing trends (Proctor 2014).
o Most importantly, sound knowledge about the marketing environment of the companies
plays an essential part in the identification of the marketing threats and opportunities.
o This understanding of the marketing environment helps the companies in identifying and
understanding their competitors.
Analysis of Two Macro Environmental Factor
The business operations of The Body Shop are largely exposed to the influence of the
macron environmental factors like political, economic, social, technological, environmental and
legal. The following discussion shows the impact of social and environmental factor on The
Body Shop:
Social Factor: Change in lifestyle of the customers can be considered as a major social factor
having impact on the operation of The Body Shop. The customers have become more aware of
the environmental as well as the social issues and thus, they have become more conscious about
the companies from where they are purchasing the products. In this aspect, different policies
related to product and ingredients sourcing like Fair Trade law and others have impact on the
business operations of The Body Shop (McDaniel and Gates 2013).

5MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION
Environmental Factor: The effects of the business operations of The Body Shop on the
environment can be considered as a major factor having impact on the business operations of
The Body Shop. For this reason, the company is needed to comply with all the laws related to
environment protection like the Fair Trade policies and others. All these compliances have
influence on the company as they increases the overall costs of the organizations (Burns, Bush
and Sinha 2014).
Relevance of Using Competitors Analysis
The following discussion shows the relevance for conducting the competitor analysis for
The Body Shop:
o The analysis of the competitors provides The Body Shop with the scope for the
identification of their major competitors like Lush and others. Identification of the
competitors is necessary for the purpose of product differentiation (West, Ford and
Ibrahim 2015).
o The Body Shop can know about the position of their competitors in the market with the
assistance of the competitor analysis as the company will be able in spotting the
differences as well as similarities in their strategies as compared to their competitors.
This leads to effective formulation of marketing strategies.
o At the same time, The Body Shop will be able in the identification of the strengths and
weaknesses in the strategies as compared to their competitors. This will help the company
in bringing improvement in the marketing strategies (West, Ford and Ibrahim 2015).
Marketing Mix
Criteria
The Body Shop
(Main
Company)
Beauty Without
Cruelty (BWC)
(Competitor A)
Lush
(Competitor B)
Barry M
(Competitor C)
Products
Skin care,
cosmetics and
fragrances
Vegan cosmetics Cosmetics, skin
care, hair care,
perfumes and
fragrances
Color cosmetics
No. of Stores 3049 500 1000 750
Price
The prices of the
products are
The prices of the
products are high
The prices of the
products are high
The prices of the
products are

6MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION
affordable affordable
Benefits
The company
provides wide
range of products
in affordable
price to cater to
the needs of the
customers.
Products are
made of
ingredients that
are ethically
sourced
BWC provides a
wide range of
cosmetics and
these products
are cruelty free
Lush provides
their customers
with the wide
range of beauty
therapist
products
(lushusa.com
2018).
Barry M
provides their
customers with
various
cosmetics that
are specialized in
trend make-up
and beauty
products
(barrym.com
2018).
Stability
The company has
registered growth
in profit as well
as revenue over
the years that
show the stability
of the business.
Financial growth
as well as
increase in
number of
customers
provides the
company with
stability
(avon.uk.com
2018).
Growth in both
the financial
aspect as well as
business aspect
provides stability
to the company.
Increase in sales
and profit
provides stability
to the company.
Discussion of the Findings of Competitor Analysis
The above table provides a competitor analysis of The Body Shop with three of their
main competitors. From the above table, it can be seen that The Body Shop has the most number
of stores as compared to its competitors and this aspect helps the company is gaining wider
market presence than the competitors. At the same time, The Body Shop offers their products to
the customers in much affordable prices as compared to the competitors. However, the company
is needed to put more focus on increasing the benefits that they provide to the customers through
cosmetics and beauty products. The above analysis shows that all the three companies provide
specialized products like vegan cosmetics, nail products and others. Thus, The Body Shop needs
to provide their customers with some specialized products so that their needs can be met in better
manner (Baker 2014).

7MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION
Marketing Mix
Product and Service Offerings
The Body Shop is regarded as an internationally acclaimed company that has more than
one thousand products under their product portfolio. The main product related aim of the
company lies in manufacturing eco-friendly and natural products. The company provides skin
cosmetics based on the nature of the skin like oily skin, sensitive skin and others. The diversified
product portfolio of The Body Shop includes hair shampoo, body gels, body washes, face
treatment products, make up cosmetics and fragrances (Armstrong et al. 2015).
Pricing Strategies
The main target of The Body Shop is the customers that appreciate to use the eco-friendly
products even if the prices of the products are high. The company has adopted ethical nature of
branding that leads to high costs. For this reason, the prices of the products are high. The
company uses to maintain premium price for their premium products. In order to stay in the
competition, the company has adopted competitive pricing strategy that helps the company in
maintaining the product prices as per the level of their competitors (Khan 2014).
Place Strategy
The presence of 3049 outlets of The Body Shop can be seen either owned by the
company or by the franchisees. The company also has international presence in 66 countries like
Belgium, Canada, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, Hungary and others. In The
Body Shop, the presence of strong distribution network can be seen that assists from bringing the
raw materials to the deliver the goods to the end customers. In addition, the products of the
company are available in multilevel marketing channels like B2B and B2C (Hanssens et al.
2014).
Conclusion
The above discussions show the analysis of the marketing dimensions of The Body Shop.
As per the above discussion, The Body Shop is a major cosmetics company of United Kingdom
having strong product portfolio and strong market presence. The discussion states that The Body
Shop needs to have the understanding of the needs, wants and demands of the customers for
various purposes like the identification of the target market, development of marketing strategies

8MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION
and others. It can also be seen that The Body Shop adopt the product orientation concept as the
main focus of the company is to bring improvement in their product for carter to the needs of
their customers. According to the above discussion, companies are needed to conduct the
marketing environment analysis for the development of effective strategies along with gaining
the competitive advantage. Change in lifestyle and preferences of the customers is a major social
factor of The Body Shop. At the same time, the company is needed to comply with the
environmental regulations. As per the competitor analysis, The Body Shop is needed to take into
consideration the specialization in their products in order to make their products more beneficial
for the customers.

9MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION
References
Achroll, R.S. and Kotler, P., 2014. The service-dominant logic for marketing. The service-
dominant logic of marketing: Dialog, debate, and directions, 320.
Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S. and Kotler, P., 2014. Principles of marketing. Pearson
Australia.
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction.
Avon.uk.com. (2018). About Us. [online] Available at: https://www.avon.uk.com/About-Avon/
[Accessed 3 Jul. 2018].
Baker, M.J., 2014. Marketing strategy and management. Macmillan International Higher
Education.
Barrym.com. (2018). Barry M - The Barry M Story. [online] Available at:
https://www.barrym.com/the-barry-m-story [Accessed 3 Jul. 2018].
Boone, L.E. and Kurtz, D.L., 2013. Contemporary marketing. Cengage learning.
Burns, A.C., Bush, R.F. and Sinha, N., 2014. Marketing research (Vol. 7). Harlow: Pearson.
Dawson, J., 2014. The Marketing Environment (RLE Marketing). Routledge.
Hanssens, D.M., Pauwels, K.H., Srinivasan, S., Vanhuele, M. and Yildirim, G., 2014. Consumer
attitude metrics for guiding marketing mix decisions. Marketing Science, 33(4), pp.534-550.
Khan, M.T., 2014. The concept of'marketing mix'and its elements (a conceptual review
paper). International journal of information, business and management, 6(2), p.95.
Lushusa.com. (2018). Our Story | Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics US . [online] Available at:
https://www.lushusa.com/our-story.html [Accessed 3 Jul. 2018].
McDaniel, C. and Gates, R., 2013. Marketing research. Singapore.
Proctor, T., 2014. Strategic marketing: an introduction. Routledge.

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].
West, D.C., Ford, J. and Ibrahim, E., 2015. Strategic marketing: creating competitive advantage.
Oxford University Press, USA.