MCOM4040: Marketing and Communication Report on The Body Shop

This report offers a comprehensive analysis of The Body Shop's marketing and communication strategies. It begins with an overview of the company, its purpose, and an examination of customer needs, wants, and demands. The report then delves into the marketing environment, including an analysis of macro-environmental factors and competitor analysis. It identifies The Body Shop's market orientation as production-oriented. Furthermore, the report examines the company's marketing mix, including product and service offerings, pricing strategies, and place strategy. The analysis includes a comparison with key competitors, highlighting The Body Shop's strengths and weaknesses. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and recommendations for The Body Shop's future marketing efforts.

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........................................................................................................................................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
 Marketing executives of The Body Shop must have understanding about the needs, wants
and demands of the customers for strategic decision making along with the
implementation of them (Baker 2016).
 At the same time, the knowledge about these aspects is essential for them for the
identification of target markets along with the target customers.
 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).
 All these aspects together help in the maximization of the sales and profit of the
company.
Identify and Discuss the Market Orientation/Concept
Business organizations have the option to adopt among five types of marketing
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.

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:
 The analysis of the marketing environment helps the marketing executives in future
marketing planning by making them fully aware of the current marketing situation.
 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).
 Most importantly, companies can gain effective understanding about their competitors
from the marketing environment analysis (Eagle et 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 marketing executives of The Body Shop will be able to identify the major
competitors companies of the business with the help of competitor analysis as the
identification of the major competitors is required for the purpose of product
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, beauty Various beauty
products,
Different kinds
of color

6MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION
products and
fragrances
(thebodyshop.in
2018)
products and fragrances cosmetics,
perfumes, hair
and skin care
products
products and
cosmetics
No. of
Stores
3049 stores in
UK
500 stores in UK 1000 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
Benefits The 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
Stability Financial
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)

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 (Armstrong et 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 (Armstrong et 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
different marketing channels like B2B and B2C in their marketing strategy (Kotler and
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?. In The Marketing Book(pp. 25-42). Routledge.
Barrym.com. (2018). Barry M - The Barry M Story. [online] Available at:
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. and Palmatier, R.W., 2014. Resource-based theory in
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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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.