Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SEACTION A
WINTER SESSION
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
1
.EXECUTIVE SUMMERY..................................................................3
2.OBJECTIVES....................................................................................4
3.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY......................................................5
4.CHAPTER I – BODY SHOP............................................................6
5.DATA TABULATION.....................................................................8
Questionnaire.............................................................................8
Answers...................................................................................10
6.ANALYSIS.....................................................................................15
I. To identify the product strategies adopted by Body Shop.........15
What are Product Strategies?...................................................15
Product Strategies adopted by body shop:...............................20
II. To identify the promotional mix of Body Shop.........................24
What is a Promotion Mix?.......................................................24
Tabular Form of the Promotion Mix:......................................24
The Promotional Mix of Body Shop:......................................27
III. To analyse the impact of the strategies on customers.............32
To identify the lacuna in the strategies and suggest remedial
measures.......................................................................................34
7.Conclusion:......................................................................................36
8.Recommendations:..........................................................................37
9.Bibliography:...................................................................................38
10.Anexxure : -...................................................................................39
EXECUTIVE SUMMERY
The Body Shop is a British skincare, perfume, and cosmetics company and was founded in
the year 1976 by Dame Anita Roddick. She started the company from a small shop in
Brighton with only 25 products and now the company has grown to be worth £800 million
and is present in nearly 66 countries with a range of 1000 products and sells over 3000 plus
The project aims to identify the product strategies used by Body shop over the years and to
identify their promotional mix. The project further analyses the impact of such strategies on
the customers and identifies the lacuna in them by analysis of primary and secondary data
The researcher has adopted a doctrinal method of research. Data has been collected
from various primary and secondary sources and the data so collected has been
tabulated and analysed. Primary data has been collected from the company’s web-site,
surveys, questionnaires, interviews etc and secondary data from books, articles and
The Body Shop International Limited, trading as The Body Shop is a cosmetic, skin care and
perfume company which is a subsidiary of the Brazilian company Nature & Co.
It is an internationally acclaimed company that has more than one thousand products under
it's umbrella. It was earlier owned by the French company L’Oreal from years 2006 to June,
2017. This brand of British origin was founded in year 1976, 26th March by its founder Anita
Roddick. The Body Shop is associated with cosmetic industry as it deals in beauty products.
It is an internationally acclaimed company that has more than one thousand products under its
umbrella. It is naturally inclined towards creating eco-friendly and natural products and
features ingredients like sesame seed oil and marula oil. Its diversified product portfolio
consumer market. It has adopted a societal marketing concept and encourages usage of plant-
based materials. Its advertisements are mainly through fashion magazines and social media
platform. The brand has its own website that markets its products and targets those who are
• Questionnaire
1. Name:
2. Gender:
Female
Male
Others
3. Age
5. Please select the mode through which you became aware of the brand.
TV Advertisements
Newspaper Advertisements
Social Media Platforms
Display Shelf in a store
Banners in malls or Billboards
Word Of Mouth
Yes
No
8. If no, what are the factors that deter you from purchasing their products?
9. What are the most important factors that you consider before you chose a
brand to buy cosmetics and toiletries?
Quality
Environmentally Friendly
Diversified product portfolio
Natural
Cruelty Free
Socially Responsibility
10. Are you satisfied with the products of The Body shop and will you recommend
them to others?
Yes
No
• Answers
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
ANALYSIS
Whenever a new product launches in the market, it is difficult for the company or brand to
forecast where the product will reach or how it will shape up. At such times, brands design
The product strategy determines all the steps which a brand will have to take to make the
product a success. Alternatively, because this is how a strategy works, the brand also has to
decide what to do if the product is a failure of it is not gaining traction in the market.
You can call a product strategy to be the vision of the product. If a company launches a
product, then it has a vision of where the product will reach. These strategies are the bare
bone planning of the steps to ensure the product reaches the desired space. Such a strategy
A product strategy helps in deciding the basic elements of a product such as its marketing
mix and its design. At the same time, it also helps in targeting the product to the right
and unique from its competitors. It may offer better quality, quantity, pricing, appearance,
and after sales-service, when compared to its competitors. It may offer more features and
facilities in its product. It may be more flexible while dealing with its customers. It may also
offer quick and better delivery of its products. If a company maintains this uniqueness and
difference in its product quality and customer service, then it can charge higher prices.
2. Cost leadership strategy: Under a cost leadership strategy, the company tries to reduce its
cost of production. This is done by producing goods on a very huge scale. By doing so, the
company will get the benefits of economies of large scale. Higher the scale of production,
lower will be the cost of production. This is because per unit cost of raw materials, labour,
3. Market segmentation strategy: In market segmentation strategy, the company divides the
market according to the type of customers it has to focus and target. It sells different products
and services to different types of customers. To achieve this goal, it produces and sells goods
and services as per the needs of the customers. Therefore, market segmentation strategy is
4. Price or cost strategy: Under price or cost strategy, the company sells its product at a very
low price. This strategy is used when the products are homogeneous (same) in nature ie ,
when the customers cannot distinguish the company's product from the competitors' products.
In this case, the company will sell their products at a low price so that the customers will
5. Quality strategy: Under quality strategy, the company produces and sells high-quality
goods and services. The prices of such goods and services are naturally very high. However,
this strategy attracts those customers who prefer top quality products and are ready to pay
necessary appropriate prices. The company must pay special attention to the design of its
products. It must upgrade product design and add new product features to satisfy the current
needs and demands of its customers. Products which are designed badly will naturally fail in
the market. To gain success in the market, the company must smartly invest to make quality
6. Delivery strategy: Under delivery strategy, the company delivers its product and services
to their customers as early as possible that too within a fixed time period. The company gives
top priority to fast delivery of products and providing quickest accessibility of services.
Speed delivery of products and fastest accessibility of services removes the problem of
scarcity and unnecessary delays in the market. Delivery strategy is used as a selling tactic to
7. Product mix or flexibility strategy: Under this strategy, the company produces and sells a
product mix. A product mix is a group of products, which are sold by the same company.
Here, the company does not depend only on one product for its survival and growth. It uses a
product mix because it offers many advantages to the company. However, only large
8. Service strategy: Under this strategy, the company uses a service to attract the customers. It
gives quicker and better after-sales service. It gives around the clock, i.e. 24-hour customer
service. It may render this service directly via the company or through the network of call
centres. Service is required for both consumer goods as well as industrial goods.
9. Eco-friendly products: Under eco-friendly strategy, the company produces and sells
environment-friendly products also called as Green Products. For e.g. producing and selling
lead-free petrol to reduce pollution, manufacturing mercury-free television panels, etc., are
some good steps to preserve nature. This is a new type of production strategy. It is used to
reduce pollution and protect the biosphere. Companies may also recycle certain materials like
plastic, metals and papers. The properly recycled products are later used for manufacturing
new products and in packaging. Companies use biodegradable packing material to reduce the
problem of waste disposal. Recycling reduces continuous demand cycle of natural resources
and hence somewhat minimize the exploitation of environment. The company informs the
10. Flexible response strategy: Flexible response strategy is said to be used when a company
makes necessary changes in its production plans that too in accordance with the emerging
changes in the market. Here, importance is given to speed and reliability. That is, the
company must make quick changes as per the arising changes in the market demand. It must
also be reliable. That is, it must give a regular supply of goods to its customers. There must
not be any shortage of goods in the market. To achieve this, the company must follow a strict
production schedule.
11. Low cost strategy: Under low cost strategy, the company fights massive market
competition by selling its products at very lower prices. Simultaneously, it must also maintain
the quality of its products. A company can only sell its goods at minimum prices if it
maintains a low cost of production and distribution. This can be done by producing and
distributing goods on a large scale. That is, company must take advantage of economies of
large-scale production.
• Product Strategies adopted by body shop:
(i) Provide to the needs and preference of the customers: For a product to perform
well in the market, it must satisfy customer needs. Concerns over health and
preference to products that are viewed as natural. This trend has seen industry
players rushing to innovate natural products much to the detriment of the Body
Shop which has to push forward with its innovations in order to weather out
growing competition. The body shop put focus on consumer preferences and the
(ii) Eco – Friendly product Strategy: The products offered by the brand carry one
dominant feature in their makeup: natural materials (The Body Shop, 2012). The
natural and whose adverse impact on the environment and human health is
minimal. Anita Roddick, the company’s founder gathered from her travelling
experiences around the world that women prefer to use natural products such Aloe
vera to keep their skins smooth and healthy. Hence, she decided to incorporate
Their current moto is “Enrich, Not Exploit” (It’s in our hands). It means that they
are committed to enriching people as well as our planet, its biodiversity and
resources. They also try to make use of recycled materials and avoids secondary
packaging.
(iii) Emphasis on Quality (Quality Strategy) and Safety of Products: Product
market. Incidences that require recalls can therefore hurt an organisation’s image.
The Body Shop International sought to overcome the potential damage by its
customers and highlighting their willingness to incur losses to ensure that no one
is placed at risk while using their products (Global Data, 2012). This brilliant
approach had the potential for turning their weakness into strength.
(iv) Differential Product Strategies: - According to Stoll, Baecke, & Kennings
effort and money into product differentiation. They say that product packaging is
one of the most effective and market-oriented strategies which companies can
adopt. The products of the Body shop are stored in packaging that represents each
natural ingredient that they use in their products. For example, they coordinate the
(v) Making use of Technology: With advancement in technology, The Body Shop is
able to reach a wider customer base. They have launched their app which provides
a more personal experience of shopping. They are also experimenting with new
ways to use mobile platforms to promote its brand and special advocacy causes. In
September 2017, the company launched a campaign with marketing partner Urban
Airship that included a mobile wallet pass for Android and iOS to let customers
view updates on The Body Shop's Forever Against Animal Testing efforts.
II. To identify the promotional mix of Body Shop.
one product or a family of products. The fourth element of the 4 P’s of Marketing Mix is the
promotion and it focuses on creating the awareness and persuading the customers to initiate
the purchase. The several tools that facilitate the promotion objective of a firm are
collectively known as the Promotion Mix. Promotion refers to creation, maintenance and
increase of demand and hence sales of the product through communication of the existence
Promotion is a very significant component part of the marketing mix as without promotional
efforts, people would never be able to appreciate the utility of the product for satisfaction of
their needs. Hence promotions are what educates the consumers about the availability and
PROMOTION
1. Advertising
2. Sales Promotion
3. Personal Selling
4. Public Relations
5. Message
6. Budget
1. Advertising: It is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of goods
and services by the identified sponsor in the exchange of a fee. Through advertising,
the marketer tries to build a pull strategy wherein the customer is instigated to try the
product at least once. The complete information along with the attractive graphics of
the product or service can be shown to the customers that grab their attention and
2. Personal Selling: This is one of the traditional forms of promotional tool wherein the
salesman interacts with the customer directly by visiting them. It is a face to face
interaction between the company representative and the customer with the objective
3. Sales Promotion: The sales promotion is the short-term incentives given to the
customers to have an increased sale for a given period. Generally, the sales promotion
schemes are floated in the market at the time of festivals or the end of the season.
Discounts, Coupons, Payback offers, Freebies, etc. are some of the sales promotion
schemes. With the sales promotion, the company focuses on the increased short-term
4. Public Relations: The marketers try to build a favourable image in the market by
creating relations with the general public. The companies carry out several public
relations campaigns with the objective to have a support of all the people associated
with it either directly or indirectly. Publicity is one form of public relations that the
company may use with the intention to bring newsworthy information to the public.
5. Direct Marketing: With the intent of technology, companies reach customers directly
without any intermediaries or any paid medium. The e-mails, text messages, Fax, are
some of the tools of direct marketing. The companies can send emails and messages
to the customers if they need to be informed about the new offerings or the sales
promotion schemes.
E.g. The Shopperstop send SMS to its members informing about the season end sales
Thus, the companies can use any tool of the promotion mix depending on the nature
6. Message: The information the brand wants to give to its target market about their
products is called the message. The intent of this message is to garner the attention of
7. Budget: Every department has a set amount for promotional activities. The Body
1. Advertisements: The Body shop advertises its products as natural, eco- friendly and
Cruelty-free. It has adopted a societal marketing concept and encourages usage of
plant-based materials. Its advertisements are mainly through fashion magazines and
social media platform. The brand heavily advertises its products on social media
platforms by trending hashtags about the campaigns they are involved in and creating
awareness about socially relevant issues.
The brand has its own website that markets its products. It also has tie-ups with other
shopping portals that sell its products online. The official website also offers regular
updates about its products and also about latest offerings and incentives. Skincare
articles are published on its site informing the consumers about the actual way of
putting and removing make-up, which product will suit which type of skin, the
ingredients used in product formation and also about its personalized gift programs.
The Body Shop has used environmental and social campaigns to promote its brand in
the consumer market. In the year 1986, the brand was associated with Save the
Whales campaign.
The Body shop outlets posted posters on windows of its shops sponsoring local
community events. It has campaigned sincerely to end cosmetic testing on animals.
Its products are certified as the non-animal tested brand.
The Body Shop has been the recipient of recognition and award for its contribution
like Lifetime Achievement Award in the year 2009 by RSPCA, to recognise its stand
on not testing its products on animals.
The Body Shop Foundation was established in year 1990 to support global projects
for animal and environmental protection. It has donated more than 24 million pounds
in grants and funds projects like Children on the Edge.
In the interview conducted with the manager at one of their shops, she revealed that
saleswoman in The Body Shop will talk about the environment problems and the
environmental-relative activities of The Body Shop with the customers in the process
of introducing product. And in the training program of their company, they will
educate their employees not only the make-up skill, the characteristic of the product,
but also acquainting them some knowledge about environmental issue. This replies
that The Body Shop attach much importance to improve the sales-force knowledge
toward environmental-relative questions and expects them to be able to give better
expression of the company’s green image to the customers.
Celebrity Endorsements: The Body Shop aims to change the way beauty products are
created. It just launched “Forever against Animal Testing” campaign and will be
running for two years with the consistent content for two years until 2019. It teamed
up with “Game OF Thrones” star Maisie Williams and number of influencers on
social media for this campaign.
2. Sales Promotion: The Body Shop provides discounts on their products during festivals
holidays and certain Seasons. Discounts are also provided upon purchasing products
over a certain price. They also provide 10 % at all times upon the use of HDFC credit
cards and payment via UPI. They also offer coupon codes that can be applied when
They also try to involve their customer in the campaigns they participate in by
conducting giveaways where a few lucky customers who retweet their posts or
participate in the said campaign will get win Body Shop products for free.
Right now Body shop is having their End of The Season Sale and is providing
massive discounts on all their products to encourage their customer to buy them.
3. Public relations: One size doesn’t fit all, and The Body Shop knew that sending offers
or messages that weren’t relevant to a user or that were out of context would cause
customers to tune out, or worse, to opt out. That’s why The Body Shop, working with
Smilla AG, began by first ensuring they understood the customer and their unique
preferences.
The campaigns that they participate in have helped their customers to relate and
develop come emotional connect with the brand. For example, they talk about
Protection our Planet etc. In 2003 they launched a global campaign to raise awareness
and funds to help those affected by domestic violence. “The Stop Violence In The
By understanding their customer, The body shop decided to reinvent itself in front of
consumers as beauty credentials and product innovation, and focus on positioning the
brand for the new generation so they understand what the brand and products stand
for. It was a new start of a beauty movement called “Beauty with Heart”
4. Message: The main message that The Body Shop wants to share with their customers
that they are producers of Eco- Friendly, natural and green products. As part of their
“Enrich Not Exploit” Commitment, they have made it their mission to enrich their
products, people and the planet. The also want their customers to know that they are a
socially responsible brand. They working fairly with their farmers and suppliers and
programme, being 100% vegetarian and always and forever being firmly against animal
testing.
They launch a campaign with MTV International named “Get Lippy: Prevent HIV” to
raise awareness of HIV and AIDS. They say that their message reaches millions of
people and their campaign products raised over £2 million for their charity partner,
the Staying Alive Foundation. The funds were used to help educate young people on
how to stay safe, and support those living with HIV and AIDS.
III. To analyse the impact of the strategies on customers.
The researcher has conducted a study on 56 people and have come up with certain
observations.
92.9 % of the respondents to the questionnaire were aware of the brand body shop.
From this we can understand that The Body shop has succeeded in creating Brand
When asked about the mode through which they became aware of the brand the
Mouth” as second with 46.4% .We see that owing to their Public relation strategies
and the fact that they cater to the needs and preferences of their customers they have
succeeded in gaining the trust of their buyers and also in making them encourage
others to buy their products. Also due to their colourful and eye-catching packaging
and organised arrangement of the products on the Display shelf in stores The Body
Shop surely leaves and impression on people which results in increase in retention
value.
Social media platforms were ranked third with 42.9% followed by banners in malls
and billboards at fourth position with 16.1 %. This shows that The Body Shops
differential product strategies have and advertisements have left an imprint upon the
products to the fullest. (The respondents were allowed to chose more than one
answer)
In spite of being a well-known brand Body shop has failed in creating loyal customers
and also has some how lacked in catering to the needs of the customers. 55.4% of the
respondents are buyers of products from The Body shop while 44.6% are not. When
asked what deters them buying the said products 51.9 % answered that they are loyal
to some other C&T brand and the rest of the 48.1% answered that the lack awareness
When asked why they like the products from The Body Shop , the respondents ranked
“ good quality” as the first reason with 67.7% and then “ natural and eco-friendly” as
the second with 54.8% and “Cruelty free” and “ social responsibility” tailing behind
as the fourth and fifth reason with 29% and 12.9% respectively.
Lastly when asked if they were satisfied with the Pr4oducts of The Body shop 81.3 %
From the analysis done the researcher was able to identified some things that the strategies
Firstly, even though majority of the respondents were aware about the brand they did
not buy products from The Body Shop. This Shows that the brand either failed to
create loyal customers or failed to convince the consumers to buy their product. The
Body Shop has a range of customers who are both men and women. The brand
initially didn’t have products for men but now the focus has also been on men who are
now taking care of their skin and are looking to have a comfortable bath. The brand’s
main target, however, is the women between the ages 20-55 years and most of their
advertisements and messages were relatable only to women. Because of this they
failed to garner the attention of 17.9 % of the respondents who were male. This can be
further backed up by the fact that most of them answered that they are loyal to some
other brand.
Some ways by which Body Shop can change this is by stating the message and vision
very clearly to their target segment. Instead of participating in every other campaign
that comes by, they have to firstly understand what are the causes that their brand
identifies with and indulge in only those causes so that there will be no ambiguity
Secondly, they have to expand their target market segment and also identify ways in
which they can make their products desirable to the male consumers. For this The
Body Shop can hire a male celebrity to endorse their products and also by increasing
was seen that audiences remember TV advertisements more than advertisements seen
on Social media platforms or newspaper/ magazines. The Body Shop do not advertise
their products a lot on TV. Hence, they should indulge in making creative
advertisement like Biotique, Ayur etc that captivates the mind of the consumers.
When asked about what are the factors that they consider before choosing a cosmetics
and toiletries brand the respondents ranked “Quality” as first with 85.7% , “ Natural”
second with 60.7 % and Cruelty Free as third with 33.9 %. Even though The Body
shop is a brand known for these specific factors they failed maintain loyal customers
and garner the attention of the consumers. This is because the band lacked innovation
in its products. When its competitors were offering products such as sheet masks and
contour sticks, the Body Shop was no where near making such products. Hence the
brand should invest more on its research and development so that they can keep up
with the trends in the beauty industry and update and tailor their products to such
trends.
Conclusion:
The Body Shop International Limited, trading as The Body Shop is a cosmetic, skin care and
perfume company which is a subsidiary of the Brazilian company Nature & Co. It is an
internationally acclaimed company that has more than one thousand products under it's
umbrella and is inclined towards creating eco-friendly and natural products. They indulge in
various campaigns in order to create awareness about socially relevance issues. From this
study we have understood that even though this brand offers the things that people want from
their C&T products they fail create a proper understanding of what the brand stands for in the
minds of their customers. We can also conclude that the customers prefer an innovative brand
To sum up these are the things that The body Shop is recommended to do
2. https://www.thebodyshop.in/?
utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=Cj0KCQiA04XxBRD5ARIsAGFygj9JVfhKmQ
v48koC2qBnrwBzHKrXHoXUP-anqXK6gjoq78lu8m-5XTsaAuDGEALw_wcB
3. https://www.gpahelp.com/the-body-shop-marketing-plan-analysis/
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p50lV_laA4
5. http://strategicmgt15.blogspot.com/2017/06/marketing-strategy-case-study-of-
body.html
6. https://marketingmix.co.uk/promotional-mix-2/
7. https://lbroderick.wordpress.com/marketing-concepts/integrated-marketing-
communications/
8. https://devblog.axway.com/mobile-apps/the-body-shops-fresh-take-on-lasting-
customer-relationships/
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