The Body Shop - Environmental and Commercial Fronts - Case Study Example

Introduction: Since the it’s inception, The Body Shop, established its as the original ’eco-friendly’ brand which created all of its business principles keeping in mind a special regard for the well being of the surrounding environment. Being the protagonists who stared the ‘eco-awareness’ trend in the cosmetic industry, The Body Shop had a humble beginning, and it was the organization’s unique product range as well as it’s owner’s stringent belief in quality that gave the company it’s loyal following. In the year 2006, The Body Shop was bought by the cosmetics giant L’Oreal who paid a staggering 653. 3 Million Pounds for the acquisition. Since then, the Body Shop, both as a brand name and as a manufacturer of cosmetics has been greatly criticized by the masses who claim that the organization no longer follows the same values which were the company’s original claim to fame. The biggest reason for this is the fact that most people associate manufacturers such as L’Oreal with mass produced cosmetics that are laden with harmful chemicals, something which is in fundamental disagreement with the original philosophy upon which The Body shop was created. The company has claimed to be natural , yet over the years, more and more consumers have been unconvinced by the claim and the organization has been accused of “Green washing” and sending out false claims about the ‘pure nature’ of it’s products. This report aims to provide an insight into the myths and legends associated with “green marketing” and what The Body Shop can achieve by following the proposed set of practices that are reared towards winning the consumer’s confidence through ethical communication practices and through re-branding the image of their products. Literature Review: The 1990’s were the years during which the “Green Revolution” was said to be set on taking the world by storm. But according to Crane & Peattie (2005), even the most casual of observers can note that the phenomenon of the Green Revolution has significantly underachieved and has been somewhat outmaneuvered by the rising awareness of the masses who have realized that they want more from their green products than what organizations in the market are currently offering. During the 1980’s, green companies continued to be on the rise and enterprises the likes of The Body shop were able to maintain an ever expanding customer base who were loyal to the brand on the whole but during the 1990’s market researches were claiming that although there was a lot of interest in the subject, there were still very few people who were actually basing all their purchasing decisions on the basis of a product being green. Authors such as Mintel (1995) noted that there had been a very small increase in the number of green consumers since the 1990’s and stated that there was still a remarkable gap between concern and the actual purchasing exhibited by consumers in regard to environmental friendly brands and products. However, authors also noted that although consumers showed little trend of permanently shifting towards green brands, there was still a great market demand for eco friendly brands in the areas such as food, tourism and the cosmetic industry (Crane & Peattie, 2005). As a result of this, Brands such as The Body Shop continued to create hype and managed to obtain an increasing market share in the cosmetics industry. The 2006 takeover of the brand met with a confused reaction shown by the Body Shop’s loyal customer base who claimed that it was a “sell -out” claiming that the company had sold out to mass producers who followed practices such as testing on animals for cosmetic purposes, something which had vehemently been advocated against by the owners of The Body Shop (GreenBiz staff, 2008). Ethical Marketing strategies: A re-invention Although The Body Shop as a brand name had been always been portrayed as an eco-friendly brand, it had been subject to criticism even before the L’Oreal takeover. Most of these accusations came with the usage of chemicals such as Cyclomethicone and Dimethicone, which are silicone based products that are widely used in cosmetics and are a regular ingredient of the mass produced cosmetic product. However, since the company had always been portraying an extremely stringent approach towards making their cosmetics as ‘pure’ as nature intended, these practices met with criticism from the consumers who demanded all natural products. In the year 2008, The Body Shop launched it’s first ad campaign after it’s takeover by L’Oreal and mainly concentrated towards highlighting the company’s “green heritage”(GreenBiz staff, 2008). However, the consumer attitude towards the brands practices has been geared towards a sort of doubtful acceptance, and although it still remains a highly grossing subsidiary of the original parent company, The Body Shop will have to go some considerable distance before it wins the trust of the consumers again. Following is a proposal which outlines a strategy which aims to re-position The Body Shop’s image as the original green company and re-instate in the consumers mind the value that they can gain by association with The Body Shop name. Making Green more desirable: Research has shown that although people will generally care about the roots of a product that they buy and would generally take regard of its ethical standing, being green is not the only thing that a consumer will want from their purchase. Montgomery (2008), notes that research has shown that although consumers will say that they care about whether the products that they are buying are environment friendly or not, but it will never be the real reason that they will be pushed to buy a product. Therefore, to make a customer take that leap and be pushed to make a purchase decision, it is crucial that the products that The Body Shop is offering are marketed in a away which immediately creates demand. Since it is the marketer’s job to create demand, it is essential that the marketing strategies keep in mind that being green is not the only thing that consumers should be enticed with. Although being an eco-friendly brand has helped The Body Shop in the past, the only thing that will now catch the attention of the consumer is if “Green is made Sexier”(Montgomery, 2008). A reason for this argument is the fact that in spite of all ethical considerations, there is a huge segment of the consumer population who will never be likely to ignore all considerations of image, design and sensuality and go for a product only on the basis of it being eco-friendly. Therefore, if any form of brand re-positioning is to be suggested, one of the biggest leaps of faith that the brand will have to make is to focus on creating and associating an image of sensuality with their brands, something which will immediately give the products street credibility and increase it’s demand. However, a crucial question which arises here is: how should the brand, which has always been associated with simplicity and “clear plastic bottles”, go for sensuality? The next part of the report deals with that issue. Making Simple more Sensuous: In spite of the shifts of technology, the fact remains that consumers will admire and appreciate simplicity where they can get it. An example of this can be seen with a product known as “Five”, a range of ice-creams manufactured by the premium ice-cream brand Haagen-Dazs. This range of ice-cream is made with five ingredients, hence the name, and constitutes eggs, sugar, milk, cream and a single flavor (Almy, 2009). The author also notes that within 8 months, the sales of Five had grown to make up 10 % of the total Haagen-Dazs business, a fact which highlights the consumer attention towards un-pretentious products which are free of harmful ingredients. Almy (2009), is of the opinion that in this day and age, “simple is the new green”, and in my opinion, The Body Shop can benefit from going in the same direction. The organization can work on creating a line of natural beauty care products that package simplicity and sensuality together, and this can be done by focusing on not only the product that is in the bottle, but also on the appearance and design of the packaging itself. Currently, the products that are being offered by The Body Shop and the marketing surrounding those products is completely geared towards trying to win the hearts of the consumers and telling them how the organization still values it’s green roots. However, in my opinion what is of essence is the fact that the organization’s leaders realize that it is time that they stopped emphasizing on the greenness of their products and let the products speak for themselves. By creating a line of beauty products that are comprised of minimal ingredients, following the example of Haagen-Dazs “Five”, and concentrating on a marketing strategy geared towards promoting the range in a more glamorous light, The Body Shop can give their consumers a dual message, that is: “Beauty can be simple, yet glamorous”, a message which will instantly catch the attention of the consumer, and create demand. Escaping the label of “Green washing”: Another crucial step that the marketer at The Body Shop will have to take would be preparing a strategy that effectively answers the media and public criticism and helps the brand escape the label of a green washing organization which takes part in quick fix green activities. For this purpose, the brand will have to go through intense re-assessments of product strategies and literally clean up their act. There will have to be additional research carried out to handle issues such as product redesign and evaluation of green products’ social and environmental impacts (Morgan & Thorpe, 2007). Another important step will be to market truthfully and avoid all sorts of false claims. Johns (2009), points out that a marketing slogan or tagline is not just a few words strung together but essential product information that is being provided to the consumer and making false claims about product attributes generally leads to long-term damage in the brand’s reputation. Hence, any future marketing campaign should be geared towards providing consumers with a unambiguous insight into product information and should steer clear of making any unwarranted claims about the “green-ness” of the product. Sustainable communications The biggest issue that The Body Shop as a brand is facing today is the fact that there has been a gap that has sprung up between the organization and its consumers. McDonagh (1998) claims that this alienation is one of the biggest difficulties that a business may face and which, in the long run, not only mars the image of the organization, but also effects its productivity and success. However, this problem can be eradicated through the process of Sustainable communication, which is an interactive social process which helps organizations eradicate ecological alienations which may arise between the organizations and the consumers (McDonagh, 1998). By approaching criticism in an embracing manner, it allows organizations to interact and reach out to the public through various degrees of information sharing and disclosures that aim towards winning the trust of the common consumer. When organizations are providing its stake holders a chance to have an access to organizational policies and processes, and giving them an opportunity for carrying out open-ended conversation instead of making one-way information available off of marketing posters, they are essentially building trust in the mind of that stakeholder. Cramer (2009) notes that building and encouraging stakeholder engagement is a great developer of trust and sustainable communication allows organizations to engage consumers through a change in communication practices, making the firm’s business processes less opaque and more trustworthy. Conclusion: Researchers point out that environmental excellence, when unaccompanied by economic benefits, and vice versa, cannot be justified by any organization. Hence, a green product will only be a hit with the consumers if it is successful on both the “environmental and commercial fronts” (Lee & Green, 1994, cited in Pujari & Wright, 1999). Therefore The Body Shop will need to market its products in a way which rightly justifies the consumer’s decision in making a Body Shop purchase. The path for success in this regard will not be a simple one. For the brand to be once again recognized as a leading manufacturer of beauty products, the marketers would need to completely re-assess their strategies and instead of focusing on the “green-ness” of their products, aim towards re-creating the product image. If the organization implements the desired product changes and makes sure that the products and their compositions are in line with the nature of the organization’s principles, the products will speak for themselves, and added to the newly emergent “sensuality” of The Body Shop products, will immediately create a positive influence upon the consumer mind set. References Almy, D 2009. Is Simple the New Green?. Retrieved May 15, 2010, from http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/11/02/simple-new-green?page=full Cramer, A 2009. How Can Business Regain Public’s Trust. Retrieved May 15, 2010, from http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/09/15/how-can-business-regain-publics-trust Crane & Peattie, 2005, ‘Green marketing: legend, myth, farce or prophesy’, Qualitative Market Research: AN International Journal, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 257-370. Greenbiz Staff 2008. The Body Shop Taps Green Roots in Ad Campaign. Retrieved May 15, 2010, from http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/08/24/body-shop-taps-green-roots-ad-campaign Johns, K. 2009, 50 things you need to know about being green. Retrieved May 15, 2010 from Business Source Premier Online. McDonagh, P. 1998, ‘Towards a theory of Sustainable Communication in Risk Society: Relating issues of sustainability to marketing communications’, Journal of Marketing Mangement, vol. 14, pp. 591-622. Mintel (1995) The Second Green Consumer Report, Mintel, London. Montgomery, J. 2008, Can green brands get sexy? Retrieved May 15, 2010, from http://www.britannica.com/bps/additionalcontent/18/31444030/Can-green-brands-get-sexy Morgan, R. E., & Thompson, E., R., 2007, ‘In pursuit of the “ideal approach” to successful marketing strategy implementation’, European Journal of Marketing, vol. 41, no. 5/6, pp. 659-677. Pujari, D., & Wright, G., 1996, ‘Developing environmentally conscious product strategies: a qualitative study of selected companies in Germany and Britain’, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 14/1, pp. 19-28. Read More