Body Shop

If someone were to say the Body Shop International is a somewhat of a pioneer company, you wouldn’t get many arguments. With over 1,900 stores in 50 countries since it began with founder Anita Roddick in 1976 it has became one of the more successful skin and body care retailers in the world. Known for its naturally inspired skin and hair care products, the Body Shop International is a company driven by human relationships and involves their stakeholders in many of its decisions. Further, The Body Shop was voted the 2nd most trusted brand in the UK in 1999 and was voted 27th most respected company by the Financial Times. Starting in 1976, Anita Roddick took one small shop of previously unheard of natural ingredients and expanded it through the 1980’s eventually by 1985 going public. That year began the start of Anita Roddick’s and her company’s vision of becoming ecologically sustainable, meeting the needs of the present without compromising the future. The Body Shop has since fought against human right abuses, environmental protection and in the process has won the support of generations of consumers and its competitors in its industry. This activism is still very evident to this day and the blend of product, passion and partnership of those in the Body Shop will continue well into the future.

Body shop is one of the most success and famous cosmetic brand in the world. The brand loyalty of its consumers and indistinguishable mission of building a commitment of need of social and environmental change are its strengths. Anita Roddick has always felt "business should do more than make money, create decent jobs, or sell good products. Rather, business should help solve major social problems such homelessness, unemployment, and social alienation." However, Anita’s vision of increasing shareholder value and solving social problems were not working. The Body Shop’s stand on environmental issues was doing nothing for the financial aspects. Weak U.S. sales and a slumping share price were not the only problem of the cosmetics concerns into there midlife crisis. The increased competition is also an issue. The internal problem to make the company stumble in the U.S. market was partial due to Anita’s management style. For many years, the BST was not managed professionally. Even the company expanded, it had no business plan and no job descriptions that made the company became more difficult to retain managers who sought to run the organization more professionally. After a few years many outsiders felt the Body Shop’s intense activism could have been a marketing ploy, a cause-related marketing ploy to hide the fact sales were not as strong as they used to be. To gain back the US market share, there are some solutions that we need to consider. The new marketing position, cost control and possibly resignation of Anita Roddick’s position as CEO.

When BST first opened in United States, its approach to cosmetics appealed to many women. However, Americans are not as loyal as the Europeans. Americans are more influenced by pricing. Later on, BST finally knew that it was a different culture which they did not understand. Hence, the BST should concern the market environment and customer’s needs. Furthermore, the BST should make a better relationship and make the franchisees feel comfortable with franchisees. Because some of the franchisees were fear about BST idea