Page 148 - DMGT510_SERVICES_MARKETING

Unit 8: Market Positioning and Blueprinting in Services

Notes

The Body Shop and Marketing
Case Study
he Body Shop recorded rapid growth during the 1970s and 1980s. However, its
founder, Anita Roddick had publicly dismissed the role of marketing. It is well-
Tknown that she publicly ridiculed marketing for putting the interests of shareholders
before the needs of society. She also held in similar low esteem the financial community
that she referred to as “merchant wankers.” While things were going very favourably,
nobody seemed to mind her sceptical approach. After all, it was possible that she had
actually found a new way of doing business, and the results so far stood to prove it. But
how even such a famous and admired person as Anita Roddick could manage indefinitely
without consulting the fundamental principles of marketing, wondered marketing experts
and others. By the end of the 1990s, The Body Shop was experiencing bad times and the
sceptics among the marketing and financial field were quick to point out the folly of its
founder’s apparently idiosyncratic ways.
From a high in 1992, The Body Shop shares dropped to a low witnessed at the start of 2003,
despite the market index rising over that period. Profit remained similarly depressed,
with performance in almost all European, North American, and Far Eastern markets
stagnant.
Yes, everybody recognised that Anita Roddick has been the dynamo behind The Body
Shop’s success. From a small single outlet, she inspired and managed the growth of the
chain to some 1500 familiar green-fronted establishments in 46 countries around the
world. Yet, until the late 1990s, she continued to boast that The Body Shop had never used,
or needed, marketing. Much of the company’s success has been tied to its promotional
approach by campaigning for the pursuit of social and environmental issues. But while
Roddick campaigned for everything from physical torture of wives and Siberian tigers to
the poverty-stricken mining communities of Southern Appalachia, the company was facing
major problems in all its key markets.
Part of the problem of The Body Shop was its failure to fully comprehend the dynamics of
its market place. Positioning on the basis of good causes may have been enough to launch
the company into the public mind in the 1970s, but what it now needed was a sustainable
long-term positioning. Other companies soon launched similar initiatives. For example,
the Boots Pure Drug Company matched one of The Body Shop’s earliest claims that it did
not test its products on animals. Competitors had copied even the very feel of The Body
Shop store that included its décor, staff, and product displays. How could the company
stay ahead in terms of maintaining its distinctive positioning when many others had
similar differentiation? Its causes seemed to become increasingly remote from the real
concerns of shoppers. While most shoppers in UK may have been swayed by a company’s
unique claim to protect animals, it is not clear how many would be moved by its support
for Appalachian miners? If there was a Boots or Superdrug store next door, why should a
buyer shell out a premium price to buy from The Body Shop? The Body Shop may have
pioneered a very clever business launching formula over twenty-five years ago, but the
concept had been successfully copied by others. And these other companies had made
enormous strides in terms of their social and environmental concerns and awareness.
Part of the company’s problem has been blamed on the inability of Roddick to delegate.
She is reported to have spent almost half of her time globetrotting in propagating support
of her good causes, but did have a problem in delegating marketing strategy and
implementation. Numerous capable managers who were brought in to try to implement
Contd...

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