The body shop a globally recognised brand name in the natural cosmetic and toiletries industry, founded by Dame Anita Roddick, in the year 1976. Dame Anita began Body Shop to create a living for herself and her family (About Dame Anita Roddick, n.d.).
The Body Shop which began as a small store in England today has over 2400 stores across 61 countries in the world with over 1200 products (The Body Shop website).
The Body Shop also has a strong value and ethics based business concept, which has helped it strengthen its customer loyalty and its market growth.
Organisation StructureThe Body Shop in its birth stages had no organisational structure except the leadership of Dame Anita Roddick, who took Body Shop to a flying start as the organisation was in the beginning years and needed a strong leader, although leadership and management are two distinctive features they are also complementary systems of action, which was necessary in this case for the business in the beginning but also both are necessary for success in a business environment (Kotter, 1990).
Body Shop for nearly 20 years mostly comprised of a centralised structure, which showed its negative effects, when the company entered the US markets and had a stagnated growth in the mid and late 90’s, as centralised structures slows down the decision making process and is also not a great help when an organisation is internationally expanding (Altinay, Levent, Mehmet, 2004).
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Although this structure helped the company develop its brand and image in the earlier years, it realised that this structure was not helping the growth of the company and in the mid 90’s they moved towards the organic structure and on the global front moved towards the global geographic structure. The company currently has a global structure, covering the UK and Irish Republic; the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and Asia Pacific (The Body Shop website).
Body Shop moved toward the decentralized structure to increase its decision-making in customer and market knowledge, local tactical activity, understanding local cultures and needs, although they encourage this information but also ensures that decentralising does not change the company’s ideals and the brand image.
Post acquisition of Body Shop by L’Oreal, Body Shop has been integrated as one of the divisions into the L’Oreal structure which follows the
conglomerate structure, which makes an indisputable contribution to the human resources and the income of the company by helping management to increase productivity (Judelson, & David, 1968).
Organisational Strategy.
During the early years of its conception and till date The Body Shop, relies on word of mouth, which is considered “the most powerful marketing force in the world” (Balter & Butman, 2005).
The company in its earlier years never invested much into advertising and relied totally on word of mouth marketing and marketing through their social causes, but changed this strategy once they realised that marketing was necessary for their sustenance. The company has a focus & differentiation strategy, as Litter (2005) defines focus strategy as concentrating on one or more niche or segments, this helps the company secure a sustainable advantage and growth.
A differentiation strategy has also helped them create a niche market for themselves as they have offered customers something that the competitors don’t have and they also have opened up their thinking to their customer’s experience which has helped their brand image and increased customer loyalty (MacMillan & McGrath, 1997).
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The ethical means of developing their products was also a strategy as compared to their competitors, combined with them taking up socio-moral & environmental issues. This strategy helped body shop acquire loyal customers and has made it an integrity based brand.
Organisation Culture.
Body Shops culture is their strong focus on their ideals and principals, which comes through the forefront by looking at the natural range of products & the social – moral & environmental issues they are involved with. An Organisational culture is recognised as on how ethically the organisation behaves. When things go wrong in organisations, managers look to the culture as both the source of problems and the basis for solutions (Sinclair, 1993).
The Body Shop Foundation, which takes up all the socio – moral & environmental issues is strongly integrated in the culture of Body Shop. The 5 Traditional Values of Body Shop are:1.Against Animal Testing.
2.Community Trade.
3.Defend Human Rights.
4.Protect our Planet.
5.Activate Self Esteem.
Body Shops earlier ideals were to operate as a model of social responsibility with ethics in business, but over time this has changed due to their stagnation and their declining market share. They have become more corporate; business minded and structured which is not what the founder had envisioned. Although they maintain their originality through their range of products.
RecommendationAlthough Body Shop has a strong brand name and loyal consumer base, they had stagnated at a certain level. They could tap into markets such as India, Pakistan, and South America & Russia. There is also a huge potential market for baby products, men’s toiletries and depilatories.
They could also leverage L’Oreal market experience and strength to make deeper inroads into untapped markets.
They should also concentrate on R&D and develop new product lines and improve their current ranges, a special focus could also be on the anti aging market and the vegetarian line of products that they have launched.
They should evaluate and review their product lines and the segment they cater too. Their marketing strategy and distribution channels should also be revised and they should target other market demographics through their marketing strategy.
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