It is a case study on The Body Shop, a cosmetic company founded by Anita Roddick now under L'Oreal.
It shows the birth, growth, bottlenecks, achievements, competitors, social responsibility, markets and the product range of Body Shop.
3. CONTENTS
Sno. Topic Page
No.
1 Childhood 1
2 Education 2
3 Married Life 3
4 Idea and Foundation of The Body Shop 4
5 Growth, Bottlenecks and Expansion 7
6 Market In India 10
7 Market in China 12
8 Belief in Products 13
9 Wards and Recognitions 14
10 Social Service / The Body Shop Foundation 15
11 Books of Anita Roddick 19
12 Illness 20
13 Bibliography 21
14 End 22
4. Roddick was born Anita Lucia Perilli in a bomb shelter in Sussex, in an
Italian Jewish immigrant community, and she was brought up in a family
of 4 children. Her family had left Naples, Italy just before the Second
World War and settled in England. Her mother, Gilda, ran a café
(Clifton café), and was in the habit of recycling. At a very small age
Anita got into the habit of recycling. Roddick says that she never
experienced leisure in her childhood as she and her siblings were made
to work in the café after school time and on weekends. She grew up
working in the café, her parents owned, developing a strong work ethic
and learning about the inner workings of a business at the same time.
Her parents divorced when she was 8 and her mother married her first
husband’s cousin, who died of Tuberculosis after only a few years of
marriage. At the age of 18 she came to know that her mother’s first
husband was not her biological father.
5. EDUCATION
She went to school at St Amy’s Convent, and then at Maude Allen
Secondary Modern. After leaving high school, Roddick trained as a
teacher at Bath College of Higher Education (now known as Bath Spa
University). She enjoyed teaching, making her lessons special,
incorporating music and drama into her lessons.
In 1962, Roddick got a scholarship to study in kibbutz in Israel.
Roddick returned to England after a prank got her expelled from the
kibbutz. After holding and leaving several jobs, she took some savings
and travelled through Tahiti, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Australia,
and on to Johannesburg, her last stop. She had to leave South Africa
after she went to a jazz on a black night thereby, violating apartheid
laws.
6. MARRIED LIFE
After two years of traveling she returned to England where her
mother introduced her to one of the customers of their café, a
Scottish poet named Gordon Roddick, a kindred bohemian spirit who
loved to travel as much as she did.
Anita and Gordon got married in 1970.
Their daughters Justine and Samantha were born in 1969 and 1971
respectively.
7. THE BODY SHOP IDEA AND FOUNDATION
Together Anita and Gordon opened a restaurant and a hotel in Littlehampton. Their
first entrepreneurial experience taught them the first valuable lesson of business.
They learned that "When you make a mistake, you have to face up to the fact
and take immediate steps to change course."
After three years of running both hotel and the restaurant, the couple decided to
quit this business. Gordon Roddick wanted to fulfill his long-term dream to take a
horseback expedition from Buenos Aires to New York. Anita supported him in his
decision and agreed to sell their restaurant to finance his trip and decided to open
some small shop to make her living for her family.
When the question arrived regarding what type of shop was to be opened, she
thought skincare would be easy. She realized that she did not have enough
knowledge of the subject, however, thought that these gaps could be filled in by
researching, reading and communicating.
In the early 1970s, Anita
Roddick (then Anita Perilli) had
visited a shop in Berkeley,
California who sold naturally-
scented soaps and lotions called
The Body Shop. The Berkeley
Body Shop was run by Peggy
Short and Jane Saunders who
used natural ingredients, and
helped to employ and train
immigrant women.
Anita Roddick with Jane Saunders
8. Her early travels had given her a wealth of experience. She had spent time in
farming and fishing communities with pre-industrial peoples, and was exposed to
body rituals of women from all over the world. She remembered during her world
travels, seeing women using the things made from plants and fruits that did a
better job in cleaning their skin than the products she bought at home. At that
time there were no inexpensive skin care products, and it was not a common
practice to work with natural ingredients.
Anita decided she would be the first. Her previous experiences with running a
hotel and a restaurant gave her the conviction that even if her idea was wrong, she
would be able to tweak it until it works.
Anita planned to open a tiny shop that would be filled with cosmetics which were
made only from natural ingredients. The foundation of The Body Shop's
environmental activism was born out of ideas like these.
Anita opened the first Body Shop with the aim of exploiting some of the ideas that
she had formed while traveling around the world. She took out a modest loan and
founded The Body Shop in Brighton, in March 1976. The first The Body Shop
was basic and at first sold only 15 products.
9. The cheapest bottles Anita could find were the plastic containers used by the
hospitals to collect samples. Because there was no money to buy enough bottles,
the customers were offered to refill the empty containers. Refilling, reusing and
recycling became the company’s way of life even before it became fashionable
elsewhere. She even had customers bring the bottles back and she would refill
them right there in the store.
It proved an unexpected success and the business began to grow when Gordon
returned and helped in the business. The store was very successful. Before long
she was looking for a place to build a second store. Soon they were selling the
rights to open Body Shops to others. In 1984 they decided to sell stock in the
company and Anita and Gordon became millionaires overnight! The Body Shop
became a different kind of business: business drawn to innovation and creativity,
instead of the commonly used principles of marketing and organization.
The shop sold just a handful of
creams and hair-care products; its
walls were painted green, to cover
the damp spots. The Body Shop
became famous for its green color
and "green" policy. None of her
products would be tested on
animals
She came up with the name from signs
she had seen over car repair shops in
the United States. The design of the
logo had to be cheap. The friends
helped Anita with filling the bottles
and handwriting the labels.
10. GROWTH, BOTTLENECKS AND EXPANSION
She opened a second shop within six months, by that time Gordon was back in
England.
The company went public in 1984.
By 1991 the Body Shop had 700 branches and Anita Roddick was awarded the 1991
World Vision Award for Development Initiative Award.
By the end of 1992, there were more than 700 Body Shop stores generating $231
million in sales.
However, as The Body Shop's profits and name-recognition grew, the Roddicks
began paying more attention to social causes than their business, launching an array
of environmental projects rather than revamping the company's aging product line.
Better-run imitators, such as The Bath & Body Works, ate into The Body Shop's
customer base. And critics, who were once Body Shop allies suddenly started
attacking the company for "hypocritical practices," generating a wave of negative
press. As a result, sales fell and profits dulled.
By 1996, it was clear that a change was needed. The Roddicks stepped back from
running day-to-day operations and installed managing director Stuart Rose, who
promptly restructured the company, bringing in other professional managers,
installing tighter inventory control and streamlining processes.
The changes failed to have the desired effect, and sales continued to decline.
After a dismal first quarter financial performance in 1998, Roddick ceded her post
as CEO to Patrick Gourney, a professional manager from a French food
conglomerate, and farmed out her flagging U.S. franchises to the Bellamy Retail
Group.
In January 1999, the company announced it was giving up manufacturing to focus on
retail, and the projections were good.
By 1999, Body Shop stores had blanketed Britain and moved beyond.
11. By 2004, the Body Shop had 1980 stores, serving over 77 million customers
throughout the world. The Body Shop was voted the 2nd most trusted brand in the
United Kingdom, and 28th top brand in the world.
A store of The Body Shop in Dubai, U.A.E.
In 2006, The Body Shop was sold to L’Oreal Cosmetics for 130 million pounds.
Anita Roddick donated 30 million pounds to her charity foundation. When the
company became a subsidiary of the L’Oréal Group, Roddick continued to monitor
their work closely, making sure that operations were being run in line with her and
her company’s core values. Now 30 years (2006) on, The Body Shop is a multi local
business with over 2.045 stores serving over 77 million customers in 51 different
markets in 25 different languages and across 12 time zones.
12. The Body Shop’s full range now has over 300 products.
The Body Shop international has operations across 52 countries through its
affiliates and subsidiaries.
Since The Body Shop had been first launched in the UK with subsequent expansion
into North America and Western Europe, much of the emerging markets in Asia,
Africa and Latin America remained a new opportunity. At present almost two-
thirds of the stores are franchised and the remainder are company-owned, and The
Body Shop is expanding rapidly in the emerging markets by franchising outlets in
these markets.
13. MARKET IN INDIA
The Body Shop launched in India on June 6 2006 at the Inorbit mall in Malad,
Mumbai.
In 2006 itself the Body Shop launched 8 new stores in different parts of India.
The iconic British skin care brand and retailer The Body Shop has set its sights on
India with a fresh approach, helping it get closer to the country’s consumers and
leverage its brand recall in the market. India is a key market for The Body Shop, in
terms of growth potential and size. Due to India’s connection with natural beauty
products, it has relevance even at a brand level for The Body Shop. The company’s
ranges—it has more than 1,200 products available there—have been doing
extremely well in India, and that is why the company is targeting the country for a
10-times growth rate in the next five years.
By 2015, The Body Shop plans to touch the lives of 15 million people in India.
The Body Shop branch in Chandigarh, Haryana.
14. The Body Shop International CEO Sophie Gasperment says, “The brand awareness
is very high here. It genuinely resonates with the consumers here, and we found
the fit spontaneously. This is because we are nature inspired, and use natural and
organic ingredients as much as possible. People here know that The Body Shop
stands for a certain value and is an ethical brand. They appreciate the fact that
our products are 100% vegetarian.”
The other cosmetics producing brands in competition with the body shop are:
1. Hindustan lever
2. Ponds India
3. Lakme
4. Johnsons & Johnsons
5. Procter & Gamble
15. MARKET IN CHINA
It is clear that business organizations must be profitable to survive. Although The
Body Shop promotes its core values concerning the environment and human rights,
it would rather be appropriate to say that The Body Shop has become a brand with
more global vision than a non-profit organization.
The Body Shop can invest in China not merely because of the huge market with a
population of 1.3billion, but for the huge demand of Chinese. The past annual
reports of the Body Shop shows that hand and body lotions are the most popular
around the world, which is predicted to be a great need of Chinese in the coming
years.
The Body Shop saw China as a huge market and made efforts to sell franchises and
export products but the Chinese Government restricted them to do so. The Body
Shop does not export its products to China, because cosmetics sold there have to
be tested on animals, which is against the company’s rules. However, The Body Shop
has always sourced many of its baskets and other non cosmetic supplies from China.
16. BELIEF IN PRODUCTS
Anita and her husband Gordon worked hard to ensure that The Body Shop was
different from other cosmetic companies. They wanted the business to be
profitable, yet based on solid principles. The idea was to bring values into an
industry that was certainly not value-driven, and to create social and
environmental change by having a business that was built on the principles of
honesty, fairness, and respect for the individual and care for the environment.
Anita did not want to deceive women by telling them that moisturizing cream from
The Body Shop would shed years off their faces. Her products were never
positioned as miracle treatment for the skin or hair. It is probably the only
cosmetic chain that never used beautiful and glamorous women to market its
products.
Their target market comprised of the following people-
1. Well educated women’s aged 18-55
2. Well educated men 30 -55 with high income
3. Interested in ethical and environmentally friendly products
4. Willing to pay more for quality beauty products
In 2007 they launched Wise Women - A range of advanced products especially
developed for mature skin.
17. In 2008 they launched Well Being Ranges - total energy, deep sleep, divine calm
and simple purity.
Moringa is a new collection of bathing oil, creams, body soap and lotions.
18. AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS
Since 1984, she was given a host of awards, some of which are listed below:
1984 – Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year
1988 – Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)
1991 – Center for World Development Education’s World Vision Award, USA
1993 – Banksia Foundation’s Australia Environmental Award
1993 – Mexican Environmental Achiever Award
1993 – National Audubon Society Medal, USA
1994 – Botwinick Prize in Business Ethics, USA
1994 – University of Michigan’s Annual Business Leadership Award, USA
1995 – Women’s Business Development Center’s First Annual Woman Power Award,
USA
1996 – Women’s Center’s Leadership Award, USA
1996 – The Gleitsman Foundation’s Award of Achievement, USA
1997 – United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Honouree, Eyes on the
Environment
1999 – British Environment & Media Award
1999 – Chief Wiper-Away of Ogoni Tears, Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni
People, Nigeria
2001 – International Peace Prayer Day Organisation’s Woman of Peace
19. 2003 – Queen Elizabeth II appointed Anita Roddick a Dame
Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
In recognition of Roddick’s contribution to business and charity, Queen Elizabeth
II made her a dame, the female equivalent of a knight.
2004 – Honorary Doctorate of Public Service, the Sage Colleges.
20. SOCIAL SERVICES
When Anita was 10 she had discovered a book about the Holocaust and this had a
significant impact on her and influenced her to empathize with the human
condition. She had gone on to become one of the most prominent and well
respected social entrepreneurs in the world. Not only had she a strong sense of
social responsibility, she had also ingrained these into her company values.
As The Body Shop's profits and name-recognition grew, Anita began paying more
attention to social causes than their business, launching an array of environmental
projects rather than revamping the company's aging product line.
1985 - Stop the dumping of toxic waste in North Sea, Greenpeace
1986 - Campaign against whaling of sperm whales, Greenpeace
1987 - Acid Rain pollution, Friends of the Earth
1987 - Published first 'Green' Diary, Friends of the Earth
1980s - Against Animal Testing for cosmetics, collected 4 million signatures
through shops
1990 - Set-up project to refurbish 3 Romanian orphanages. Work extended into
Albania and Bosnia
1994 - Marked 50th anniversary of UN Declaration of Human Rights, launched
'Make Your Mark' campaign with Dalai Lama, in partnership with Amnesty
International. 3 million thumbprints collected in 34 countries. 17 prisoners of
conscience released
2001 - Present - Challenging Exxon-Mobil, World's No 1 Global Warming Villain and
campaigning for renewable energy for world's 2 billion poorest people, Greenpeace
2001 - Present - Sweatshop Labor and workers' rights in Free Trade Zones,
National Labor Committee
2001 - 2002 - Positive Energy Campaign with Greenpeace
21. 2003- Present - Help Stop Violence in the Home – Domestic Violence Campaign with
Refuge (the UK’s largest single provider of accommodation and support to women
and children experiencing domestic violence)
THE BODY SHOP FOUNDATION
The Body Shop Foundation was set-up in 1990. Over first 6 years of operation it
donated more than 3.5 million pounds to 180 charitable groups.
The Body Shop Foundation is funded by an annual donation from the company and
through various fundraising initiatives.
They have supported a wide variety of projects since they began in 1989, but have
always stayed true to three areas, namely:
Animal Protection
Environmental Protection
Human Rights
Their aim is to:
Support organizations at the forefront of social & environmental change
Support groups with little hope of conventional funding
Support projects working to increase public awareness
23. The Bollywood
actress Dia Mirza is
the brand
ambassador of The
Body Shop, India.
An advertisement of
The Body Shop.
Anita Roddick shows
a demonstration to
Diana, Princess of
Wales in 1986.
24. “Business As Unusual” and “Body and Soul” written by
Anita Roddick were published in 2000 and 1991
respectively. “Take it Personally” (2001) was also written
by Anita Roddick.
25. Illness
On 14 February 2007, Anita Roddick revealed to the world
that she had been diagnosed with liver cirrhosis which was a
result of the long-standing undiscovered hepatitis C. In spite
of her illness she tried to stay fit and active. Roddick died on
10 September 2007. She kept her promise to leave her
estates to charities. She is survived by her husband and their
two daughters, Samantha and Justine.
She was a courageous woman, a shining star who lived each
day as if it were her last. She leaves behind millions of
admirers. She has certainly touched many lives.