The Secret Recipe of the Body Shop

The Body Shop is the 2nd largest cosmetics franchise in the world; their stores are everywhere throughout the world - 2400 stores in 61 countries. Its brand name is something but simply, and represents the shop that sells all the goods for body, beauty, and healthcare from top to toe. Its logo is unique and also defines its simplicity, with the green color that describes nature - clearly indicates that the company is environmental friendly. Finally, you will notice that The Body Shop anywhere in the world will not ignore its famous, green, and white logo; and those two colors will be pretty, dominant in any Body Shop outlet that you visit.

The Body Shop's products are naturally made and against animal testing. There's something special with the packaging - First of all, the tubes and bottles are recyclable, made by minimum 30% of plastics. The company is trying to reduce of using plastic for higher level recycled content every day. Body Shop also likes to recycled things and made it into accessories. So, aside from being useful and unique, it's highly eco-friendly.

The entrepreneurs of Body Shop, Anita Roddick, succeeded not because of a capitalist goal which is profit, but she thought of ways to survive in the market. The body shop always born with new ideas and innovations, and they keep improving customer services.

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Here, we are going to describe more about The Body Shop and its secret recipe to succeed in franchising world.

Franchising

Anita Roddick appointing a head franchisee in each major national market to be able to concentrate on the development on new product lines and the company's global vision, rather than the complexities of administration or personnel management. Body Shop has their secret ingredient of selecting its franchisee; that is openly acknowledged a preference for women as franchisees.

Roddick kept strict control over the franchising process, she was really careful with this franchising thing. Her objective was to ensure that The Body Shop image and the principles it was based on, were not diluted through franchising.

Team Management

"We were searching for employees, but people turned up instead" - Anita Roddick

Body shop selects staffs that support the company's vision, and the employees aren't kept in the dark - they are supported in the belief that they are part of an exciting future.

The value of integrity defines its interaction with its customers, staff and suppliers. The teams are managed to build their passion through a fun and simple atmosphere within the firm. The employees are knowledgeable and fully committed to the company's goals.

The trustees of Body Shop look for projects which are committed to addressing social and economic injustice, access to education and protection of the environment and animal life, taking into consideration current global issues and situations.

The directors and the employees can build a good correlation. These executive directors are the people who develop their company's performance plans. The plans are signed by the employees and then passed on to the management for approval. They make sure that company performance plans are complete and adequate before signing the forms. Executive directors also discuss the company performance plans with the employees in a clear and organised manner. Non-executive directors document their company's performance and provide feedback to the executive directors from time to time throughout the company performance cycle.

Furthermore, the company is maintaining good relations and open communications with its investors. As a matter of fact, shareholders are regularly invited by the corporation whenever there are gatherings to discuss trade updates. Moreover, whenever there is an annual general meeting, investors get the chance to meet The Board members themselves. And of course, for private investors, they can also access the company's website for various shareholder services.

Undoubtedly, the company has good consideration for all of its stakeholders; past, present and future. It seems to be a very well planned framework in the firm's corporate division. It has good policies and procedures with regards to financial matters and operational concerns. Its procedure of assessing the different kinds of situations that come up is certainly a good move on their part. Not to mention, they have maintained good relations with their stakeholders.

Training

The Body Shop management trainee program provides autonomy, a challenge and gives the opportunity to run our own store. The trainee will spend the first year in one of their top performing stores as an assistant store manager and in the second year the trainee will manage their own store. During the program, the trainee will also spend time with The Body Shop Commercial team, get involved in project work at head office and gain an insight into what The Community Trade team does. Beyond the program, there are number of opportunities available from managing a store internationally to moving into a commercial role. The company will support their trainee with training, on the job learning, progress reviews and support from senior management.

Operation

According to the Body Shop Retail Sales report, the total sales worldwide boosted by 7% to �772 million (Body Shop International. With the growing market capacities of the Far East Asian region, international brands like Body Shop will definitely create big. It is reported that Body Shop stores in the Asia Pacific region, particularly in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, increase its sales by 12% while operating profits to �19.7 million.

In 2002, The Body Shop shoppers do not just go to its chains just to buy its products, because the Body Shop products themselves are the ones that go to the American homes. Surprisingly, the results are promising. It has predicted a 35% profit in operations.

In operating process, body shop always born with new ideas and innovations of their product. Definitely, innovations are proven to increase business' performance and existence.

The special thing about body shop operation is not just in the manufacturing, but also the services that the company offers. Body shop is campaign for social justice and human rights; they fund the organizations environmental campaign.

Marketing

Products

The company "body shop" sells organically grown body products, for the consumer who likes to take care of him or herself. It is known for its cosmetic products that are naturally made and environment-friendly.

These organically products is used by different women across the globe, and different products with different functions composed by the ingredients that come from different countries. (Ex: sesame seed from Nicaragua, shea butter from Gnana, coco milk, mangoes, strawberries, etc). Those ingredients are kept on improving along with the new ingredients.

Price

The products are priced more exclusively than the mass merchandised cosmetics, but well under exclusive department store lines. We can conclude from here that the company has sufficient information about the customer's prices - company knows exactly its target group and knows what the target group is willing to pay, so the products actually are comparatively cheap; which means, still, there are lots of people can afford them.

Place

The company is B2C related which means that its target group is consumers on the B2C market. They use a mixture between intensive and selective distribution. All the shops are run on a franchising basis. Their customers are willing to pay in high prices and are in the medium class or higher; so they put their store mostly at exclusive department store lines, big shopping centers, and located in major cities.

Promotion

The company is against promotion, so they don't do business by promoting, but they have their own internet site, where you can see their selection of products. The unique thing about Body Shop's promotion, it deviates from its fellow cosmetics line with regard to its advertisements. It never made use of famous celebrities nor supermodels to endorse its products. Furthermore, the characteristics those models posses are far from the stereotypical model or from the Western standards. If we are to access the Body Shop International's website, as cited in this paper, we will find out that these models are black. From this we can derive that the pioneer of Body Shop ventures into something that is more than just business. There is politics behind. The cosmetic business is bound by principle.

Hazard Management

The body shop provides safety to its customers. The products itself are naturally made and environmental friendly. They are against animal testing. So the company supports animal and human rights, and the economically climate. In October 2009, the Body Shop was awarded a 'Lifetime Achievement Award' by the RSPCA in Britain, in recognition of its uncompromised policy which ensures ingredients are not tested by its suppliers. Note that the promise of not testing on animals has no bearing on whether the ingredients are from animal sources.

They are unique with the outlet decoration. The Body Shop's corporate identity provided a consistent visual cue in its shops. The company's original shop interior concept, nicknamed the "green box" was developed to complement the corporate image. It featured a dark green modular system constructed in timber, and dark green tones on both the exterior and interior.

Conclusion

Lessons learned from The Body Shop's success:

• Authenticity adds value
• The importance of staff selection
• Globalization can lead to greater success
• Don't confuse your personal strategies with business strategies. Here, a company must have clear strategies.
• Advertising and marketing add value
• Don't underestimate your competition

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