From the moment of its foun-dation by Anita Roddick, TheBody Shop has alwaysstressed the importance ofethical behaviour in every as-pect of marketing its prod-ucts. This emphasis has giventhe company a distinctiveimage and made it a pioneerin the world of business.

per leLingue comunitarie

http://www.europassedizioni.ithttp://www.principato.ite-mail: info@principato.it

Casestudy

Company profileA Pioneer of Businesspage 2

Companyfounder Anita Roddickpage 3

Company valuesResponsibilitypage 4

Core value 1Support CommunityTradepage 5

Core value 2Protect Our Planetpage 6

Core value 3Activate Self-EsteemCore value 4Oppose Animal Testingpage 7

Core value 5Defend Human Rightspage 8

A case study in ethical marketing

The Body Shop

ISSUE 1

Linked to...

183592by Martin Ryan

2

CasestudyCompany profileA Pioneer of Business

The Body Shop International is aglobal manufacturer and retailer ofnaturally inspired, ethically producedbeauty and cosmetics products. AnitaRoddick opened the very first TheBody Shop store in 1976 in Brighton,on the south coast of England.There are now over 2,500 stores inover 60 countries with a range ofover 1,200 products, including newmarkets in India, Pakistan, Namibia,Poland, Slovakia and Egypt. As wellas selling products through theirstores, the company also has e-com-merce websites for online shopping

in the UK , the USA , Canada, Aus-tralia, Korea and Japan.The Body Shop owns Soapworks, asoap factory based in Glasgow, Scot-land, which represents the only manu-facturing facility in the Company.Otherwise all other product manu-facturing is outsourced.The firm has its own charity, TheBody Shop Foundation. Launched in1990, The Foundation gives financialsupport to organisations working toachieve progress in the areas of humanand civil rights, environmental andanimal protection.

1. Read the information and fill in thetable.

2. Answer the questions.1. Do you know any Body Shop stores

in Italy?2. What kind of products do these

shops sell?3. Have you ever visited The Body

Shop?

The Body Shop became part of theL’Oréal Group in 2006. L’Oréal islisted on the Paris Stock Exchange.However The Body Shop operatesas a distinct entity, with its ownBoard and Executive Committee,within the L’Oréal Group.From the moment of its foundationby Anita Roddick the company hasalways stressed the importance ofethical behaviour in every aspect ofmarketing its products. This emphasishas given The Body Shop a distinct-ive image and made it a pioneer inthe world of business.

founder of the company

present owner

age of company

original store

total number of stores

presence in the world

charity

purpose of charity

reason for firm’s distinctive image

Exercises

Three branchesof The Body

Shop in China,the UnitedStates andCanada.

3Exercises

The Body Shop

CompanyfounderAnita Roddick

1942 Born Anita Perilli in Littlehampton, near London; family had left Naples just before World War 2; mother had a cafe where Anita worked

1960s After leaving school does a variety of jobs and travels the world, including the Pacific islands, Australia, Africa

1970 Marries Gordon Roddick; they run a restaurant and smallhotel; they have two daughters

1973 Finds inspiration after visiting a shop in San Francisco called “The Body Shop”, selling natural soaps and lotions

1976 Opens her own Body Shop in Brighton; only 15 products, invented using ingredients she had seen on her travels

1976-1984 Body Shop becomes instantly popular and grows rapidly,50% per year; opens new branches in England

1984 Body Shop becomes a public company, listed on LondonStock Exchange; using franchises, company spreads all over Britain and then abroad

late 1980s Begins a series of social and environmental campaigns; creates an alliance with Greenpeace to save the whale; Body Shop stores sponsor local charities and communityevents

1990s Body Shop continues its expansion around the world; Anita becomes a controversial critic of business practicesand, in particular, the cosmetics industry; important campaigns in favour of fair trade (“Trade not aid”) and women’s rights

2003 Retires as head of company; honoured by the Queen, Anita becomes Dame Anita Roddick

2006 Body Shop sold to L’Oréal for £652 million

2007 Anita dies; she had contracted hepatitis C following a blood transfusion in 1971; Prime Minister calls her “oneof the country’s true pioneers”

3. Use the information in the table to prepare “A short history of The Body Shop”.

Anita Roddickin front of her

first shop.

Anita Roddickshows PrincessDiana some ofthe ingredientsof Body Shopcosmetics in

1986.

4

Some of thecauses that

The Body Shophas supported.

CasestudyCompany valuesResponsibility

Anita Roddick believed that businesses have the power to do good. When she foundedThe Body Shop, she drew up a mission statement so that the new business would have apowerful sense of its own identity and the direction it should follow.

4. Read the Mission Statement and choose the correct verb to fill in each space (1-5).Balance • Campaign • Contribute • Dedicate • Ensure

5. Answer the questions.1. Why did Anita Roddick write a mission statement for her new company?2. What is the purpose of the company’s five core values?3. What kind of policies do you think each of the five core values would inspire the company to follow?

Exercises

Anita Roddick

“The business of business should not just be about money, it should beabout responsibility. It should be about public good, not private greed

AVIDITÀ.”

Core value 1Support Community Trade

Core value 2Protect Our Planet

Core value 3Activate Self-Esteem

AUTOSTIMA

Core value 4Oppose Animal Testing

Core value 5Defend Human Rights

Mission Statement ofThe Body Shop

Our reason for being is to:

– 1_______________ our business to social and environmental change.

– 2_______________ the financial and human needs of our employees, customers, franchisees, suppliers

and shareholders.

– 3_______________ that our business is ecologically sustainable meeting the needs of the present

without compromising the future.

– 4_______________ to local, national and international communities in which we trade by adopting a code

of conduct which ensures care, honesty, fairness and respect.

– 5_______________ for the protection of the environment, to defend human rights, and against animal

testing within the cosmetics industry.

In order to make sure that the business continues to live by this Mission Statement, The BodyShop has created five core values. These values act as a practical guide to decision making atall levels of the company, helping to ensure that profits are made with principles.

SOSTENIBILE

AMBIENTE

5

India, womencollecting tea

leaves.

The Body Shop

Core value 1Support Community Trade

6. Read the information and match the beginning of each sentence with the correct ending.Exercises

The Body Shop is committed tousing responsibly sourced ingredientswherever possible, and working withthe communities and people whosupply these goods.The company asks all their suppliersto sign the Code of Conduct basedon their Ethical Trade Programme,developed to improve conditions forall workers in the supply chain andto defend their human rights. Thiscode is strictly enforced and moni-tored to ensure standards are met re-garding child labour, discrimination,

and employee pay, hours and work-ing conditions.In 1987, The Body Shop launchedCommunity Fair Trade. This was oneof the first examples in the world offair trade. Community Fair Trade hasnumerous benefits for the company,its customers and its suppliers. Build-ing up long term trading relation-ships, the company does more thangive a fair price. It offers suppliers,especially poor farmers in ThirdWorld countries, a predictable andregular income for their family and

the security and confidence to de-velop their businesses. In turn TheBody Shop has access to some of na-ture’s finest ingredients, which aregrown by expert local farmers. Otherproducts are made using old-estab-lished techniques, helping to preservea traditional way of life.

Community Fair Trade allows sup-pliers to build better futures for them-selves and their communities. The programme benefits over 25,000people in 22 countries worldwide.

1. The Body Shop supports the rights of people working toproduce their goods by...

2. The Body Shop guarantees a fair price for the products itbuys by...

3. The Body Shop gives poor farmers the confidence todevelop their business by...

4. The Body Shop is able to buy the best ingredients for itsproducts by...

5. The Body Shop helps to preserve traditional ways of lifeby...

a. � building up long term relationships with expert local farmers.

b. � buying products which are made using old-established techniques.

c. � obliging all suppliers to sign a code of conduct guaranteeing working conditions.

d. � providing them with a regular predictable income.e. � setting up and following the Community Fair Trade

project.

6

CasestudyCore value 2Protect Our PlanetThe Body Shop is active in the battleagainst climate change. The firm isconstantly looking for new ways toimprove business practices and re-duce its carbon footprint. Body Shopstores are attempting to improvetheir energy efficiency, through newlighting and store signs with reducedenergy use. The firm has introducedenergy-awareness training for allstore staff, has reduced air travel andis converting all company cars tolower-emission models.The company chooses sources of re-newable energy wherever possibleto run its offices, warehouses andstores around the world. In the UKalone, 65 per cent of stores are onrenewable energy contracts.The Body Shop is conscious thatevery product we use has conse-quences for the planet, from the soapand shampoo that flows out of the

7. Read Core Values 2-4 and find examples of specific actions The Body Shop is taking to...1. save energy2. reduce carbon emissions3. encourage the use of renewable energy sources4. avoid polluting or damaging the environment5. reduce waste6. make their customers feel good about themselves7. make their staff feel good about themselves8. improve the condition of animals

Exercises

bathroom to the packaging we throwaway.The Body Shop chooses raw mater-ials carefully and only uses ingredi-ents known to be non-toxic. Thecompany also ensures that the ingre-dients it uses are biodegradable andcapable of decomposing rapidlyunder natural conditions.To reduce waste, the firm is intro-ducing plastic bottles made from 100per cent recycled material. All carrierbags have been replaced with recyc-lable paper bags. The CommunityFair Trade Bag for Life is made from100 per cent organically grown cot-ton.The Body Shop aims to use the min-imum amount of packaging materialsfor products. The weight and volumeof packaging relative to its contentsis measured, and the pack-to-contentratio never exceeds 0.2 grams ofpackaging per gram of product.

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The Body Shop

Core value 3Activate Self-Esteem

Company policy on employment• To promote diversity in our employment practicesthrough global equal opportunities standards.• To enable personal development for our employeesthrough volunteering, training and personal developmentplans.We encourage our employees to learn new skills. Byfunding a range of training courses, events and healthtreatments, we aim to increase our staff’s sense ofwell-being.We also have a policy of offering a minimum of threepaid volunteering days a year. Our staff work withcharities such as The Aldingbourne Trust, helpingpeople with learning difficulties, and Children on theEdge, which supports the rights of children acrossthe globe.

Company policy on marketing and advertisingThe Body Shop believes that each individual is uniqueand beautiful, regardless of age, skin colour, sizeand background. Our naturally inspired make-up,skin and body care products enhance individualbeauty. We will offer products providing particularbenefits to certain age groups or skin types, but willnever play on our customers’ insecurities in order tosell products. • Our marketing messages celebrate individuality,health and well-being, not perfection and stereotypicalbeauty.• We will not sell our products based on negativeimages of age or glorification of youth. • We do not use models who are very young or thin.

Core value 4Oppose Animal TestingThe Body Shop has always believedpassionately that animals should notbe used for cosmetic testing. Thecompany has never tested its prod-ucts on animals and has always in-sisted that all their suppliers shouldnot test their ingredients on animalsfor cosmetic purposes.The firm has twice won the GoodBusiness Award from the RSPCA(Royal Society for the Prevention ofCruelty to Animals) for its commit-

ment to animal welfare.The Body Shop campaigns for in-creased research into alternatives toanimal testing. The parent companyL’Oréal has made a significant con-tribution in this area and has pi-oneered the research and developmentof EpiSkin – artificially grown humanskin for use in skin irritancy tests –and this revolutionary approach totesting is now used by The BodyShop wherever possible.

The Body Shop works to encourage self-esteem bothamong its customers and the staff who work for thecompany.

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8

Casestudy

The Body Shop

Core value 5Defend Human Rights

Exercises 8. Answer the questions.1. What specific human rights campaigns has the Body

Shop been actively involved in?2. What other things does the company do to defend

human rights?

9. Find an example of another company which emphasizesethical standards in its marketing and business practices ingeneral. Prepare a similar case study indicating what thecompany does.

The Body Shop has led campaignson many issues concerning humanrights.Since 1994 they have raised fundsand global awareness concerning do-mestic violence. Millions of poundshave been donated to support andprotect abused women and children.One successful example was an or-ganised street march and petition inSeoul, Korea, which was followedby a government commitment to in-crease spending on shelters for do-mestic-violence victims.Since 1993 they have campaignedand raised awareness of issues andtaboos surrounding HIV and AIDS.This includes the Staying Alive Foun-dation, a project which aims to edu-cate at-risk communities on safe sex,HIV and living with AIDS.Other campaigns support the fightagainst human trafficking. The cur-rent Stop The Trafficking of Childrenand Young People campaign is raisingawareness and funds, and offers sup-port for victims, or those at risk.

Human Rights PrinciplesThe Body Shop is committed to being an ethical retailer, which

works actively to address human rights issues in our own operations,our trading relationship as well as the communities and societies inwhich we operate. As a global business, we respect local, culturaland political differences, but will always insist that our businessactivities adhere to basic human rights. We will assess all our business activities to determine where wehave direct or indirect impacts, ensure compliance with human rightslegislation and work to have a positive impact on our stakeholdersand on society at large.

Examples of our principles in action:• We evaluate each of our direct product suppliers and ensure thathigh-risk factories are independently inspected and assisted in im-proving standards.• We have worked with the UN to create awareness of violenceagainst children.• We have worked with plantation owners to ensure basic labourstandards and protection of women.• We study human rights implications for all new markets.

For more info visitCheck the following websites for examples.�www.forbes.com (search “The world’s most ethical companies”)

�www.ethisphere.com/past-wme-honorees/wme2011/

Direzione editoriale lingue straniere Adriana MassariRedazione Samantha PapaianniProgetto grafico e impaginazione Enrica BologniRicerca iconografica Eleonora Calamita

Referenze iconografiche Archivio Principato, The Body Shop Company

I testi e le immagini relativi a prodotti e aziende presentiin questo volume sono da intendersi come esemplifica-zione a scopo didattico secondo le norme del Codice diAutoregolamentazione del settore editoriale educativodell’Associazione Italiana Editori.

Il fascicolo è allegato al volume Working in business

Prima edizione: febbraio 2012

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VI V IV III II I *

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