Introduction There is success in body care. Behold the Body Shop, one of the famous international cosmetics brand. It is not just one’s ordinary shop for body or hair care. It is extraordinary just as its pioneer.
The entrepreneur assessed in this paper is in no way or another connected to me. Personal Profile The name behind the Body Shop, a famous cosmetic line for decades now, is Anita Roddick. On October 23, 1942 in Littlehampton, Sussex, England marks her birth to an immigrant Italian family. After completing her degree at the Newton Park College of education, she worked as a part-time teacher and for the United Nations in Geneva.She traveled to different places like Tahiti, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Reunion, Madagascar, Mauritius, Australia, and Johannesburg.
Her fascination with the women she encountered in these places became an episodic event in her life. It later formulated her tale of success. As stated in Lessem and Palsule (1999), she was mesmerized by the organic products that women in the Polynesian islands use to nurture their bodies. Then, she went back to England and married a Scotsman poet and traveler named Gordon Roddick in 1971. Five years later, the Body Shop was born.
The Body Shop started out in the same area where Roddick grew up. It was just a small shop painted with green. Its products were just placed in little recycled bottles while its labels were just handwritten. All of which was to lessen production costs. Through the years, the body care business developed hand in hand with political causes. Dame Roddick, as how she is referred to now, has been acclaimed for many things.
She has been London’s Business Woman of the Year in 1985. She has received an Order of the British Empire in 1988.In 1988, she has been the Communicator of the Year, and Retailer of the Year. She has been the United Nation’s “Global 500” Environmental award. On the other hand, the Body Shop brand has been regarded as the second most trusted brand in the UK according to the Consumers Association. As said by the 1997 Interbrand survey criteria, it is known to be the top 28 brand in the world, and ranks second in the retail sector.
The International Chief Executives in the Financial Times conducted a survey in 1998 and found Body Shop to be the 27th most respected company in the world (The Body Shop International.Available at [http://www. thebodyshopinternational. com/web/tbsgl/about.
jsp]. [Accessed 30/05/2006]). The Body Shop is aged 30 this year, 2006. From a small and simple shop, it has grown into a multinational company, though she prefers Body Shop to be described as “global. ” It operates in 50 countries with over 1, 900 outlets.
Indeed, the Body Shop has gone global, cutting across various cultures. That is how far it has gone. Recently, the Body Shop entered in an agreement with L’Oreal for its take over. The deal is reported to be worth ? 52 only. Founder and major stockholders Anita and Gordon Roddick, who still own 18% of its stock, are likely to receive ? 130M from the said agreement (British Broadcasting Company.
Available at [http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/business/4815776. stm]. [Accessed at 31/05/2006]).
Successful Factor What does it take to become a successful entrepreneur? In Dame Anita Roddick’s case, what are the factors that lead for her and her business’ success? Success is measured according to sales growth, income, employment trends and satisfaction Solymossy (2000).The reason why she came back to England while traveling Africa was because she was asked to by the English officials after finding out that that she did not do what a white is supposed to do in a black country. Years later, she made use of her encounter to open a “body shop. ” Opening a shop that satisfies the need of nurturing the body out of indigenous science refers to the risk that Dame Roddick has taken. Indeed, it is interesting to note that she risked selling products, inspired by ethnic body rituals, among her fellow Westerners, being the consumers. She risked selling alternative body care products.
Nevertheless, she dealt with it with optimism. In order to face success, it is of crucial importance to think of the ways by which the business model will thrive in the marketplace. Another is to assess the strengths and opportunities of the business. Lastly, it is always important to innovate, as this has always described entrepreneurs (Baghai, Coley, and White, 2000). Innovations are proven to increase the business’ performance.
During Christmas last year, upon launching a new product, i. e. a strong Christmas gift range, and improving customer services, operating profits from the division boosted to 17% to ? 1. 7 million (Geary, 2005). This is a recent event in the innovation strategies of Body Shop. Schumpeter (1939), as cited in Mintrom, Schneider and Teske (1995), asserts that an entrepreneur functions to innovate, which means devising new production function out of the existing factors of production.
In simpler terms, an entrepreneur is one who introduces a new product or a product that deviates from the ordinary. Such is the basic idea or definition of an entrepreneur from which its modern definitions have developed. Apart from the above, there is something about the packaging of the Body Shop products.Roddick started with small bottles since that was what she was complaining on. According to Kassaye and Verma (1992), lesser materials should be use to produce smaller, thinner and lighter packages. This is one of the ways by which a company can minimize packaging costs, and at the same time, maintaining products to be in line with “green”.
Supporting the environment is ensconced in the Body Shop from the very beginning. Years later, as the Body Shop grew larger and larger, Roddick combined principles with profit. Jones’ (2005) article entitled “Good Deeds for Business Success” speak for itself.In the case of Roddick, she sells body products through the Body Shop while supporting local community trade in Third World Countries. Personality has much to say in defining Roddick’s success. Taylor (1988) discusses 8 characteristics of women entrepreneurs, but in this case, three of which pertinently describe the subject of study.
Introducing naturally made cosmetics speak for her creativity and capacity to innovate. She is confident enough to sell her body products in the market. And, she is driven by autonomy. In Roddick’s eyes, Body Shop succeeded because of two reasons.Economic survival of her family, especially during its beginnings, was a primary driving factor; and, the passion to establish a shop of her own and to engage in trading was the other (Lessem and Palsule, 1999).
She therefore succeeded not because of a capitalist goal, which is profit. What she did was she thought of ways to survive in the market. She did not dream of a big shop. The shop eventually did. Critically Appraisal Business Domain and Products Life Cycle The Body Shop is known for its cosmetic products that are naturally made and environment-friendly.
Struck by the body rituals among the women in the Polynesian islands, Dame Roddick made sure that the kinds of cosmetics that her shop sells are made naturally. Moreover, in this present age, this is what Body Shop offers still to its customers. Likewise, having roamed the corners of the world, Dame Roddick is able to acquire knowledge on the various natural products that different women across the globe use. If we are to make a careful scrutiny of the products sold at the Body Shop, then we will see the different products with different functions that are composed of ingredients that come from different countries.Examples of which are the following: sesame seed from Nicaragua, shea butter from Ghana, coco milk, mangoes, strawberries, etc. Thus, if I am a shopper who passes by the Body Shop and get to see these products, then, no wonder, I will exactly feel the same fascination that Dame Roddick felt decades ago.
All of these natural products are sold in all 50 countries where it exists. Target Customers Selected and Why Body Shop, as the brand implies, deal with the body. However, it is not mainly concerned with making the body merely to be beautiful as what most cosmetics pledge to do.When we think of cosmetics, the immediate implication is that it pertains to beauty products and therefore, for women. On the contrary, is it only for women? In this present time, women and men alike undergo vanity rituals.
Caring for the body is not just a female activity. It is an activity that males today look into. It is for individuals, male and female alike across various age brackets and social or cultural groups, who are geared towards nurturing their bodies. Anita Roddick did not really start the Body Shop with an intense will to have women being her primary target customers.Rather, she created a venture with innovative products driven by the desire to own a shop of her own and the determination to survive. Unique Selling Point Lowson (2002) says that differentiation deals with offering uniqueness.
Being different implies being unique. This is not the function of a particular entity in the organization, but the entire organization as a whole. Value is placed either on the product or the service or in both cases. In order to attain competitive advantage, he suggests focusing on the value that customers seek as the operations strategy.
This can be done by looking at the quality, reliability, variety, features, services, location, delivery, after sales support, etc. According to Aldrich and Fiol (1994), as cited in Shepherd (2003), cognitive legitimacy works simply through what is/are being signified in a particular sign or symbols. What makes the Body Shop unique? On the one hand, 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
