Tuesday, October 30, 2007

It's all about good storytelling..

The Body Shop... Rings a bell or two? Definitely! One can find Body Shop stores [over 2,000 to be precise] in more than 50 countries. The brand The Body Shop is not only known for its full and diverse range of body products, but it also represents the epitome of the phrase going green; anti-animal testing, all for community trade and all that jazz.. The site in fact lists these green initiatives as values, which the International plc. states to follow rigorously.


All this going green affair has raised eyebrows and stirred some hot debates, especially when L'Orèal purchased The Body Shop for an estimated £652.3 million. This is due to the fact that L'Orèal still tests its products on animals, thus contradicting one of The Body Shop's cardinal values mentioned above, resulting into boycotts from customers and retailers from all around the globe. The late Dame Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, had to face all of this hustle and bustle caused by the media frenzy in an interview with The Guardian, in which she argued that she sees herself as a means through which she can change points of views and directions within a larger company, thus leaving a huger impact onto the trading society.



This woman strikes me in oh so many ways.. She managed to build an empire and push the envelope in things that really mattered to her; she maintained that businesses can be run ethically and still make profit - she proved her own theory and made it become a tangible reality. Anita started out her business in 1976, her first shop being established in Brighton. She adhered to her own personal marketing strategies with her unique persona and non-business-like demeanour; probably the best and most fitting advertising strategy ever.


Her best marketing move in my opinion is what she terms as storytelling. Dame Roddick built a story around her business in order to put across her message to the masses. She managed to effectively communicate with people through the stories she revolved round her products and this seems to be quite fruitful up to this very day:



'The original Body Shop was a series of brilliant accidents. It had a great smell, it had a funky name. It was positioned between two funeral parlours – that always caused controversy. It was incredibly sensuous. It was 1976, the year of the heatwave, so there was a lot of flesh around. We knew about storytelling then, so all the products had stories. We recycled everything, not because we were environmentally friendly but because we didn’t have enough bottles. It was a good idea. What was unique about it, with no intent at all, no marketing nous, was that it translated across cultures, across geographical barriers and social structures. It wasn’t a sophisticated plan, it just happened like that...'


Coupled with stories is the art of imagery. Visuals can work wonders and we all know that. The Body Shop is seen as something stylish and trendy, something that hip people cherish and make use of. Thanks to good stories and visuals, The Body Shop has created a name for itself and became a big brand. The colour green has now a new meaning and a new 'owner' so to speak.. it is owned by The Body Shop and it is effectively communicated to people.


Dame Anita Roddick died on the 10th of September 2007 at the age of 64. She was awarded the 1991 World Vision Award for Development Initiative, her company being voted as the 2nd most trusted brand in UK in 2004 and received an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from the Sage Colleges that same year... All of this happened because she believed in her stories and dared to take risks, even if that meant having your first shop positioned between two funeral parlours... What else is there to say? Dream on and communicate your stories... you never know!

1 comments:

d. | 10/31/2007 12:19 AM  

funeral parlour-dead bodies-body shop!
Funny how they don't tell this story in ads.

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