Established in 1976, The Body Shop has completed 45 years in the beauty industry. It’s a British company founded by Anita Roddick who had no idea how to run a business and make sales when she started. The Body Shop had a humble beginning, and its sole objective was to earn a livelihood.
While she was still operating her first shop in the UK, she realized that business does not revolve all-around making money and finances. Rather, she learned that to succeed in business, one needs to focus on creating products and providing unique services which will lure the customers. So, she viewed her business differently.
This single thought helped in succeeding miraculously to a level where now, The Body Shop soon expanded from one store to 2200 stores in different countries, including its birthplace, the United Kingdom. Rather than sticking to one particular market, Anita decided to expand, and now, after almost four decades, the company is dealing in fifty different markets.
During this period, The Body Shop once declared that the business is dedicated to changing society and the environment for a better future. The company’s commitment is to create products that are not just of the best quality but also cruelty-free. The company wishes to create an impact on society and the environment. Its mission talked about a beautiful world where fairness wouldn’t be judged based on one’s skin color but also self-esteem, responsibility, and environmental concerns.
Over the years, The Body Shop has adopted different visions which focus on facts like empowering women, creating cruelty-free beauty products, and giving a new purpose to different women from all across the world. Unlike other beauty brands, The Body Shop respects and encourages women to come forward and feel confident in their skin. They believe that breaking the stereotypes can one truly see how enigmatic and beautiful a woman can be.
The company has envisioned creating cruelty-free products by adopting environment-friendly methods of products and raw ingredients. While catering to beauty, The Body Shop wants to create an environment where women feel more confident in their skin. To achieve the Body Shop vision, the company follows its core values: ethical trade, saving plants, and the environment.
The Body Shop mission statement says that “The Body Shop exists to fight for a fairer, more beautiful world.” Let’s continue in detail.
The Body Shop expanded its horizons of growth, added new product lines, but what remains untouched was its core principles and mission to provide the best quality products that can make people feel more beautiful, just the way they are. The company’s mission has never changed in these four decades, even though the business heads transformed the strategies after Anita passed away.
The Body Shop is committed to running its business to strike a balance between economic, social, and environmental needs. After analyzing The Body Shop mission statement and the company’s operations in the past few decades, the following messages become clearer.
Establishing Community Fair Trade
Community Fair Trade is a campaign started by The Body Shop in 1987 to raise funds for the backward and isolated communities. The company wants to provide fair working conditions and other living amenities to those who still don’t have access to basic facilities. The company is also a pioneer of community trade. The company made direct trade contact with the communities in exchange for their natural ingredients.
Inspiring people about self-care
The Body Shop aims towards inspiring people worldwide about taking care of themselves and focusing on their health. This way, they will be able to work for their livelihood and the environment with ease.
Boosting self-esteem and confidence
The Body Shop looks forward to boosting the self-esteem of many people worldwide, especially the women from backward communities or those who do not fit the stereotypes. According to the company, everyone is beautiful because beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.
The company follows ethical beauty practices, and it doesn’t hire over-thin models to promote its products. It focuses on promoting individuals to be confident just the way they are; embracing natural beauty is important, which reflects in all its products.
Working for the environment’s benefits
Anita, the founder, always believed that businesses have the power to bring a change, and she started The Body Shop with the same mission. The business was dedicated to pursuing social and environmental change. The Body Shop has actively used its products and stores to spread awareness about environmental issues and human rights, which differentiates The Body Shop from the others. Following their mission, the company has launched several campaigns for the benefit of the environment.
The Body Shop Vision Statement
The company envisions creating a beautiful and fairer world, with beauty and a fairer world; the company wants to emphasize that human activity works in sync with nature, and a fairer world that is inclusive and where people are treated equally without any prejudice. However, they had listed down several aspects they had targeted to fulfill Anita’s vision when she first started the business.
Caring about the environment
The Body Shop works with suppliers and dealers who share the same vision of protecting and improving the environment. Rather than focusing on exploiting nature and increasing sales by stereotypic services and products, The Body Shop believes in carrying out businesses that will favor the environment.
Women empowerment
One of the major visions of the company is to empower women through education, new job opportunities, awareness, and campaigns. The company wants to plant the seeds of self-confidence and self-esteem in women from across the world, which will give them the courage to fight and take a stand for themselves.
Cruelty-free products
The Body Shop has always followed the vision of making and developing products that are not cruel to one’s skin and the environment. They have already introduced several product categories for beauty markets, fragrance markets, and others which are a replica of nature’s wonder and benefits.
Sustainability
From the manufacturing process to its stores, the Body Shop has ensured that its products are manufactured using sustainable methods, and its stores also follow suit. The sustainable Body Shop stores use no virgin plastic; they use FSC certified wood or recycled wood, LED lighting is used only if required, and FSC certified paper or cads are used. In fact, even the ink that is used is water-based.
Giving Back to Community
The Body Shop has focused on adopting environment-friendly methods. It has tied up with Carbon, which is an expert on the low carbon economy. The company aims to establish a greenhouse gas emission baseline.
Focus on people
The Body Shop also wants to create an inclusive work environment without gender disparity. Form including people from diverse cultures and promoting fair community trade, the company also envisions creating a workplace where everyone is treated equally. The company envisions creating a 50% gender balance at the senior level. The company also envisions paying all employees their living age by 2023.
Be the best B corporation
The Body Shop is a certified B corporation. To adhere to its quality standards, we have adhered to the highest standards related to governance, customer engagement, best work practices.
The Body ShopCore Values
The Body Shop has embraced certain core values to achieve the vision, helping the company reach milestones. These are:
Trading ethically
The Body Shop believes in maintaining ethics while trading with different suppliers, dealers, vendors, and even other partner companies. They want to establish trade relationships based on morals, ethics, trust, and credibility.
Banning animal testing
No matter what kind of product the company is developing, it considers animal testing as a cruel act against humanity’s values and principles. This is why the experts at The Body Shop test their products in different ways without harming anyone, mainly the animals.
Saving the planet Earth
The Body Shop aims at saving the planet Earth, and they have adopted different techniques to ensure that no harm is done to nature. The Body Shop has established a business chain to create a beautiful world where one can connect oneself with nature and revel in this magnificent bond.
Defend human rights
Besides promoting the idea of fair trade and empowering women, the company also fights for human rights as it worked for women suffering from domestic violence, HIV, and AIDs. In addition, the company also promotes ethical trade practices and respects the worker’s rights.
Conclusion
The Body Shop mission and vision focus on fair trade practices, best working standards, promoting women and communities, and protecting the environment. Most importantly, the company rejects the beauty standards set by the industry and promotes embracing oneself the way one is naturally.
