Rebranding The Body Shop

by erica ~ August 28, 2008

More green products are making their way into retail shops. The Body Shop, known for being environmentally friendly, is working on rebranding itself to bring more attention to the company and its green products.

According to this article in BrandWeek, a new campaign entitled “Nature’s Way to Beautiful” will be running in print, online and in-store. The campaign will seek to remind consumers about the natural and environmentally friendly ingredients used in their products; such as aloe and seaweed, which are two of the most frequently used.

With the environment becoming more and more of an important and ubiquitous issue, The Body Shop takes these issues very seriously. According to the article: “We as a business have to be ethical about how we fulfill our ingredient needs,” said Shelley Simmons, director of brand and value initiatives at the company.”  

Along with the environmental issue, The Body Shop is keeping up-to-date with social issues. Consumers can participate in spreading the word about The Body Shop and its products by joining the “Together & Fair” pledge via Facebook.

In keeping up with what consumers desire, The Body Shop is launching two new collections that include a line of bodywashes, gels and lotions that address common needs such as “energy,” “sleep,” and “total detox” and The Body Shop’s first mineral make-up line where the packaging is made of 15% recycled content.

Trying to be green may be harder than we think, especially for large companies. I respect that The Body Shop has a strong commitment to their consumers and the environment. They were the first international cosmetics brand to be awarded the Humane Cosmetics Standard for their Against Animal Testing policy. Hopefully, this rebranding initiative will produce positive results for both the consumer and company.  Some may think that this is a Madison Avenue scam (possibly), but hopefully The Body Shop is really trying to take a stand and represent their natural ingredients.

Erica Berkovich is an Associate Account Executive at Mediashop PR. She is currently pursuing a Masters degree in corporate communications at Baruch.