objective of my business. It is providing a product and a service.’ So how
does she do it?
It is so easy. First, know your differences and exploit them, then know your
customers and educate them, then talk about the image of your company as
well as the products, and finally be daring, be first and be different.
One of the rules of any successful company is to find out what your orig-
inal features are and shout them out from the rooftops.We have found that
when you take care of your customers really well, and make them the focal
point, never once forgetting that your first line of customers are your own
staff, profitability flows from that.The Body Shop has an extraordinary effect on people who come into
contact with it. ‘It arouses enthusiasm, commitment and loyalty more often
found in a political movement than a corporation,’ says journalist Bo
Burlingham. ‘Customers light up when asked about it, and start pitching
its products like missionaries selling Bibles.’ John Richards, director of
retail research at County NatWest Securities, comments: ‘I’ve never seen
anything like it. The nearest comparison would be something like flower
power in the 1960s.’
The Body Shop story
Anita Roddick was one of four children of Italian immigrants and helped
in the family cafe at the Sussex seaside resort of Littlehampton, which is
still the base for her retailing empire. She has fond memories of the cafe, a
popular meeting place for local children. ‘We had the first juke box in the
town after the war, the first knickerbocker glories and the first Pepsi-Colas.
I didn’t know it then but I was receiving subliminal training for business
life; I was at the centre of that magical area where buyer and seller come
together.’
At an early age she decided that she wanted to see the world and went
to work for the International Labour Office of the United Nations in Paris.
It was while travelling internationally for the UN that the seeds of her
future calling were sown. Visiting such exotic spots as Polynesia, Mauritius
and the New Hebrides, she observed the simple but effective way remote
communities lived.
‘I just lived as they did and watched how they groomed themselves
without any cosmetic aids. Their skin was wonderful and their hair was
beautifully clean.’ She watched the Polynesians scoop up untreated cocoa
butter and apply it to their skin with remarkable results. She also observed
Sri Lankans using pineapple juice as a skin cleanser, and later discovered
that natural enzymes in it help remove dead cells.
290 Relationship Marketing