Revision Case Study 4- Body Shop Held Back by Product Errors

A. Revision case study 4- Body Shop held back by product errors

1) What evidence is there that Body Shop did not undertake sufficient market research before making product changes?

The Body Shop has gone through some changes and one of these is changing the packaging on a new hair care range and they have also discontinued some of its existing lines. Customers have given a negative response to these changes. Had The Body Shop carried out sufficient market research, they would have been aware of the packaging, for example, that customers would favor and so would have not had such negative responses as they would already know their customers’ preferences. This is because market research helps businesses to analyse consumers’ reactions to changes, such as new types of packaging.

The Body Shop has also had problems due to trying to do too many things too fast. If sufficient market research had been undertaken, this mistake may have been avoided as such research would have allowed The Body Shop to gain knowledge about the effects of these changes on the market and as a result they may have been able to foresee this problem and so avoid it.

2) Explain briefly how The Body Shop could use the 4Cs approach to increase sales in the future.

The four Cs are customer solution, cost to a customer, communication with customers and convenience to customers. The Body Shop could use each of these to increase its future sales in the following ways:

(i) Customer solution- This is what the business needs to provide to the customer needs and wants. The Body Shop could make use of this approach by providing customers with products that suit their particular needs and wants. Customers are likely to buy products which they require as well as desire and this would lead to an increase in this business’ future sales.

(ii) Cost to a customer- This includes the cost of the product, the delivery charges, and so on. The Body Shop could use this to increase future sales by reducing the cost incurred by customers. For example, they could offer free delivery on certain conditions. As a result, the business could get more customers to buy its products and its future sales could rise.

(iii) Communication with customers- This approach involves providing up-to-date and easily accessible two-way communication with customers. The Body Shop could improve its communication with customers by setting up a website for example, which could be used to keep customers up-to-date about their products and the business itself and inform them in an immediate period about any changes. The website could also be used to enable customers to access information and place any complaints, suggestions or queries. This could allow customers to communicate with the business and The Body Shop to communicate with their customers. These could help the business establish better customer relationships as well as make improvements of their own, of their products for example, and these could lead to increased future sales.

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