Fill Blank
stores in 50 countries, the Body Shop was founded in 1976 in Brighton, England. From her original shop, which offered a line of 25 different lotions, creams, and oils, Roddick became the first successful marketer of body care products that combined natural ingredients with ecologically-benign manufacturing processes. Her company's refusal to test products on animals, along with an insistence on nonexploitative labour practices among suppliers around the world, appealed especially to upscale, mainly middle-class women, who were and have continued to be the company's primary market.As sales boomed, even the conservative financial markets approved of The Body Shop's impressive profit picture, and a public stock offering in 1984 was successful. An expansion campaign followed.In 1988 the company entered the U.S. market by opening a store in New York City, and by 1997 the company boasted 1,500 stores, including franchises, in 47 countries. Anti-marketing seemed to be smart marketing, at least as far as The Body Shop was concemed.
[Paragraph 2] Part of the secret of The Body Shop's early success was that it had created a market niche for itself. The company was not directly competing against the traditional cosmetics companies, which marketed their products as fashion accessories designed to cover up flaws and make women look more like the fashion models who appeared in their lavish ads. Instead, The Body Shop offered a line of products that promised benefits other than appearance - healthier skin, for instance - rather than simply a better-looking complexion. The company is known for pioneering the natural-ingredient cosmetic market and establishing social responsibility as an integral part of
