Marketing Strategies and the Search for Virtue: A Case Analysis of the Body Shop,

International
Author(s): Cathy L. Hartman and Caryn L. Beck-Dudley
Source: Journal of Business Ethics , Jul., 1999, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Jul., 1999), pp. 249-263
Published by: Springer

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25074136

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Marketing Strategies and
the Search for Virtue:
A Case Analysis of The
Body Shop, International
ABSTRACT. The authors propose a framework to
integrate virtue ethics into marketing theory and
apply it to the development of marketing strategies.
Virtue ethics, a philosophy that focuses on an indi
vidual's moral character, has received limited atten
tion from marketing scholars and researchers. The
authors argue that without consideration of virtue
ethics a comprehensive analysis of the ethical char
acter of marketing decision makers and their strate
gies cannot be achieved. They provide an overview
of virtue ethics supplemented by a case study of The
Body Shop, International to demonstrate how evalu
ation of the ethics of corporate executives and their
marketing strategies is completed by virtue ethics.
Introduction
Traditionally, marketing ethics research has
focused on three theories - utilitarianism, deon
tology, and justice. Recently, however, the ability
of these theories to provide the necessary
guidance for marketers to address ethical issues
has been questioned (Robin and Reidenbach,
1993). In particular, it has been noted that the
Cathy L. Hartman is an Associate Professor of Marketing
at Utah State University. She has researched and pub
lished in marketing ethics.
Caryn Beck-Dudley is a Professor of Law at Utah State
University. She is a member of the Business Ethics
sections of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business
and the Society of Business Ethics. She has researched
and published in business ethics. In 1993 she received
the Holmes-Cardozo award from the Academy of Legal
Studies in Business for outstanding paper. She is pres
ident-elect of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business.
Journal of Business Ethics 20: 249-263, 1999.
? 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
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Cathy L. Hartman
Caryn L. Beck-Dudley
advancement of marketing ethics theory is at a
critical juncture, requiring two important
developments. First, theorists need to expand
and refine normative ethical theories to make the
theoretical basis more appropriate for ethical
reasoning in marketing contexts (Robin and
Reidenbach, 1993). Second, theorists need to
evaluate positive models of marketing ethics with
respect to their philosophical implications for
how marketers make ethical decisions (Laczniak,
1993). This paper addresses the second call in
the marketing literature. We propose that mar
keting professionals consider the potential of
another moral philosophy - virtue ethics - for
analyzing the ethical implications of their own
character along with their marketing decisions
and strategies.
Marketing researchers have given limited
attention to virtue ethics ? a theory that
focuses on an individual's moral character.
While Williams and Murphy (1990) introduced
virtue ethics into the marketing literature,
arguing that the "ethics of virtue is a very
relevant theory for improving the ethical conduct
of marketers" (p. 28), they provided neither
a thorough discussion of virtue ethics nor
contexts that demonstrated how its principles
might be applied to marketing decisions. As
the traditional theories applied in marketing -
utilitarianism, deontology, and justice - do not
consider a person's moral character, further
elaboration of virtue ethics as it applies to mar
keting professionals and their strategies adds a
critical theoretical component.
This paper extends virtue ethics to marketing
contexts demonstrating its usefulness for ana
 250 Cathy L. Hartman and Caryn L. Beck-Dudley
lyzing the ethical character of marketing decision
makers as well as their organizations and their
strategies. In particular, the discussion shows
how the attainment of both organizational and
individual virtues is essential for the development
of ethically responsible marketing professionals
and their strategies. It informs marketers with
respect to how the professional roles they
perform influence the communities within which
all people must live and work. As background for
this development, the article first describes the
dominant normative ethical theories that have
been applied to marketing problems, and the
positive models that have been offered to describe
the factors influencing marketing decisions. It
then discusses how virtue ethics contributes to
marketing ethics theory. It concludes with a case
analysis of Anita Roddick and the marketing
strategies of The Body Shop, International (BSI)
to illustrate what virtue ethics contributes to
ethical evaluations in marketing.
Traditional philosophical theories in
marketing
Utilitarianism is the predominate framework
of ethical decision making described in the
marketing literature. For example, Ferrell and
Gresham (1985) note that marketing decision
makers make ethical choices on the basis of
whether or not the consequences of their
behavior are best for all affected social groups.
In a similar vein, Hunt and Vitell (1986) propose
that an individual's ethical judgment includes
an evaluation of the "sum total of goodness
versus badness likely to be produced by each
alternative" (p. 9). Finally, Ferrell et al. (1989)
suggest that ideological reasoning is central to
the moral evaluation stage in their "synthesis
model" of the ethical decision making process.
While researchers have sometimes distinguished
between act and rule utilitarianism (Tsalikis and
Fritzsche, 1989), both reflect the notion that
ethical behavior is determined by the consequences
of a particular action. Fewer researchers incor
porate deontology, although Laczniak (1983)
does summarize three such frameworks including
Ross's (1988) prima facie duties, Garrett's (1966)
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proportionality framework, and Rawl's (1971)
social justice framework. He then applies their
tenets to problems in marketing ethics. Another
theory applied by marketing ethics researchers is
Kohlberg's (1969) cognitive moral development
(CMD) concept (Goolsby and Hunt, 1992).
Kohlberg's perspective is also a central com
ponent in Trevino's (1986) person-situation
interaction model of ethical decision making.
Researchers who use CMD are, at least, implic
itly discerning ethical behavior based on either
utilitarianism or deontology, since Kohlberg's
higher stages of principled reasoning reflect
both approaches. All of these frameworks,
however, are transactional in nature which means
that the analyses focus on the action the parties
have taken rather than on the moral character
of the individual decision makers. Also, these
approaches lead to the use of "quandaries" as the
basis for discussion and analysis in marketing
ethics theory and research.
Quandaries are scenarios which require
individuals to "guess" how they might act in a
certain hypothetical situation. The focus, conse
quently, is on an act and the person's reason for
choosing that particular act. Quandary ethics has
been criticized as reflecting the morally "correct"
rather than the morally "useful", confusing
"morality with conscientiousness" (Pincoffs,
1986, p. 28) and fostering relativism (Solomon,
1992a). Since a moral person is more than a con
scientious person, it is argued that the "primary
business of ethics ought to be with the qualities
of character, with the virtues and the vices"
(Pincoffs, 1986, p. 15). Using quandaries does
not capture the virtue ethics notion that all deci
sions have contexts, and, a particular context may
well have significant bearing on the evaluation of
what is considered virtuous. Further, these trans
actional approaches are argued to be "relevant
to moral problems only because they determine
what counts as a moral problem" (Pincoffs, 1986,
p. 53). There also appears to be no relationship
between how one acts and how one should act
(McCracken and Shaw, 1995). This does not
mean, however, that other moral perspectives are
to be excluded from the discussion. Rather, what
it implies is that a person who is unconcerned
with his or her moral character is, in all likeli
 A Case Analysis of the Body Shop, International 251
hood, not amenable to moral considerations
(Pincoffs, 1986). Recently, a call was made to
revise conventional frameworks of moral inquiry
using quandaries to include virtue ethics analyses
(McCracken et al., 1998).
While virtue ethicists differ in their ap
proaches, they all agree that virtue is concerned
with an individual's character (Anscombe, 1958;
Bacon, 1985; Becker, 1975; Brandt, 1970a,
1970b; Dent, 1984; Foot, 1978; Kruschwitz and
Roberts, 1987; Maclntyre, 1984; O'Neill, 1989;
Pincoffs, 1986, 1971; Solomon, 1992a, 1992b;
Trianosky, 1990; Urmson, 1973). Because of its
focus on character, virtue ethics is primarily
concerned with answering the question "What
sort of person must I become to be able to do
the right thing?" rather than "What is the right
thing to do (in this situation)?" (Kennedy,
1995/96, p. 11). Thus, virtue ethics does not
necessarily replace other theories, but adds
another critical element to the analysis.
In reviewing the marketing ethics literature,
one is struck by the absence of a method for
evaluating how the moral character of marketing
professionals is reflected in the ethical nature of
their marketing decisions and strategies. Even
those articles that cite virtue ethics works, upon
closer examination, reveal a conceptual confu
sion between virtues and values. Virtues repre
sent what we are - it is our character and the
quality ofthat character. Values, by contrast, arise
from what we experience and they appear to shape
our behavior (Fritzsche, 1995). Values are the
outcomes of life's processes that directly and
significantly affect our lives (Frederick, 1992).
While virtues and values overlap, not making a
distinction between the two concepts can result
in faulty ethical conclusions.
In their presentation of virtue ethics, for
example, Robin and Reidenbach (1987) apply
Aristotle's (1991) notion of moderation to the
"system of values adopted by marketers" (p. 51)
including the value of performance. In particular,
they suggest that in deciding the appropriateness
of a decision, performance must be considered
such that "extreme measures that could ruin the
company are not required" (p. 51). While cor
porate performance is certainly a value, it is not
a virtue. There are a variety of ways that firms
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might achieve performance, such as being envi
ronmentally responsible, generating profits, or
having integrity. Of these, only integrity is a
virtue, the others are merely values. Finally, being
virtuous may require extreme measures, such as
the total recall of a hazardous or unsafe product,
even if it means failure of the company. Thus, if
marketing theorists blur the distinction between
virtues and values, marketing decision makers
may confuse good moral character with high per
formance or with other market-based values.
Another central aspect of virtue ethics is the
principle that "some qualities may depend on
the context" (Pincoffs, 1986, p. 74) that exists
at the time period in question. A look at the
context in which marketing professionals find
themselves helps determine the applicable virtues.
Preliminary understanding of this context is
provided by the marketing concept that suggests
that "achieving organizational goals depends on
determining the needs and wants of target
markets and delivering the desired satisfactions
more effectively and efficiently than competitors
do" (Kotier and Armstrong, 1994, p. g-6). The
societal marketing concept adds the requirement
that this delivery be done "in a way that main
tains or improves the consumer's and society's
well-being" (Kotier and Armstrong, 1994, p. g
10). As both concepts suggest a stakeholder
perspective, neither provides the contextual
perspective required to obtain virtue. Further,
neither includes ethical consideration of the
moral character of firms. To do this marketing
decision makers must ask not only "What is good
for business?," but also, "What is good for this
community of people?" For example, marketers
of personal protection products, such as handguns
and mace should consider the broader context
by asking: "What can we do to make our
community safe for everyone?" Their answers
might involve sponsoring neighborhood watch
programs (Shermach, 1995) and self-defense
classes, along with lobbying for certification of
911 operators. Or, marketing educators might ask
the broad contextual question: "What can we do
to educate better people?" Their answers might
involve developing programs that nurture the
growth of caring, loving, and lovable people
(Noddings, 1984).
 252 Cathy L. Hartman and Caryn L. Beck-Dudley
In summary, virtue ethics requires considera
tion of three principles (1) a focus on the moral
character of the decision maker, (2) a consider
ation of context, and (3) differentiation of values
versus virtues. With these principles in mind,
let us turn to a virtue ethics analysis of The
Body Shop, International. In general, Solomon's
(1992a, 1992b) framework provides a useful
starting point for this analysis. He argues
that business organizations should possess the
virtues of community, membership or roles, excellence,
integrity, judgment, and holism. Additionally, he
outlines a set of individual virtues including
honesty, fairness, trust, toughness, friendliness, loyalty,
honor, shame, caring, compassion, and wittiness
that are relevant to firms. In applying virtue
ethics to marketing decision makers and their
organizations and strategies, all of Solomon's
organizational virtues are relevant. Three of his
organizational virtues including (1) excellence,
(2) integrity, and (3) judgment are reflected in
the marketing literature. Discussion of Solomon's
remaining three organizational virtues of (1)
community, (2) membership or roles, and (3)
holism are introduced in this case analysis.
Additionally, this analysis proposes that five of
Solomon's individual virtues are appropriate to
marketing contexts. In particular, (1) honesty, (2)
fairness, and (3) trust have been noted as those
essential for continuous relational exchanges
(Gundlach and Murphy, 1993), while (4) friend
liness has been identified for its relevance to
service quality (Parasuraman et al., 1985) and (5)
shame offers an emotional basis for gauging
acceptable actions. To demonstrate the impor
tance of applying these virtues to marketing
strategies, a case analysis of one company's
founder and her marketing strategies ? Anita
Roddick and The Body Shop, International ? is
instructive.
Virtue ethics analysis of The Body Shop,
International
The Body Shop, International was selected for
analysis because it has been noted as a company
that attempts to intertwine social/moral with
profit values in its strategies. At the same time,
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its claims to be ethical and community-minded
have been questioned publicly (cf., Entine, 1995,
1997; Utne, 1995). Its marketing strategies,
however, have not been systematically analyzed
using an ethical framework. Additionally, BSI's
marketing strategies can be linked, for the most
part, to a single individual, Anita Roddick, the
founder and vision behind the company. She has
been noted for her use of her personal, envi
ronmental, and social values as the core of
BSI's brand identity Qoachimsthaler and Aaker,
1997). Thus, BSI provides the opportunity to
apply virtue ethics not only to the marketing
strategies of a business but also to the moral char
acter of a decision maker. The primary question
of this case analysis is: "What does a virtue
ethics analysis suggest for the development of a
company's marketing strategies?" And, a related
question investigated is: "What do the strategies
suggest about the character of a marketing
decision maker?" As is necessary in virtue ethics,
a specific analytical discusi?n of BSI, begins with
a contextual look at some key facts and impres
sions of its history.
BSI is a manufacturer and retailer of natural,
biodegradable cosmetics (Shapiro, 1988). The
company was founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick
who built her first store in Brighton, England
with a $7000.00 loan, secured using her small
sea-side hotel as collateral (Chatzky, 1992). The
business venture received immediate publicity
when two neighboring funeral parlors objected
to the irreverence of the name ? The Body Shop
(Brock, 1993). The company was franchised in
1977 (Steinberg, 1988) and in 1984 taken public
(Chatzky, 1992). It now includes 1210 shops in
45 countries (Hanson, 1996) with the first store
opened in the United States in 1988 (Wallace,
1990).
Anita Roddick's inspiration for producing
natural cosmetics came primarily from her travels
in Third World countries where she observed
women caring for their bodies using substances
such as cocoa butter, aloe vera, and rhassoul mud
(Steinberg, 1988). Being an ex-flower child, she
was fascinated by the use of natural substances for
hair and skin care (Malkin, 1990). Further, she
noted that these women used cosmetics more for
cleaning and protecting their bodies than for the
 A Case Analysis of the Body Shop, International 253
pursuit of renewal, beauty, and sexuality. Anita
Roddick visualized a market of women in
developed countries who possessed these same
countercultural ideas and would be attracted to
cosmetics that embodied such values (Chatzky,
1992), that is, cosmetics that required little pro
cessing, created minimal waste, and whose profits
helped the disadvantaged, especially women,
living in marginalized areas. Her environmental,
social, and political values are reflected in BSI's
mission statement which is:
Our reason for being:
To dedicate our business to the pursuit of social
and environmental change.
To creatively balance the financial and human
needs of our stakeholders: employees, franchisees,
customers, suppliers and shareholders.
To courageously ensure that our business is eco
logically sustainable: meeting the needs of the
present without compromising the future.
To meaningfully contribute to local and interna
tional communities in which we trade, by adopting
a code of conduct which ensures care, honesty,
fairness and respect.
To passionately campaign for the protection of
the environment, human and civil rights, and
against animal testing within the cosmetics and
toiletries industry.
To tirelessly work to narrow the gap between
principle and practice, whilst making fun, passion
and care part of our lives (Hanson, 1996, p. 30).
At present, BSI faces stiff competition from
cosmetic giants, such as Este Lauder as well as
entrepreneurs, such as the Bath and Body Works
(Chatzky, 1992). Anita Roddick contends,
however, that while others may have copied the
naturalness of her products, they have only
imitated her environmental, social, and political
values (Brock, 1993). She has built an empire by
carving out a niche in the cosmetics industry -
offering natural products, packaging them in
recyclable, refillable, biodegradable containers,
and selling them at reasonable prices (Maremont,
1988). Further, BSI does not advertise (Shapiro,
1988) and its stores are self-service (Maremont,
1988). With this brief overview, BSI's marketing
strategies can now be examined using a virtue
ethics analysis.
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Organizational virtues and The Body
Shop's marketing strategies
Extant literature provides the basis for the dis
cussion of the three organizational virtues of
excellence, integrity, and judgment. The first orga
nizational virtue, excellence, gained prominence
when it became the focus for Peters and
Waterman's (1982) best run companies. Solomon
argues that excellence "is a word of great signif
icance and indicates a sense of mission, a com
mitment beyond profit potential and the bottom
line. It is a word that suggests not only 'doing
well' but also 'doing good' " (Solomon, 1992b,
p. 153). The current emphasis on excellence
"also presupposes a particular sense of justice, a
meritocracy, in which merit-excellence is rewarded
in the marketplace" (Solomon, 1992b, p. 153).
The second organizational virtue, integrity,
is expressed in the American Marketing
Association's (AMA) Code of Ethics (Marketing
News, 1987) and the consumer "bill of
rights" (Skinner, 1994). Additionally, marketing
researchers have noted that maintaining research
integrity is one of the most difficult problems
they encounter (Hunt et al., 1984). Integrity,
however, is more than honesty and encompasses
several other virtues, such as loyalty and trust
worthiness. "[Ijntegrity represents the integration
of one's roles and responsibilities and the virtues
defined by them" (Solomon, 1992a, p. 328).
The third organizational virtue, judgment, is
important in that the exercise of good judgment
should be the rule rather than the exception.
While quandary ethics suggests that there are
formulas for making good ethical decisions, the
virtue of judgment counters that such prescrip
tions do not exist. Every judgment must be made
with an information void, under time constraints,
and with consideration of the context. Therefore,
"Good judgment means making the best decision
available, which means making the decision in
the right way" (Solomon, 1992b, p. 179).
The three organizational virtues, community,
membership or roles, and holism are now defined
and extended to marketing decision makers and
their strategies. Solomon (1992b) suggests that
the organizational virtue of community "goes
beyond the idea of particular responsibilities and
 254 Cathy L. Hartman and Caryn L. Beck-Dudley
obligations, although it embraces the same
impetus toward larger thinking and citizenship
endorsed by stakeholder analysis" (p. 150).
Consequently, while some marketing profes
sionals might confuse this sense of community
with stakeholders analysis (Goodpaster, 1991), it
is not at all the same. The "business" commu
nity is comprised of both groups of individuals
and of single individuals. Although, within a
particular business people may act alone, it is
much more common for them to act together.
Each group has a personality and each individual
has a personality. This "relationship" in a business
community has been described as a "heteroge
neous conglomerate that is bound to be riddled
with personality clashes, competing aims and
methodologies, cliques and rivalries, and criss
crossed loyalties" (Solomon, 1992b, p. 151).
At present, the definitions of community
available in the marketing literature are frag
mented and ambiguous. For example, Brenner
and Molander (1977) delineate the community
for marketing managers as including customers,
stockholders, and employees. Zey et al. (1979) in
their model of the ethical decision making
process focus on the organizational community
of peers, interfacers, and management. Hunt and
Vitell (1986) note that the relevant community
in an ethical analysis includes stakeholder groups
that vary across individuals and contexts. The
traditional marketing concept suggests that
community contains the firm's target market,
employees, and stockholders/owners, and the
societal marketing concept adds society at large.
Recently, researchers have recognized that the
marketing community needs to be a broad and
comprehensive concept. It has been theorized
that "marketers must operate within the dictates
of the capitalistic system, and their ethical phi
losophy should reflect those dictates in addressing
the misuse of power and vagaries of chance in
the capitalistic system" (Robin and Reidenbach,
1993, p. 101). Even this statement, however, does
not go far enough to detail the type of commu
nity where marketers work and live, and how
their moral character influences those commu
nities. Thus, it is critical that marketers see them
selves immersed in and interconnected with the
community rather than as autonomous agents.
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Understanding Solomon's two organizational
virtues of membership or roles and holism is essen
tial for realizing the essence of community.
Membership or roles covers individuals' identi
ties as members of business organizations. For
marketing professionals, this role may well be dif
ferent from that of the human resource manager
(Newton, 1992). Because virtue ethics is con
cerned with the context within which one lives
and works, it is important that marketers clearly
define their roles as members of the community.
They need to understand that a role suggests that
individuals within organizations work together
and gain identity in groups. It is important for
any theory of virtue ethics to spend significant
time and attention in determining the "legiti
macy of roles and their responsibilities, and
the structure of the corporations that defines
those roles and their responsibilities" (Solomon,
1992b, p. 328). Both the AMA's Code of Ethics
(Marketing News, 1987) and the consumer "bill
of rights" (Skinner, 1994) are relevant to the
definition of a marketing decision maker's role.
These sources suggest that marketing profes
sionals must not use their positions of power to
harm, mislead, deceive, or coerce any parties
involved in the exchange process when per
forming the marketing function. Virtue ethics
suggests, further, that marketers' membership in
the community may require them to perform
other roles in addition to their professional
one, such as educators, caregivers, arbitrators,
disciplinarians, and personal role models for
others.
This discussion suggests three themes that
should characterize marketing decision markers'
conceptualization of community. The first theme
is that textured, rather than linear, unidimen
sional thinking, is required to capture the essence
of community. The second theme is that a sense
of connectedness is part of community. The third
theme is that an internal/external dichotomy is
inappropriate to defining community. Together
these themes suggest that when marketers see
themselves as members of communities, they
lose the ability to perceive themselves without
recognition of others to whom they are con
nected. Additionally, they have particular roles to
perform, and when these roles are performed by
 A Case Analysis of the Body Shop, International 255
virtuous marketing decision makers they will
enable communities to flourish.
The last organizational virtue, holism, reflects
the understanding that no person acts alone
without impact on others. Solomon (1992b)
argues that it is "the great virtue in the notion
of the stakeholder" (p. 180). However, holism,
emphasizes context and community, going
beyond stakeholder analysis with its focus on
individual obligations without regard to the com
munity as a whole. Stakeholder analysis does not
focus on a review of the context in which one
operates or consider how an action might impact
a constituent. Holism "is not itself another
philosophy so much as it is simply the insistence
that wherever we find antagonism and competing
concepts we should expand our vision until
we see the whole context" (Solomon, 1992b,
p. 185). Incorporation of holism would require
that marketing decision makers modify the
perspectives suggested by the marketing concept
and the societal marketing concept, since both
encourage a stakeholder rather than a commu
nity analysis. The organizational virtues are now
used to analyze the marketing strategies devel
oped by Anita Roddick for BSI.
Anita Roddick contends that the central
mission of business is to improve the world
(Zinn, 1991) by not only caring for its work
force and customers, but also for its communi
ties and the environment (Shapiro, 1988). Thus,
she has articulated a high ideal of excellence upon
which to evaluate her integrity and that of the
marketing strategies of BSI. She challenges the
conventional notion that the "business of business
is to make profits" (Roddick, 1991, p. 22) and
contends that business should be a force for
social good first, and consider bottom line profits
second, after social responsibility. Since businesses
are caretakers, they must be evaluated on how
they treat weak and frail communities and
how they assume responsibility for sustaining
people, families, communities, and cultures.
Anita Roddick recommends specific caretaking
activities of "educating children, healing the sick,
valuing women's work, and respecting human
rights" (Roddick, 1994, p. 197). She puts her
credo into practice by finding business solutions
that simultaneously meet the sometimes con
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flicting goals of profit with social and environ
mental well-being (Chappell, 1995). She claims
that "the human race will soar if its basic material
needs are being met in an honorable way"
(Roddick, 1990, p. 47).
In her membership or role as a marketer of cos
metics Anita Roddick has redefined the practice.
She characterizes the industry as one that exploits
women by creating needs that do not exist (Zinn,
1991), promoting false hopes and unattainable
dreams, using hype and pressure to sell, wasting
resources on packaging and advertising, charging
exorbitant prices, and exploiting indigenous
people (Roddick, 1991). She has contempt for
the perfectionist gospel of the industry, pro
claiming, "You don't have to suffer the terrorism
of body shape. You don't have to have tight skin
to be loved" (Brock, 1993, p. 101). The tradi
tional cosmetics industry, as she defines it, con
flicted with her personal, social, environmental,
and political values. Thus, she does not see
herself as a member of the established cosmetics
industry.
Anita Roddick set out to offer women
an alternative and ended up developing a new
business paradigm for the cosmetics industry. She
has claimed time and again that skin and hair care
products cannot be taken that seriously them
selves, but what is important is their ingredients,
manufacturing process, and use of profits. She
contends that her marketing practices are socially
and environmentally motivated and, thus, protect
her from having the "feeling of robbing and
raping the planet and the community . . ."
(Roddick, 1990, p. 47). They nurture her soul
and spirit, and that of her staff and the human
race. Thus, Anita Roddick uses her role as an
ecocapitalist to support BSI's community.
Anita Roddick holds that foreign trade
networks must "espouse a gentler, kinder way of
doing business, where core values of community,
social justice, openness, and environmental
awareness are flourishing; that business can trans
form themselves into organizations that have a
vital, driving sense of responsibility to people and
the planet" (Roddick, 1994, p. 199). She calls for
the International Chamber of Commerce to
develop a Corporate Code of Conduct that
would encourage companies to compete in ways
 256 Cathy L. Hartman and Caryn L. Beck-Dudley
that do not destroy existing communities and
the environment (Roddick, 1994). Thus, her
fundamental business goal is to create human
growth rather than gross profits (Roddick, 1994).
Anita Roddick has built a marketing com
munity around her values. The Body Shop,
International's mission statement specifies that
social, environmental, and political values are the
fundamental bases of exchange with its con
stituents. Specifically, the company's first com
mitment is to "social and environmental change,"
and, second, to the "financial and human needs"
of its stakeholders. Further, its product pledge
involves "the protection of the environment,
human and civil rights" within the cosmetics
industry. Thus, the commonalities that bond
members are stated explicitly in its mission state
ment. Unlike many other organizations, BSI does
recognize an extended community both internal
and external to its business.
Internally, Anita Roddick solidifies the
"values" bond in her marketing community
through her employment practices. For instance,
she uses a unique employee interview that
contains questions about applicants' philosoph
ical views, such as their heros, literary tastes, and
hobbies (Zinn, 1991). Specific questions include:
"If you were a car, what car would you be and
why?" (Brock, 1993, p. 106), along with "What
is your favourite flower?" and "How would you
like to be buried?" (Elmer-Dewitt, 1993, p. 54).
Anita Roddick hires those who give creative
answers that suggest values commensurate with
those of BSI. "Wrapped in basil" (Brock, 1993,
p. 106), for instance, reflects an environmentally
responsible answer to the burial question, as it is
natural and green. Externally, BSI's mission state
ment notes that local and international commu
nities as well as the cosmetics industry are of
concern. For example, when developing cos
metics, Anita Roddick attempts to familiarize
herself with indigenous people and places so
that they are not disturbed unfairly (Roddick,
1991).
Holism is evident in BSI's training program
that teaches that because its products are linked
to social, political, and environmental causes,
employees are not only selling moisturizers
and creams, but also enhancing their own lives
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and the lives of their customers and others
(Franssen, 1993). This tenet, in essence, connects
employees' lives to those of their customers,
the environment, and marginalized people and
places. Further, all employees are allowed to
give two hours (of their salaried time) to
promote social, political, and environmental
causes (Shapiro, 1988) connecting them with
socially challenged people and places. Each store
must also sponsor a local project, such as helping
AIDS patients or running soup kitchens (Malkin,
1990). Thus, through training, Anita Roddick
strengthens and sustains communities of people
and places whose members work together to
achieve common values.
While Anita Roddick is the force and conduit
through which BSI's community is established,
some find her passion offensive. One staff
member who left the organization explained that
she "... just felt that I had to be permanently
angelic. I began to hate the face of Anita
Roddick telling me it was my duty to save the
world" (Brock, 1993, p. 106). A social invest
ment analyst described BSI as a "closed, auto
cratic company where critics are intimidated and
few outsiders are invited to speak to employees"
(Bavaria, 1995, p. 105). Its customers must also
be sympathetic with the social causes Anita
Roddick supports, because store walls and
windows are plastered with posters and pamphlets
promoting a plethora of causes from human
rights to rain forest preservation (Elmer-Dewitt,
1993). By her own admission, Anita Roddick
neither seeks nor continues relationships with
those who do not share her ideologies (Brock,
1993). Some critics claim that she has promul
gated her personal values to satisfy her own ego
rather than to enact sincere concern for the
environment and human rights (Davidson, 1996).
Thus, only franchisees, employees, and customers
who share her vision are likely to be comfortable
and remain in BSI's marketing community.
Anita Roddick also associates with like
minded corporate executives through Businesses
for Social Responsibility, an organization that
she co-founded (Elmer-Dewitt, 1993). The
group has dedicated itself to revolutionize cor
porate America by promoting socially progressive
policies including family leave and environmen
 A Case Analysis of the Body Shop, International 257
tally responsible manufacturing. Anita Roddick
has implemented a number of reformative
measures, such as the elimination of animal
testing of cosmetics (Shapiro, 1988) and the
development of educational programs on social
issues including aging, drugs, and urban survival
(Steinberg, 1988). She is also an advocate for
the Social Accountability 8000 (SA 8000)
program developed by the Council on Economic
Priorities to establish ethical working environ
ments and trade practices (Barrett, 1997).
Further, BSI practices a "Trade Not Aid"
program through which Anita Roddick seeks
people and places that are socially and econom
ically disadvantaged (Conlin, 1994). For example,
a soap factory was built in a poverty stricken
section of Glasgow, Scotland (Malkin, 1990),
even though this choice resulted in a thirty
percent increase in the cost of production
(Roddick, 1994). Additionally, twenty-five
percent of its profits was funneled back into the
community. Another store was situated in
Harlem, with fifty percent of its profits ear
marked for projects chosen by area residents
(Brock, 1993). Another undertaking involved
training women in Nepal to make paper from
banana plants (Steinberg, 1988) with profits
used to support community projects including
medicine, scholarships for young women, and
small business loans (Roddick, 1994). BSI has
also rebuilt war-ravaged Romanian orphanages
with its profits (Zinn, 1991). Thus, Anita
Roddick is diligent in insuring that all those who
associate with the firm including employees,
franchisees, customers, suppliers, and the public
support her values.
Individual virtues and The Body Shop's
marketing strategies
The next task in developing a virtue ethics
framework for marketing involves deciding which
of the proscribed individual virtues are impor
tant for marketing decision makers in specific
contexts. Pincoffs (1986) argues that "for a trait
to count as a virtue, there must be reason to
think that the person who bears that trait is quite
generally preferable to the person who does
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not" (p. 170). Solomon (1992b) has provided a
provocative analysis of virtues required for indi
viduals within firms including honesty, fairness,
trust, toughness, friendliness, loyalty, honor, shame,
caring, compassion, and wittiness. Since marketing
decision makers are individuals within business
organizations, Solomon's list is again the proper
starting point. Applying virtue ethics to mar
keting strategies also requires consideration of
how individual virtues are practiced within the
community. The framework proposed in this
article suggests five individual virtues as a starting
point for analysis of marketing decision makers
and their strategies including (1) honesty, (2)
fairness, (3) trust, (4) friendliness, and (5) shame.
The product, pricing, promotion, and distribu
tion strategies fashioned by Anita Roddick for
BSI are analyzed using these virtues.
In marketing contexts, the virtues of honesty,
fairness, and trust are essential if marketers expect
to establish continuous relational exchanges.
Further, marketing professionals have noted that
being honest and fair is of significant concern to
them (Hunt and Chonko, 1985). It is important
to recognize that most business relationships are
to some extent reciprocal, and are entered into
with the notion that the relationship is likely to
be continued. Since we would rather deal with
people who are honest, fair, and trustworthy than
people who are not, these are virtues that mar
keting decision makers should, at a minimum,
possess to build long-term exchange relation
ships. Gundlach and Murphy (1993), for example,
suggest that marketers need to build trust, estab
lish equity, develop responsibility, and solidify
commitment to sustain relational exchanges.
The first individual virtue, honesty, is simply
truth telling. The product category offered by
BSI, cosmetics, creates an interesting paradox for
this virtue as it is considered a vanity product.
Anita Roddick herself questions the effectiveness
of products, such as moisturizers to improve the
cleanliness and health of one's skin (Conlin,
1994). This implies that other motivations, such
as the desire for beauty and youth, underlie their
use. With respect to virtue, the issue is the
relation of psychic beauty to the creation and
sustainment of flourishing communities. The
notion of moderation is relevant to this issue
 258 Cathy L. Hartman and Caryn L. Beck-Dudley
suggesting that to the extent that one's belief that
"looking good" facilitates performance of roles
and interactions with others, cosmetics may be
beneficial to communities. However, preoccu
pation with cosmetics as "the" way to attain an
"ideal" may be detrimental to one's flourishing.
Honesty is evident in Anita Roddick's product
and promotion strategies. All product ingredients
are listed on labels, even if the country where
they are being marketed does not require dis
closure (Steinberg, 1988). For example, one hair
treatment product carries a disclosure that it
contains henna, is smelly, and resembles manure
(Jacob, 1992). Reference materials are also avail
able to customers who are interested in reading
about products. BSI's promotion strategy does
not promise consumers beauty and youth, but a
commitment to clean and protect their skin and
hair (Steinberg, 1988). Additionally, staff are
trained to use information rather than hype and
pressure to promote products (Jacob, 1992).
Anita Roddick contends that she will not have
"... threatening Revlon clones over a counter
telling you what you should look like"
(Maremont, 1988, p. 136).
Anita Roddick is also honest about the moti
vation for many of her highly acclaimed mar
keting decisions - necessity. She says that,
"Everything that's individual about the Body
Shops happened because we had no money"
(Steinberg, 1988, p. 50). For example, the first
products were bottled in urine sample bottles,
because they were the cheapest; clients were
allowed to refill bottles, because she could not
afford more bottles; ingredients were listed,
because she wanted to explain the unusual
appearance created by the natural ingredients.
She also admits to influencing the press because
of the need for publicity (Jacob, 1992). When
her first shop opened and was the subject of
negative criticism, she leaked a story to the local
paper about how a poor mother of two young
children, struggling to make ends meet, was
being threatened by other shop owners (Wallace,
1990). Her publicity attempt was so successful
that she has continued it through the years. It is
estimated that BSI now receives about $4 million
of free publicity from her articles and appearances
(Wallace, 1990).
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In recent times, the "honesty" of BSI,
however, has been questioned. The company was
charged with exploitation and deception by
selling products that contained (1) nonrenewable
petrochemicals and (2) ingredients that were, at
some point, tested on animals as well as (3)
buying an insignificant amount of resources from
Third World countries (Entine, 1995, 1997).
Anita and Gordon Roddick reacted by denying
these charges, questioning the motives of the
investigative reporter and his methods of
reporting. They claimed the public misunder
stood the company's animal testing policy
(Conlin, 1994) which is not to use ingredients
that have been tested on animals for five years,
not forever. They secured the list of subscribers
to Business Ethics, the publisher of the negative
report, under false pretenses and wrote letters to
them claiming that the social responsibility role
of BSI makes it vulnerable to attacks from a
variety of groups (Roddick, 1995). For example,
customers expect to pay high prices for socially
responsible products, employees have high expec
tations for socially responsible managers, and
competitors have an added dimension to leverage.
A more advantageous position, they offer, would
be to assume an anti-environmental stance and,
then, better it. However, recently, following a
social audit of the company that gave the
Roddicks the lowest rating for their "reaction to
criticism," they have vowed to control their
"... legendary grouchiness under criticism . . ."
(Hanson, 1996, Foreword). Immediately fol
lowing this pledge, though, is their justification
for their volatile reaction - the wide gap between
their view of reality and others' perception of
their marketing strategies. Virtue ethics would
suggest a more reasoned response to criticism.
The second individual virtue, fairness, is
inclusive and broad, but basically means to give
and receive something of equivalent value. It
encompasses much of what we expect from
business, such as honesty, dependability, trust,
and justice (Solomon, 1992b). Anita Roddick
exhibits fairness in her personal motto "...
expect nothing in life you don't work for . . ."
(Steinberg, 1988, p. 51). Her sense of fairness is
reflected in BSI's pricing strategy. Products are
sold at "reasonable" prices challenging two
 A Case Analysis of the Body Shop, International 259
practices common to the cosmetics industry
(Maremont, 1988). One is the use of extrava
gant product packages, and the second is setting
high prices to communicate distinctiveness. BSI's
cosmetics are priced below those of competitors
(Chatzky, 1992).
Anita Roddick also tries to be fair in her fran
chise agreements so that franchisees share in
profits (Franssen, 1993). However, the fairness of
her treatment of franchisees has been challenged.
The social audit of the company found that the
company lacked consistency in its treatment of
different groups of franchisees (Hanson, 1996).
Specifically, the first franchise agreements con
tained conditions more favorable to the fran
chisees than later agreements, which were more
favorable to the company.
The third individual virtue, trust, involves
dependability, fulfillment of publicly stated
values and commitments in an equitable, honest
manner. Trust is exhibiting an attitude that "most
people are honest and dependable most of the
time" (Solomon, 1992b, p. 215). Anita Roddick
has been steadfast to her environmental and social
values. For example, BSI has maintained its
pricing strategy, even when increases might have
been justified by changes in its brand equity,
further, the profit margins for its products are
about one-third of the industry level (Chatzky,
1992).
The "American way" of doing business,
however, challenges Anita Roddick's fulfillment
of publicly stated values and, perhaps, trust. This
illustrates the contextual problems of adopting a
virtue ethics perspective. For example, even
though she considers malls as "monuments of
non-communication and schools for alienation,
which dull the mind with their uniformity"
(Roddick, 1991, p. 18), her shops are situated
in malls (Elmer-Dewitt, 1993). Further, because
malls are dedicated to sales rather than social
concern, mall owners have not been receptive
to BSI's demeanor. For example, several posters
have been censored by mall owners including an
AIDS poster, because it featured a sketch of a
naked man that owners felt encouraged homo
sexuality (Brock, 1993), and, another of a baby's
bottom, because owners thought it exposed too
much flesh (Elmer-Dewitt, 1993). Finally, to be
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competitive in the U.S., Anita Roddick has
moderated her policy against advertising by doing
television spots for American Express (Brock,
1993).
The fourth and fifth individual virtues, friend
liness and shame, are also relevant. Friendliness is
not to be confused with friendship. It is not
necessary that those with whom we work and
come into contact with are our personal
friends, however, it is necessary that they
should be pleasant. A work place, or business,
that does not exhibit friendliness is limiting to
sustaining exchange relationships. Consumers, for
example, expect service personnel to be friendly
(Parasuraman et al., 1985). Friendliness requires
that one is pleasant in exchanges with others.
Anita Roddick is a very high-energy, passionate
individual whose fervor makes her difficult to be
around. One analyst commented, "Much as I
liked her, I longed, after two hours, to get away.
She is like a fire sucking up your oxygen"
(Elmer-Dewitt, 1993, p. 54). Anita Roddick
admits that her zeal means that she is less polite,
patient, and diplomatic. She tries to respect, listen
to, and respond to employee suggestions and, at
one time, even knew the names of workers at
corporate headquarters (Conlin, 1994). However,
her staff sometimes finds her autocratic and
almost impossible to disagree with (Brock, 1993).
By contrast, for those who share her environ
mental and social concerns, she is engaging to be
around. She claims her customers visit The Body
Shops to discuss its activities and link with its
community (Conlin, 1994). Also, she has friend
ships with like-minded entrepreneurs such as Ben
Cohen of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream.
The last individual virtue, shame, is an
emotion. It occurs when one has not lived up
to the group's expectations or when one has
failed to be acceptable to one's chosen group. "To
feel shame (not quite the same as our "being
ashamed") is quite literally to fail oneself, but
only in the context of one's larger self"
(Solomon, 1992b, p. 223). It is to feel true
remorse for one's behavior. Recently, it has been
argued in the popular press that shame should
be used to "condemn behavior that is socially
destructive" (Alter and Wingert, 1995, p. 25).
Shame could help marketing decision makers
 260 Cathy L. Hartman and Caryn L. Beck-Dudley
avoid practices that are destructive to human
flourishing. The appropriateness of having mar
keters use an emotional basis to evaluate deci
sions is also recommended in Hunt and Vitell's
(1986) model. They suggest that when a decision
maker's behavior and intentions are inconsistent
with ethical judgments, the person will have a
feeling of guilt. While guilt is not the same as
shame, because the focus is on individual and
personal goals rather than group goals and expec
tations, it is an emotion.
To some extent, Anita Roddick is embarrassed
by her financial achievement and is offended by
the corporate measure of success ? accumulated
assets (Elmer-Dewitt, 1993). She has vowed to
never "sell out" to profit, to never think like a
large corporation, but she worries that the poten
tial to make money may divert her from social
concerns. Some critics charge that BSI shame
lessly uses its social concern to sell products
(Elmer-Dewitt, 1993). By selling "environmental
correctness," customers can buy good rather than
do good. Anita Roddick has also leveraged BSI's
niche in the cosmetics industry by criticizing the
social corruption of other companies. Further,
the Roddick response's to criticism reflects a lack
of shame. Shame would suggest a willingness to
admit mistakes and errors, followed by an honest,
heartfelt promise to do better next time.
Conclusions and implications
The central objective of this study was to demon
strate how virtue ethics might contribute to
the theory and practice of marketing ethics.
Several conclusions can be drawn from this case
analysis of BSI's marketing strategies that provide
guidance to marketers interested in considering
virtue ethics principles in decision making and
the development of strategy, and those concerned
with advancing theoretical understanding of
virtue ethics.
In general, this case analysis demonstrates that
similar to other ethical standards, striving for
human perfection is not smooth. For example,
while Anita Roddick might be commended for
her commitment to social and environmental
values, her autocratic manner stifles the ethical
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motivation of others in her community. Virtue
ethics would remind us to keep practicing ? to
continue to seek the common good ? even in
the face of these inconsistencies. Further, being
virtuous does not require that humans become
saints. It does, however, demand that individuals
learn from their ethical errors through shame,
that is, recognizing and admitting transgressions
with the intent of making improvements.
Improvement for marketers comes only when
they are allowed to make their own ethical deci
sions, rather than being directed towards partic
ular actions or told rules to which they must
adhere. For example, while BSI offers an inno
vative program of allowing employees to volun
teer locally on company time, many employees
do not choose to participate (Hanson, 1996).
Another conclusion that demonstrates obsta
cles to the attainment of virtue within a com
munity is the ethical challenge Anita Roddick
faced when marketing her cosmetics in the
United States compromising two of her mar
keting principles. First, she has placed her stores
in malls, and second, she has appeared in com
mercial advertisements. The marketing commu
nity in the United States has trained customers
to rely on advertising for product information
and to shop in malls for convenience and effi
ciency. For BSI to compete successfully in this
market its strategies had to conform to this
context. However, when Anita Roddick did
modify her strategy it appeared she tried to
balance her principles with realistic considera
tions. She chose to create customer awareness by
appearing in another company's advertisements
rather than advertisements for BSI itself. She also
promoted social causes in store windows, chal
lenging the social neutrality of malls. This
suggests that virtue ethics may help marketers
understand the challenges of selling products
internationally, that is, in communities that define
marketing strategies, such as malls and advertising
in different ways.
A foremost managerial implication of these
conclusions is that virtue and morality can be a
basis for product differentiation. However, ethical
dilemmas may result. Marketers need to be aware
of the tradeoff that may be created when cus
tomers may fulfil moral obligations by "buying
 A Case Analysis of the Body Shop, International 261
good" rather than "being good". While it is
appropriate for companies to align their mar
keting strategies with the concerns of customers,
this allows customers to meet moral obliga
tions by buying particular products and may
lower their sensitivity to other moral issues.
When marketers combine commercial endeavors
with humanitarian projects, they need to be
thoughtful in their strategies. For example, BSI's
use of its shops for voter registration is an
example of how a marketing strategy might be
used to encourage customers to behave in a
morally responsible manner rather than simply
trade dollars for deeds.
Several research implications are also apparent.
First, marketers need methods for measuring and
evaluating the extent to which their strategies
attain specific virtues. Second, as case histories
are instructive in illustrating how marketing
decision makers may use their marketing strate
gies to attain specific virtues, other business
situations need to be examined systematically to
understand how virtue might be achieved in
other contexts. For example, customers' expec
tations of a friendly, honest cosmetics salesperson
is likely to be different from their expectations
of a friendly, honest physician (Solomon et al.,
1985). Overall, though, an understanding and
recognition of the value of virtue ethics approach
in marketing is a useful first step towards creating
a more ethical marketing environment.
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College of Business,
3510 Old Main Hill,
Department of Business Administration,
Utah State Univesity,
Logan, UT 84322-3510,
U.S.A.

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