“One of my missions is to turn Body Shop [stores] into activist hubs. People love people, that’s human nature, and we want to be part of our community. We are working on all the ways we can do that in store,” says Jessie Macneil-Brown, the brand’s head of global activism, speaking to Marketing Week at media company TCO London’s event ‘Beyond Brand Purpose’ this morning (22 January).

The move comes as the high street struggles amid a weak economic outlook and low consumer confidence. BRC figures released earlier this month show that retail sales were flat in December, their worst performance in a decade and conditions are not expected to improve this year.

The Body Shop’s renewed brand purpose will focus on gender equality. Macneil-Brown explains: “We’re seeing our way into the women’s rights space because at the heart of our activism we want to work towards gender equality and be a real feminist brand.”

While stores will get a renewed focus, Macneil-Brown believes it is important The Body Shop communicates its campaigns through every touchpoint not just in-store.

“We have done a lot of work on how we bring product and activism closer together but also how do we use platforms? How do we use every event we have in-store to bring an activist message through and how do we do it without green washing and that is actually saying something of substance and creates long-term sustainable change?” she asks.

A core part of ensuring activism is at the heart of stores is up-skilling teams to run local activism projects. Despite being a competitor, Macneil-Brown cited Lush as a “huge inspiration” for its work with activist groups “to bring to life issues in store”. The company currently invites grass-roots activist groups into stores to provide workshops.

Despite her belief that channelling community spirit can help revive the high street, Macneil-Brown acknowledges that the biggest barrier is the rising cost of retail space. She says this means constantly having to ask “how much time do you dedicate to [activism] in store?”.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.marketingweek.com