The Body Shop — Ethical Beauty in the Digital Age

Thi Bang Linh Chu
Digital Society
Published in
3 min readFeb 16, 2024

The Body Shop, a leading cosmetic company, is well-known for its commitment to sustainability. In 1976, it started as a little green-painted shop in Brighton with the belief that business could be a force for good, and now it has become one of the UK’s most-loved high street retailers with over 40 years of rule-breaking and change-making.

In today’s fast-paced world, customers are not only interested in the products they buy but also in brands that align with their values. The Body Shop’s dedication to ethical beauty and sustainability has successfully made a strong digital presence across various social media platforms.

For instance, their Instagram account has reached 2.2M followers, while their TikTok account has surpassed 59K followers.

Screenshots of The Body Shop’s Instagram and TikTok accounts — InstagramTikTok

Instagram: A Visual Showcase of Ethical Beauty

Screenshot of The Body Shop’s Instagram feed — Instagram

The Body Shop’s Instagram feed features high-quality visuals showcasing its products, ingredients and brand value through carefully designed images and videos. The company uses vibrant colours and natural elements to attract customers’ attention and convey a commitment to ethical beauty, sustainability, and social responsibility. Besides up-close pictures of products, the company uses graphics with big and bold letters. It helps the brand to stand out in Instagram users’ feeds, immediately capturing their attention as they scroll through their timelines. It ensures that the brand’s messages are noticed among the sea of content on Instagram.

Another noticeable thing about The Body Shop’s Instagram account is its active engagement with followers through comments by responding to customers’ inquiries and gathering feedback and suggestions. This two-way interaction not only helps strengthen brand and customer relationships, but also develop its products and enhance customers experience.

Screenshot of The Body Shop’s comment — Instagram

TikTok: Spreading Ethical Beauty in Short Burst

TikTok, with short-form video content, is a great way to reach a wider young audience, and of course, The Body Shop would take advantage of this opportunity. While its Instagram feed is visually appealing, there is a need for greater diversity in content. The Body Shop has used the TikTok platform to balance Instagram’s lack of beauty content and shows more of a ‘real’ side of the brand. From showcasing its products and sharing skincare routines to featuring popular trends, the brand embraces creativity and authenticity. The brand, therefore, has reached a decent amount of followers on this platform, even though it is a little compared to its Instagram.

During Christmas, The Body Shop uploaded TikTok videos for customers to peek at what was happening in the warehouse in a fun and engaging way. This way, the company can offer customers a behind-the-scenes look at the operation, giving a sense of transparency and humour by dressing as elves.

Even though creativity is important, it’s essential to maintain the brand’s commitment to sustainability and ethical beauty with natural ingredients as it’s not shown much on its TikTok account.

The Body Shop’s communication through its social media platforms (Instagram and TikTok) has demonstrated a solid commitment to ethical beauty and authenticity. By leveraging the strength of each platform, The Body Shop can continue to inspire positive change in the environment and foster meaningful connections with its audience on digital platforms.

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