Body Shop goes back to its roots

The Body Shop is shifting its focus from product development to packaging design with the launch of a limited range of products featuring a redesigned label and bottle in September.

The retailer is returning to the roots of its packaging design. Head of design Paul Porrall says The Body Shop has cluttered its in-store offering recently with over-ambitious packaging “unrelated to the core brand”.

Details on the new products and packaging launched in September remain sketchy. New containers will be based on the classic round Body Shop bottle and labels will be designed to reflect the strong heritage of the classic green label, says Porrall.

The focus for new ranges will be on the quality of the product and packaging rather than the quantity of new lines. He adds, “We are concentrating on doing it right rather than doing it quickly.”

He says The Body Shop brand and all its associated values should be more strongly reflected in its packaging. It is also consolidating the bottle shape into one clean design, as it has become too various in its different manifestations, says Porrall. The Juice It range of shower and moisturising products is an example of “over-designed” packaging, he says. “It was quirky, but looked confusing in the middle of The Body Shop’s [traditional] packaging.”

The move comes as chief executive Patrick Gournay says The Body Shop needs to refocus its attention on its traditional “look” rather than new-look ranges.

“We focused [last year] too heavily on introducing new products without protecting our product heritage,” he says.