Managing online reputation for The Body Shop through a period of change

Client objective: mitigate any damage to brand reputation

In addition to its 3,000 stores across 66 countries, The Body Shop allows individuals to become representative consultants, starting their own businesses to advise and sell products.

In January 2023, the decision was made to remove this programme across the US and put focus on their e-commerce efforts and physical stores. 

Ahead of the announcement, The Body Shop anticipated some backlash as individuals relied on this as a source of income. The team reached out to MintTwist to help prepare, monitor, and advise on the situation as it unfolded.

What we did

A strategic plan from social and PR messaging specialists ahead of the annoucement.

Developed a social media crisis strategy

The crisis strategy aimed to provide social media best practices and advised response based on the severity of the pending situation. While it is impossible to predict exactly how the public will react to a news story, there is no such thing as being too prepared.

Updated the client’s upcoming content plan

Knowing when the news is going to break is a huge advantage. We reviewed the existing social media content calendar and planned accordingly, adjusting the upcoming content plan to ensure The Body Shop weren’t perceived as insensitive in light of the breaking news.

Set up custom social listening tools

The first step in proactively preparing for a potentially negative response on social media is ensuring that the best tools are in place to monitor the situation. We aimed to ensure that The Body Shop had a full understanding of the public’s sentiment toward the news, and toward the brand overall. 

MintTwist set up a custom social listening query to pull in all mentions of the closure from both the US and global perspectives. We needed to prepare for the story to spread further or track any confusion of consultants believing the scheme would shut globally.

Constant monitoring of social media channels post-announcement

As the news broke, The Body Shop required round-the-clock monitoring across owned social media channels, as well as brand mentions at regular intervals.

MintTwist provided 24-hour monitoring with reports provided every 2 hours. Our reports included elements such as: The volume of new mentions per hour, split between US-based vs international mentions, sentiment of conversations, top posts and authors, and the total reach of mentions.

The Body Shop were far more informed about the developing situation and allowed us to reactively adjust the response strategy accordingly.

Our results

A 153% increase in mentions was noted during the week of the announcement

Despite the increase, due to the constant surveillance, strategy adjustments, clear messaging, and appropriate responses throughout, the risk of severe brand damage and a mass crisis was mitigated.

The Body Shop were extremely grateful for the level of support during a difficult period for their team.