The Cult Of The Body Shop

BELLEVUE

Call it body worship.

Seldom does a new company get instant recognition, much yet adulation. Usually it takes months or years, thousands of dollars in advertising, nonstop networking and plenty of persistence before a start-up takes off.

Not so for The Body Shop.

When the natural cosmetics store opened its doors at Bellevue Square last October, the owner was met by two women on their knees, thanking him.

"There was almost a cultish reaction" from customers to the first Seattle-area franchise of the international chain of natural cosmetics stores, says franchise owner Randall Ottinger.

"I've never seen anything like it."

The enthusiasm, apparently, has not died. In the six months since the store opened, revenue has been 40 percent more than the most optimistic scenario in Ottinger's business plan.

Aiming for a profit in its second year, Ottinger was surprised to find the business in the black from the day it opened. The Bellevue store is on track to make enough money for Ottinger to recover the $300,000 he put out to start the store within two to three years.

The Harvard Business School graduate, who shares management of the store with his wife, Lea Anne, is already talking about opening additional stores in major shopping malls in the Puget Sound region, including Seattle's Westlake Mall, Northgate Shopping Center or Southcenter Shopping Center. He is looking as far north as Bellingham for the right locations for expansion.

"We have options in all the major malls," says Ottinger.

So what's the trick? Ottinger says there are two main differences between The Body Shop and other cosmetics stores: The Body Shop's natural products and its unique brand of cause-related marketing.

The chain does not shy away from political causes that many might consider left-of-center. By policy, shop owners are encouraged to get involved with local groups trying to save the environment or help a community's underprivileged citizens.

The Bellevue store, for instance, is currently wrapping up an effort to get customers to donate money to help plant 350 trees in Seattle Saturday, two days before Earth Day. The trees will be planted by high school students and area business volunteers. The Body Shop will pay its employees to join the effort.

The store's employees also are paid to do cosmetic "makeovers" for disadvantaged Bellevue teen-agers and to encourage the teens to believe in themselves, says Ottinger.

Meanwhile, the store sells products such as soap designed to increase customers' awareness of endangered species. The soaps are formed in the shape of Blue Whales, Green Turtles, Pandas, Indian Elephants and other species threatened by civilization.

Ottinger says a new line of "Rain Forest" products soon will be introduced, using ingredients such as Brazil Nut oil, a natural moisturizer. The aim, he says, is to encourage use of Brazilian products that come from the endangered rain forest - yet do not disturb the ecosystem there.

"Being on the cutting edge (of social causes) is integral to our business," says Ottinger.

The Body Shop is not Ottinger's first business. He previously started a successful company that developed and sold software for DEC computers. The Body Shop was started using money gained when he sold that company.

Randall Ottinger's liberal politics are inherited. His father, former U.S. Rep. Richard Ottinger, a democrat from New York who was chairman of the Energy subcommittee of the House of Representatives, is now head of an environmental institute at Pace Law School in New York. Randall's grandfather founded U.S. Plywood, which was later sold to Champion International.

Seattle native Lea Anne Ottinger also has business in her blood. Her grandfather who moved the family to Seattle 80 years ago, started a successful necktie business. Her father founded Brittania jeans.

Ottinger says convincing the owners of the British-based chain to let him open a store in the Seattle area was not easy. The company was interested in more than whether he could put up the money to start an outlet.

"They are looking for people with the `right' heart," he says.

While he was negotiating for the franchise, the owners made sure he could pass a key test. There was one question. It had nothing to do with debits and credits, profit margins or sales quotas. It was simply: "What are the five things you can do to improve the quality of life in the world?"