Skieann Miner
Professor Young
MKT 280 - Activist Marketing
26 April. 2022
Case Study
Lush: A Marketing Activism Brand Study
Lush: Who They Are
Lush is: “A bath, body, skin and haircare company devoted to creating fresh, ethically-sourced, cruelty-free, vegetarian, handmade, low-waste and effective products” (lushusa.com).
The History
Lush was created by a trichologist named Mark Constantine and a beauty therapist named Liz Weir in Poole England 1995. They were extremely dedicated to creating sustainable and ethical beauty products, which led them to create Constantine and Weir, a company where they made products for many local herbalists and businesses such as The Body Shop. Eventually, they decided they wanted to create their own company with a face in the beauty market, which is when Lush was born. It was born with a concentration on spending money and time on non-frivolous things such as packaging, and rather on the ingredients, ethical sourcing, and reclaimed materials. They have an ethical transparency buying policy that tracks these pure ingredients from plating, to harvesting, to processing and lays out the details of their no-waste process for their products. These foundational decisions and beliefs helped shape this company into who they are.
Their Current Impact:
The Lush website and social media show constant dedication and work within the LGTBQ community. If we glance back to 2017 however, before these movements were monumental across many brands, Lush was leading the way with campaigns they created alongside the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE). Carleen Pickard, the Ethical Campaigns Specialist at Lush stated that when working on this campaign they asked NCTE specifically what a useful message would be for the millions of people that come across their channels every day. They laid their trust in the NCTE to guide them on the best way to present a meaningful message, rather than assuming from a purely marketing viewpoint. The result was a series of videos and booklets focused on allyship that contributes customers, members of NCTE, and employees who were transgender or nonbinary.
Lush, along with the rest of the world is aware of the impact social media has on teens and all individuals' mental health, as well as the storing of people's personal information that takes place constantly. Lush has always been an active part in working against this by performing Anti-Social campaigns, such as a particularly large one in 2019 where they took a silence to social media altogether. However, now as whistleblowers are coming out, specifically against Facebook to discuss the negative aspects of the company and the way social media is managed, Lush is leading the way in shutting down social media altogether. Their website features a large explanation of their new Anti-social movement in which they are refusing to let these issues be swept under the rug like we have seen in society with the environmental issues, and instead are taking a stand now, refusing to play a part any longer in the mess that is social media.
The Lush Experience
Physical Store
Imagine walking into a neon cloud with smiling faces and the smell of lemons and lavender, that is what it is like entering the Lush Store in Albany New York. It was filled with smiling faces and a genuine desire to aid you in your discovery of your perfect scent. Inspiring messages lined the walls, and small detailed cue cards lined the majority of their products telling you exactly what was in them and the benefits for you. It was a place where you walk in and feel confident and comfortable enough to talk to others and know that you’d be proud to be seen walking around the Crossgate Mall with a bag from there.
Online Platform
Homepage:
Along with a few glimpses at popular products, they also have an entire section dedicated to Black History Month. It highlights on the front page their dedication to natural hair and appreciating all the natural beauty of black heritage.
Our Impact Section:
Overall the online platform is put together in a visually appealing way and is split nicely between product, shopping, and the activist side of their brand where they feature stories and dive into their values. It is different from most company websites you visit, in the case that you wouldn’t explore their website just to see the products they offer, you’d most likely get wrapped into their stories and movements.
Lush Social Media
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are three of the largest platforms for businesses looking to share their image through the media, and Lush is just one of the many companies to utilize them. Specifically located on Facebook and Twitter there are posts sharing the company's values regarding current events and responding to the current state of the world. Amongst the obvious campaigns for new products, the last post Lush did that was an example of their activist activities was on November 26, 2021, when they announced they were going anti-social to focus on more important matters. Since then the company has gone quiet on its social media as a protest. However, before the antisocial movement, they also shared a post on November 17, 2021, in which they spoke out on the death penalty and the heartbreaking case of Julius Jones. They made their support against the death penalty known and asked for others to take action against it as well by signing a petition asking the Governor of Oklahoma Kevin Stitt to grant Julius clemency. Not even a week before that on November 13, 2021, they released a statement about the abortion ban in Texas, laying out the official terms of the law and announcing that they are among over 50 other companies in Texas fighting against this ban. They once again also ask others to support the movement against it, providing links to do so. In terms of Lush's Instagram unfortunately all their posts have been deleted to make way for their anti-social movement, except for the 6 posts making up the anti-social announcement that states: “Be somewhere else”. Going through the social media of Lush it is evident that they are able to effectively mix the advertising and marketing posts among their more monumental activist posts. There is a nice balance between the two different kinds of media they share which makes their socials engaging. Instagram however is the most engaging of all as it is usually seen as a huge step for someone to delete all their posts, it is usually seen as a monumental moment in someone's online presence, a complete change of character usually. For a business to do this shows their dedication to this new movement and allows the message of “Be somewhere else” to be much more impactful.
Reflection
It is clear that throughout the years Lush has stayed true to its start. It developed from a clear set of values and morals set in place by Mark Constantine and Liz Weir, and over time those grew even stronger as the company began developing its image more and more. Today the public can clearly see the dedication Lush continues to have to its values and the development of more passions within the company. We see as the company has begun becoming more comfortable over the years within its beliefs, and with the development of social media, the company has been able to really broaden its outreach to its audience and explore its activism more. Lush embraces many of the techniques we often see within activist brands such as the 6 Principles of Brand Activism. They follow the template of focusing on purpose, policy, people, power, publishing, and pop culture. They understand their purpose as we see it lined out through their values and their mission, they implement policies to follow these within their organization and urge others to do the same, as well as working around local legislation to make an impact in different communities regarding policy. Lush also is very involved in understanding the power of different brands and how they can use that power to involve all the people that can help to achieve their goals and their mission as a brand, as well as how to incorporate that into their publishing and pop culture relevancy.
Lush has effectively made an impact through its efforts as an activist brand. They are constantly mentioned throughout pop culture relevancy and continue to be a big name in the public for truly embracing activism and leading a new era of ethical business practices. Since Lush's start, they’ve developed its own sense of what it means to be a for-profit business while also making an active impact on the world around them, and continue to be one of the few companies that truly do it well.