{"id":76750,"date":"2025-11-24T09:06:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T09:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/?p=76750"},"modified":"2025-11-24T09:06:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T09:06:03","slug":"bath-body-works-ceo-the-brand-is-not-fulfilling-its-potential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/bath-body-works-ceo-the-brand-is-not-fulfilling-its-potential\/","title":{"rendered":"Bath &#038; Body Works CEO: \u2018The brand is not fulfilling its potential\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech\">\n    <button class=\"text-to-speech__button button\"><br \/>\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"text-to-speech__button__icon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?500116090725\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/>\n        Listen to the article<br \/>\n        <span class=\"text-to-speech__button__audio-length\">3 min<\/span><br \/>\n    <\/button><\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls\">\n        <audio controls=\"\" class=\"js-text-to-speech\" preload=\"none\"><source src=\"https:\/\/text-to-speech.divecdn.com\/newspost\/806131\/2025-11-21_11.37.14\/bath-body-works-ceo-strategy-brand-not-fulfilling-potential.wav\" type=\"audio\/mp3\"><\/source><\/audio><\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls__text\">\n            This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/contact\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">feedback<\/a>.\n        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Dive Brief:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Bath &amp; Body Works <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbwinc.com\/media\/newsroom\/n-bath-body-works-outlines-strategic-transformation-for-sustainable-growth-and-reports-2025-third-quarter-results-2025-11-20-065533\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported Q3 results<\/a> that were below expectations, according to a Thursday press release. The company lowered its full-year guidance and expects net sales to be down high single digits in Q4, reflecting current business trends and recent macro consumer pressures.<\/li>\n<li>The retailer is embarking on a \u201cConsumer First Formula\u201d strategy to drive sustainable, long-term growth.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Bath &amp; Body Works will also <a href=\"https:\/\/seekingalpha.com\/article\/4846153-bath-and-body-works-inc-bbwi-q3-2025-earnings-call-transcript\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">exit categories<\/a> that have not been successful, including hair and men\u2019s grooming, CEO Daniel Heaf said on an earnings call with analysts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Dive Insight:<\/h3>\n<p>Bath &amp; Body Works\u2019 quarterly results and lowered guidance aren\u2019t living up to the company\u2019s expectations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe brand is not fulfilling its potential,\u201d Heaf said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s third quarter delivered net sales of $1.6 billion, down 1% year over year. Net income decreased more than 27% to $77 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe declined in each of our core categories,\u201d Heaf said. A focus on adjacent products \u201chas resulted in underinvestment in our core and not keeping pace with our consumer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For example, some of the company\u2019s biggest fragrances currently deliver over $250 million in sales annually, \u201cand they sit on a shelf in the left-hand side of our store,\u201d Heaf said. \u201cCustomers come in and they buy them, but we haven\u2019t treated them with the reverence and with the marketing they expect.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The company identified a number of <a href=\"https:\/\/investors.bbwinc.com\/static-files\/c30cb8b9-0ca9-4399-87f0-2ff74da6d939\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">additional points of friction<\/a>, including too much reliance on collaborations, frequent promotions and a lack of growth in its total customer base.<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s Consumer First Formula is the answer to get things on track, according to executives.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The strategy has four pillars, including returning to product leadership in its core categories of body care, home fragrance, soaps and sanitizers; reigniting the brand by investing in marketing; expanding the road to discovery through third-party channels; and delivering $250 million in cost savings over the next two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is really about going back to what made this company so great but evolving to meet the needs of today&#8217;s consumer,\u201d Heaf said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The marketplace expansion means the company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/news\/bath-body-works-to-launch-on-amazon\/806032\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">will launch on Amazon<\/a> in 2026, in part to recover between $60 million to $80 million gray market sales that are already happening on the platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Bath &amp; Body Works is also interested in targeting and marketing to a younger demographic. The company this year brought some of its top-selling beauty products to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/news\/bath-body-works-opens-hundreds-college-campus-stores-gen-z\/757180\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">600 college campus stores<\/a> in its largest distribution effort outside of its own stores.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The retailer this month <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/news\/bath-body-works-bluemercury-ceo-maly-bernstein-chief-commercial-officer\/804603\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">brought on former Bluemercury CEO Maly Bernstein<\/a> as its chief commercial officer, a newly created role within the company.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>Published by Dralys Blog \u2013 Stories | Insights | Innovation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Discover more on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dralysstore.com\" target=\"_blank\">DralysStore.com<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pld-like-dislike-wrap pld-template-2\">\r\n    <div class=\"pld-like-wrap  pld-common-wrap\">\r\n    <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\" class=\"pld-like-trigger pld-like-dislike-trigger  \" title=\"\" data-post-id=\"76750\" data-trigger-type=\"like\" data-restriction=\"no\" data-already-liked=\"0\">\r\n                        <i class=\"fas fa-heart\"><\/i>\r\n                <\/a>\r\n    <span class=\"pld-like-count-wrap pld-count-wrap\">    <\/span>\r\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[74,34,65,176,45,177,10],"class_list":["post-76750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dralys-insights","tag-dralys","tag-e-commerce","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-ecosystem","tag-innovation","tag-smart-shopping","tag-technology"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/play.svg.svg+xml","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76751,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76750\/revisions\/76751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}