Respect for Indooroopilly

Jodi Meyers - Assistant Manager, The Body Shop Indooroopilly (Qld)


Hey there Values Team!

Just wanted to share some photos of the fabulous Indooroopilly team supporting the ANTaR Respect campaign and tell you about some of our thoughts and experiences along the way.

From the beginning the girls really got behind the campaign, with the whole team purchasing T-shirts and badge sets before the launch date.

The campaign launch pack was very informative and really got the team talking about what we did/did not know about Indigenous issues in Australia, as well as what some possible reactions might be.

Initially the team experienced some nerves when introducing the campaign to customers. The team were well aware that discussing racial issues can be quite confronting, so while learning the best way to introduce the campaign there was a bit of fumbling and butterflies in the tummy!

We discovered that more confident and positive we were about customers signing the pledge the more success we had. After all, pledging to improve the lives of indigenous Australians through respect is a wonderful thing to do! Why wouldn't they want to join us? The key was to keep it simple - describe the campaign aim, request their valued support with passion, then allow them to make their choice.

The Indooroopilly team experienced a range of responses from customers. Everything from negativity, to indifference, to enthusiasm for the cause.

What I noticed was that the negative reactions were usually due to a lack of knowledge about Indigenous issues.

Some customers thought that we were asking them to treat Indigenous Australians differently to Non-Indigenous Australians, rather than the mutual respect and equality we were truly promoting. On a few occasions this took a bit of explaining.

I could hardly believe my ears when a customer asked me if "they" made us put up the acknowledgment of country sign or if someone on our team was Aboriginal. Once the steam stopped coming out of my ears I managed to explain the campaign objectives, and point out the many respect shirts, signs and badges being worn by the team. I am proud to say that this customer listened and learned, then offered to sign the pledge book - what a turn around!

Throughout the campaign I also had some great conversations with customers interested in indigenous issues, several of which not only signed the book, but were excited to hear about purchasing the Kev Carmody CD and supporting ANTaR in other ways.

I am so proud of the 474 signatures our store collected. This took lots of hard work, but I think the team were also rewarded with the feel good factor of sharing a value close to our hearts.

Thanks for igniting our passion guys!