New Marketing Campaign for Eyeshadow Brushes

Marketing campaign for a new line for Eye shadow Brushes from the "Sephora Collection"

- Develop a new line or premium quality eye shadow brushes that consists of at least 8 different eye shadow brushes and 2 value sets

- Partner with the best seller eye shadows from other brands: e.g. Urban Decay

- Use Facebook to run an open competition of customer review videos and give out prizes for best videos 

 - Cast celebrities and use Twitter for them to tweet about the new brushes

Plan of Action, Current Issues, and Sephora's Future

• Suggestions for further customer service

Although Sephora provides exceptional customer service that is way beyond its competitors, there are still suggestions for improvement. One suggestion is to provide better customer service to non-registered customers. Sephora.com limits its promotions and customer service to guest customers who are not registered. Their customer service and rewards program has too much of a gap between these non-registered customers and registered customers. Also, Sephora.com's competitor Ulta.com follows what Sephora is doing, and even trying to do more with their rewards program. Ulta.com has started to provide more coupons and promotions then Sephora.com, and for Sephora to remain competitive, they should find more unique successful ways to incorporate into their customer service. 

                                                          Ulta.com's Reward Program

• Innovative technology for Sephora.com                       

 Sephora.com should add more innovative features to their e-commerce. They currently have great digitalization and great technology on navigation and dividing categories/sections. One suggestion would be to add product videos and rotate / zoom features for their product images. Sephora.com's competitor L'Oréal provides product videos in their e-commerce. To remain competitive in e-commerce technology, Sephora should do the same.

 

L'Oréal 's Articles and Video Links Associated with Product



• Ethical and compliance issues  

Sephora.com collects customer data internally for marketing purposes. There is no exceptions once you are a registered customer. To remain ethical, they should provide an option for their customers to select whether or not they want this or not.

• Globalization effects 

Sephora.com is ahead in globalization. It currently offers their site in 15 countries. All of these sites are in the country's own languages and currency.

Sephora.com's International Sites

Sephora.com for France

Sephora.com for China



Sephora's E-commerce vs. Sephora's Brick and Mortar Stores

Brief Overview..

Sephora Stores: Sephora operates approximately 1,300 stores in 27 countries worldwide, with an expanding base of over 300 across North America. Sephora opened its first U.S. store in New York in 1998, its first Canadian store in Toronto in 2004. Sephora's North American headquarters is located in San Francisco, with corporate offices in New York and Montreal (Sephora.com).

Sephora.com: Launched in the U.S. in 1999 and Canada in 2003, the foremost beauty site on the Internet is also Sephora's largest North American store in terms of sales and selection of products and brands (Sephora.com).

How Sephora.com Overcomes the Drawbacks of Online Shopping

Sephora.com is a very strong e-commerce that stands by itself. As stated in their website, their e-commerce is their best and largest store when compared to their brick and mortar stores. Sephora.com does an outstanding job in supplementing the drawbacks of online shopping. The reasons that some people do not shop online in general would be: because you cannot see or try the products, and because you have to wait for the product to be delivered. Sephora.com provides the best solutions for these problems. Sephora.com offers free returns even after the product is opened and used, which can hurt their revenue in the short run, but will help more customers to shop online which is better in the long run. Also, Sephora.com provides 3-day free shipping for purchases over $50. Most of Sephora's customers buy over $50 in one purchase, so customers are willing to shop at their e-commerce due to the fast delivery.

Compare and Contrast
(Sephora.com vs. Sephora's Brick and Mortar Stores)

- Accessibility and Customer service

Both Sephora.com and brick and mortar stores

• Free returns on products even after opening and using

Sephora.com

• Provides accessibility by providing through information about company, brands, and products
• Provides customer reviews and more product selections than their brick and mortar stores
• Easier for customers to compare products online, by looking at the ratings and customer reviews of the products

  



Sephora.com's "What's New", "Editor's Picks", "Bestsellers"





Sephora's brick and mortar stores

• Very approachable and helpful sales associates
• Customers can test most of the products before purchase and get personalized advice on those products through these sales associates
• "Beauty Studios" to provide customers a makeover

 

Sephora's Beauty Studios

- Reward Program and Marketing Concepts

Both Sephora.com and brick and mortar stores

• Both provide the "Beauty Insider Program", which enables you to receive 1 point every dollar you spend. You receive a free deluxe sample with your purchase when you accumulate 100 points in your Beauty Bank. When you Beauty Bank hits 500 points, you can choose to spend them on a fabulous free gift: a limited-edition full-sized product-handpicked for Beauty Insiders (Sephora.com)
• Gives birthday gift free with purchase
• Mails registered customers with promotional catalogs and coupons
  
  

  

  Sephora's Catalog Compared to their Competitor Ulta's Catalog

• Rewards V.I.B. (Very Important Beauty Insider) status to registered Beauty Insider members who spend a minimum of $350 on merchandise, during one calendar year. V.I.B.s receive exclusive rewards, coupons, and customer service
• Uses billboard advertising, newspaper advertising, and catalogs to their customers



Sephora's Billboard Advertising






Sephora's Ad at Bus Stop

Sephora.com

• Gives out more samples and the samples have a broader selection
• Markets customers through emails that are sent twice per month; emails contains promotions, new/hot product updates, and beauty news on new/hot items  





Sephora.com's Marketing through Emails

Sephora's brick and mortar stores 

• Promotes merchandise in store by sales associates suggesting merchandise directly
• Has advertisements and signage in store



Sephora's in-store advertising



Variables Analysis - Addressability/Interactivity/Memory/Control/Accessibility/Digitalization

-  Addressability/Memory:

Overall Strong

Strengthness
Website remembers purchase order history, login info., reward info., shopping cart, etc.
Remembers birthdays and gives out birthday gifts free with purchase.
Recommends personalized products once user fills in their preferences.
Weakness
Sephora does list their terms and conditions and privacy policy, but is not specific on listing the terms of use once you are already a member. Personal information is used and disclosed by Sephora. They use it for the purpose of the administration of the Program, internal analysis for marketing purposes, and as otherwise permitted by Sephora's "Privacy Policy", which is not specifically listed. Some of Sephora's customers might not like their personal information being used for marketing purposes.

- Interactivity:

Overall Strong

Strengthness

Provides customer service through email, mail, and phone.
Has a strong customer review section that delivers great interactivity.
Sends emails of order confirmation, tracking info., suggestion of products, and promotions
Uses Facebook, Twitter, Instagrid, Pinterest, and Youtube for further interactions.
Provides cross-selling for multiple buys.
Weakness
Does not provide live chat, which could be an important function for customers purchasing beauty products.

 
Links


Sephora Facebook
Sephora Twitter
Sephora Instagrid
Sephora Pinterest
Sephora Youtube

- Control:

Overall Average

Has a good search engine, and website divides categories of merchandise in detail. However, the navigation could get complicating and confusing since there is too many categories of merchandise and so many different brands. For Sephora to remain competitive, they should come up with a navigation section that is simple and better organized.

- Accessibility:

Overall Strong

Strengthness

Has through information about company: Sephora's overall information, history, stores, e-commerce, the Beauty Insider Program, Sephora inside JCPenny, Sephora Executives, through contact information, vendor request contact, etc.
Has very detailed information on every merchandise including product descriptions, instructions, shipping info., product Q&A (sometimes answered by Sephora's employees), ingredients, etc.
Weakness
Sample product photos are complicated to access in a large view.
Most products have only one photo.

- Digitalization:

Overall Strong
Fast Speed and clarity of product photos.

Sephora.com



About Sephora - Value Proposition and Positioning

Sephora is a leading chain of cosmetics stores that carries over 250 brands. Their target customers are fashion-conscious women who have active lifestyles and are seeking for a unique look.

Sephora has a very distinctive brand image. They strictly use only the colors black, white and red throughout their stores and website designs. Customers automatically think of their black and white striped visuals with tints of red when they think ‘Sephora.’ These colors deliver a clean yet exciting brand image that goes along well with their products which includes high-end luxury cosmetics. When seeing the images and visuals of Sephora, Sephora’s customers know that they are in good hands and that they will be delivered promising service and the best merchandise.

Sephora also carries affordable products including their private label, other than high-end luxury cosmetics. The more affordable brands they carry include Clinique, Buxom, Stila, and Lorac. Their private label brand is named “Sephora Collection.” This is why they also try to portray a very approachable friendly brand image to their customers. They do this by having super friendly sales associates and providing amazing customer service. The Sephora Beauty Insider program, which is their rewards program, offers customers coupons, discounts, and points for frequent buyers. Every Beauty Insider receives a birthday gift, special offers and personalized product offerings.

Two major competitors for Sephora would be Ulta and L'Oréal.

Compared to Sephora, Ulta carries lower priced brands. They do have an outstanding membership program approachable to anyone. However, Ulta’s brand perception to customers is not as established as Sephora’s. Their stores and e-commerce are comparably smaller and less functional. Ulta.com and Sephora.com both delivers great control to customers by providing a great search engine and dividing categories of merchandise in detail. However, Sephora.com has a better design for easier navigation. Sephora.com also has better accessibility and digitalization with more detailed product information and more clarity in product photos. Most of the brands that Ultra carry are unpopular brands compared to the brands that Sephora carries.

L'Oréal, in the other hand, is a well-established brand with various product offerings. However, Sephora provides better customer service and a better reward program. L'Oréal does not give access to most of their coupons and offers to members whom are not on the top half of their customer pyramid. Sephora gives out 3 samples per order through their e-commerce, even to customers who are not a member. Lorealparisusa.com and Sephora.com both provides great accessibility with detailed information on products; Lorealparisusa.com does seem to provide more and better information compared to Sephora.com on some products. However, Lorealparisusa.com does not give enough control for shoppers as Sephora.com does. Lorealparisusa.com is fancier with lots of website design features, but is more difficult to navigate and to search for products.

In the end, more customers shop at Sephora.com than Ulta or L'Oréal because of Sephora’s better product offerings, better customer service, and their well-established e-commerce.

SEPHORA.COM

Blogs, Advertorials, Trend Info., etc for Sephora

Sephora's YouTube Channel drives interest. These videos are also featured as television ads.

Celebrate Your Extraordinary with Sephora

on Youtube Channel

Trend Video on Sephora Youtube Channel:

Sephora Hot Now Volume 4, 2012

Sephora also has a Blog at Blog Spot. Sephora's beauty editors blog on beauty trends, news and gossip.

http://blog.sephora.com/