Marketing Analysis : Ulta Beauty

It is no secret that today’s society defines beauty as thin, long-legged women with statuesque bodies. Examples are found everywhere just by glancing at the closest magazine ads or by scrolling down the latest fashion article online. Normal, everyday women are being forgotten and tossed aside to make room for the “Top-Model”-like women currently crowding up Hollywood. Media depicts women as an unattainable image. They pressure ladies to buy the products they’re advertising; luring them with false advertisements promising that with it, they too could be perfect. While the media portrays women in a certain way for advertising and marketing benefits, it has caused numerous negatives effects to women’s self-esteems nationwide, it contradicts

In “The Fashion Industry: Free to be an Individual” by Hannah Berry, Hannah emphasizes how social media especially advertisements pressure females to use certain product to in order to be considered beautiful. She also acknowledges the current effort of advertisement today to more realistically depicts of women. In addition, these advertisements use the modern women look to advertise products to increase women self-esteem and to encourage women to be comfortable with one’s image.

In our society today a business is not a business without an advertisement. These advertisements advertise what American’s want and desire in their lives. According to Jack Solomon in his essay, “Master’s of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising,” Jack Solomon claims: “Because ours is a highly diverse, pluralistic society, various advertisements may say different things depending on their intended audiences, but in every case they say something about America, about the status of our hopes, fears, desires, and beliefs”(Solomon). Advertisers continue to promote the American dream of what a women’s body should look like. They advertise their products in hopes for consumers to buy them, so they can look like the models pictures in the ads. Behind these ads, advertisers tend to picture flawless unrealistic woman with the help of Photoshop. In our society today to look like a model is an American dream and can be the reasons why we fantasizes and buy these products being advertised. “America’s consumer economy runs on desire, and advertising stokes the engines by transforming common objects;signs of all things that Americans covet most”(Solomon).

Ulta Beauty was found in 1990 and has become one of the largest retailer of beauty products throughout the United States. The continued focus on American- brand name products in local salons, department stores, and online has become a major feature of its massive growth through the 2000s and into the 2010s. The promotion of these multiple venues in the marketplace is based on the slogan: “All things beauty, All in one place.” This business model has provided a broad-spectrum marketing platform that utilizes multiple aspects of brick-and-mortar and online sales in the promotion of beauty products in the United States.

Recently American Eagle’s lingerie brand, Aerie, completely changed their advertising campaign to AerieReal. The AerieReal campaign consists of only un-retouched and no Photoshopped models. Before the AerieReal campaign, Aerie used models that were retouched and Photoshopped to make the models appear skinner and “more attractive”. The AerieReal campaign’s focus is to defy what other lingerie brands, such as Victoria’s Secret, sell in their advertisements. Aerie is trying to challenge the message of true beauty is only if you are skinny by saying that “The real you is sexy”. Aerie is accomplishing this by changing their advertisements in the hopes that girls will grow up to be socialized with a more positive and inclusive message, defy gender roles associated with women, and lastly, confront stereotypes of white and colored women.

     We live in a fast paced society that is ruled by mass media. Every day we are bombarded by images of, perfect bodies, beautiful hair, flawless skin, and ageless faces that flash at us like a slide show. These ideas and images are embedded in our minds throughout our lives. Advertisements select audience openly and subliminally, and target them with their product. They allude to the fact that in order to be like the people in this advertisement you must use their product. This is not a new approach, nor is it unique to this generation, but never has it been as widely used as it is today. There is an old saying 'a picture is worth a thousand words,' and what better way to tell someone about a product

Beauty is the quality of undeniable attractiveness possessed by a confident individual. Beauty is culturally valued because of its effect to make someone feel confident, creative, and unique. The beauty industry is expanding faster than ever because of the constant publicity it is receiving, whether it through social media, articles, or blogs. There are stores that are dedicated solely to all things beauty. One store in particular is Ulta Beauty. It is a beauty emporium where makeup gurus, or any ordinary person, could really get creative. Ulta’s popularity continues to grow because of its fun, colorful, and persuasive ads. An example would be an ad which contains a subtle, white, sparkly background, with vivid hues of purples, pinks, golds, and blues clustered together on the right side, with the words “All things beauty. All in one place. Go ahead, lose yourself,” and the large “Ulta Beauty” logo in the center of it all. The ad uses color, text, and gender appeal to connect to the value of beauty and to persuade women of all walks of life to shop there.

Before ULTA entered the beauty market in 1990, a woman would have to go to multiple stores to find cosmetic, fragrance, and salon products. ULTA has become a woman’s one-stop-beauty department store, they house everything from brands such as Revlon to Estée Lauder, products such as nail polish to specialty shampoos, and they even offer makeup and hair services. In this industry of beauty there are many competitors and companies must stay ahead of their competition, ULTA has done this and more. At the same time they have to foresee any future problems while they continue to grow and find ways to overcome the barriers. Being a lover of cosmetics investing in a company such as ULTA would seem a

I have worked for Ulta Beauty for about two years now, and during my employment with the company I have noticed a few areas they could improve on. I work as a cashier and retail sales associate and I often encounter customers who are from other countries. These customers often inform me that they do not have any store similar to Ulta where they live. Currently, Ulta has over 1000 retail stores, however they are only within the United States. Unlike their competitor, Sephora, Ulta has yet to expand their retail locations outside of the U.S. It was just this past year that Ulta finally started to offer shipping to Canada. It is because of these reasons, I feel that Ulta Beauty would benefit from implementing a globalization strategy.

When Ulta first started off, they promoted their products through different channels of printed promotion like magazines and direct mail catalogs to TV commercials and being on the radio. Just recently in around 2016, Ulta started to shift their focus to being more digital. This shift in promotion direction caused a dramatic increase in their e-commerce sales. Since then, Ulta has been investing in their digital marketing to make their websites more engaging to the customers. Ulta also promotes themselves through their loyalty program, which ha 24.5 active members to market their brand. They are promoting their brand through their rewards card by expanding their rewards cards into co-branded or private-label credit cards. They believe this

Ulta Beauty is a chain beauty store with over 19,000 employees and 974 locations all across America. Ulta carries 20,000 products and 460 brands that consist of, cosmetic, skincare, haircare, and fragrance products for men and women.  Majority of their inventory and sales come from cosmetic makeup brands. Ulta carries higher end makeup brands and well as lower end drug store brands. Their main target market and customers are women of all ages who use any type of beauty product. Their wide range of products can reach to all types of customers and they offer something that majority of people use. In 2013 Mary Dillon former chief of US cellular and chief executive of Mcdonald's became the new CEO. Since then Ulta sales have increased largely. At the end of 2015

This essay will be addressing ideologies of consumer fetishism and pseudo-individuality through examining the commodity signs found in the mass marketing and advertising of designer cosmetics, particularly Chanel.

The cosmetics business is a billion dollar industry. Every year, women are responsible for consuming millions of cosmetic products. The cosmetics industry is so large because of several factors. The media is a huge contributor to the intense pressure to look a certain way. The idea that "sex sells" is evident in gossip magazines, movies, advertisements, music, and more subtly- in the business world. People first notice what race someone is, how beautiful or ugly they are and what clothes they are wearing. Beauty is skin deep; however, first impressions are usually what others use to base their

Often times, women are pressured by the mainstream media to upkeep a stellar appearance. They are expected to measure up to high standards without question. Even before most girls reach puberty, commercials are bombarding them with small Barbie esque makeup kits filled with lip glosses and chalky eyeshadows. The impact it has on impressionable children, both girls and boys is something that will likely last a lifetime if unlearned. Cosmetic companies who are marketing to young ladies say they can simply improve their looks to gain acceptance from their peers if they use the products they are selling. The makeup industry is a multi million enterprise that makes a profit from women’s insecurities and amplified pressures from society as a common tactic many cosmetic campaigns use is to push women to embrace the ‘natural look’ by providing products that will make it appear as if the individual is not even wearing makeup. Companies will spout out that with these products, the end result will be ‘you, but better.’ It is somewhat of an underlying and slightly manipulating slogan, as if to say how a woman appears could be improved because it is lacking in the moment. This distorts how we all believe how a woman is suppose to look.

Many young women in today’s society struggle with confidence and their body image. This is a huge problem in society and many people have spoken out against the influence of media on women’s body image. However, it continues to be a major problem and more can always be done to raise awareness about societies unrealistic expectations for women’s beauty. Dove’s Choose Beautiful campaign was started to promote the self-esteem of women and encourage them to see their beauty, however there are some criticisms, including the company using this campaign to increase their sales. Dove is selling a product with the expectation that confident, beautiful women will purchase it, however people still have the ability to resist the ad industry.