Sephora Case Study

Princessa Beauty Products is a retailer of beauty products catered to the black community that has been around for more than 20 years. Princessa is one of the oldest beauty stores serving the black community in Montreal and is located on the western side of the island. George Richards managed Princessa for two years and purchased the store from the original owners using his life savings. Between the years of 2002 and 2006 the store showed growth in sales from $453,156 to $605,249, but between 2005 and 2006 annual sales stayed the same and in 2007 sales fell to $509,000. Due to this decline in sales Richards began to take into consideration other factors that could be affecting the business. There seemed to be positive reports in the

1. Assuming she receives the additional funding, how should Bornstein allocate her budget across the various digital categories? Given that the additional funding requested must be shifted from Sephora’s other marketing spending, where would you propose to cut? Why?

For years, beauty gurus have been arguing over which makeup store could be the best: Ulta or Sephora. Comparing everything to the brands they sell, what they do not sell, their in-store experience , and reward system. Both Ulta and Sephora shine adequately through customer service, in store experience and both offer great selection.

Consumers are always satisfied with good customer service. When it comes to retail store customer service and satisfaction it is important because department stores are large in size and finding help can be difficult. Colloquy, a company concerned with building customer value, released a survey and asked 3,000 consumers across five geographical areas to rate their personal experiences with retailers. Macy’s was ranked number one in the department store category, with the most loyal customers. To keep up with technology advances Macy’s has invested time and money into developing a more efficient online shopping site, Macys.com and Macysweddingchannel. This investment cost nearly $300 million in 2006-2008 is being used to scale-up these fast-growing businesses through improvements in delivery efficiency, online site functionality and customer service. To enhance the shopping experience at Macy’s 100 stores in 2007 experienced remodeling and began introducing the most advanced POS registers and systems to the sales floors nationwide. Macy’s passion is product and people. There continuing pursuit is to have unique fashionable merchandise ready for customer satisfaction. Macy’s promise is to always carry the best brands and the most-wanted items. They also believe in hiring the right employees. With the right employees, there will be a sense of motivation and helpfulness. The American Customer Satisfaction Index covers 200 companies’ products and

Companies purpose is not simply creating good products, but also informing consumers about their benefits, as well as achieving a clear positioning of their products in the minds of consumers. The three main means of stimulating the mass market are advertising, sales promotion and public relations. Companies have to choose a system, elaborate actions, and set goals in order for advertisement to have good effect on the company. Therefore, this paper will discuss advertising strategies and marketing functions of Ulta and Sephora. To advertising could be expected good effect, companies must first select a system and elaborate action, set goals. Therefore, in this paper we consider the advertising strategy.

Information gathered to conduct this research came from a variety of websites such as, the Express website, and other websites that leak information about the company and they’re well doing in the retail industry. The five main topics that will be discussed in this

Sephora’s current target market are women who value quality products and associate with luxury brand names. Sephora also includes products for males such as fragrance, skincare, shaving, and other products. They are well known as a beauty store for females but do not have a reputation for selling men’s products.

Within these stores, there are many different departments and groups of job roles including sales floor customer assistants, store operations, section managers and store managers (Careers.marksandspencer.com, 2016). Marks and Spencer are devoted to providing great value and services to their shareholders and customers within their business, which suggests customer service is a key part within their organisation (Corporate.marksandspencer.com, 2016). The strategic direction of Marks and Spencer is to prioritise profitability as well as growing the business, alongside improving performance in all areas of the organisation (Corporate.marksandspencer.com, 2014). This essay will focus on sales floor customer assistant departments within Marks and Spencer.

At Macy’s Inc. they have a corporate vision and a corporate philosophy. Their corporate vision is “Macy’s, Inc. is a premier national omni-channel retailer with iconic brands that serve customers through outstanding stores and dynamic online sites. Both Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s are known worldwide, and each has its own unique identity and customer focus.” Their corporate philosophy is as follows, “Macy’s, Inc. clearly recognizes that the customer is paramount and that all actions and strategies must be directed toward providing a localized merchandise offering and shopping experience to targeted consumers through dynamic online sites. Aggressive implementation of the company’s customer-centric strategies by a talented, experienced organization will provide Macy’s, Inc. with an important competitive edge. At Macy’s, Inc., our greatest strength lies in the skill, judgment and talent of our people. Every day a production of enormous magnitude takes place on our selling floors and behind the scenes, where our people bring the company’s strategic goals to life. Our priority of attracting, retaining and growing the most talented people in the retail industry has been and will continue to be our greatest advantage. Macy’s, Inc. is committed to open and honest communications with employees, shareholders, vendors, customers, financial analysts and the news media. The company seeks to be proactive in sharing information and in keeping these key stakeholder

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

Question 1: Is Mary Kay an "international firm", a "multinational firm", or a "transnational firm" as defined in this course and based on its marketing strategy? Why?

Brock beauty, Inc. is a company located in Los Angeles, United states of America specializing in the innovation of natural hair and skin care. The headquarter of the company is found in Oak Harbor BLVD Slidell in Los Angeles, The company was found in 2004 committed in delivering safe natural ingredients and formulae that have been clinically tested and verified to treat inside out. The better business bureau (BBB) has confirmed that the company meets and complies with the BBB accreditation standards. In other words, the business has been doing well in accomplishing high quality products and ensure competency in all sectors of their services.

• Knowledge gap – This is the difference between customer expectations and the service firm’s perception of the customer’s expectations, needs etc.

Facebook is very essential tool for reaching people with easiest way but there are lots of disadvantages about using it. First of all the customers are not anonymous when they ask questions or commented or post, everyone can see their picture even they set up their privacy settings, but in Sephora’s website, everyone is anonymous. This is important because the user might need to ask private questions and might be afraid of her question is embarrassing.

The extra budget use in video production such video content, advertisement on YouTube. Budget will allocated to produce high quality online videos that spread and represent the Sephora brand image in better way among clients. It cost $20000 for each video but spend extra budget to stop low quality ads create negative impact on customers as well as brand awareness.