Sephora Marketing Strategy & Marketing Mix (4Ps)
Marketing Strategy of Sephora analyzes the brand with the marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). These business strategies, based on Sephora marketing mix, help the brand succeed in the market. Let us start the Sephora Marketing Strategy & Mix to understand its product, pricing, advertising & distribution strategies:
Quick Glance:
Sephora Product Strategy:
The product strategy and mix in Sephora marketing strategy can be explained as follows:
Sephora is a beauty product company focusing on skincare and beauty products. The target segment is young women, specially outgoing and middle to upper, middle class. Products range in its marketing mix include over 15,000 products. Cosmetics like lipstick, eyeliners, fragrances, make up kits, skin care, hair care products, etc. Classic brands under Sephora brand name include Lancome and Clinique, while some younger brands like Urban Decay are also flourishing. Apart from Tangible products, Sephora also offers some services which are free to use for its customers.
Beauty insider is a membership based program, which allows the members to access the products at a discounted range, and also helps the brand create awareness and spread word of mouth for it product. Beauty talk offers a lot of events and contests for the customers. This also helps customer to customer engagement. Makeup tutorials are also part of services offered to the visitors inside the stores. The brand has strengthened its position in the online market through strategic acquisitions & partnerships.
Sephora Price/Pricing Strategy:
Below is the pricing strategy in Sephora marketing strategy:
With its large variety of product lines with 300 sub-brands, Sephora offers a wide range in its product price, which includes both for mass collection as well as some unique high end products. Sephora offers competitive pricing through low overhead costs, because of operational efficiencies.
The lower operational costs allow it to have greater margins, which it can use to lure retailers and also in boost its marketing tactics. Discounted offers through Beauty insider are also offered. The pricing in its marketing mix is also is managed through gifts and reward points from the ‘Beauty insider’ option available in the store, where customers can sign in and search for products as well as earn rewards and discounts. The brand also considers its price based on market trends. The company has an estimated revenue of $10 billion annually.
Read more about Sephora
Sephora Place & Distribution Strategy:
Following is the distribution strategy in the Sephora marketing mix:
The self-owned stores are very innovatively designed. All the products can be found in supermarket kind of arrangement. Though, the insides are decorated in a nightclub manner, which is specifically selected considering the targeted audience. Inside the stores the sales team, also includes experts. These experts advise for the type of cosmetics needed and even offering tutorials on make-up. Thus, a lot of experiential value is attached with shopping of brand. Such an experience make the consumer feel empowered. JC penny is a departmental store chain based out of USA. Sephora has started offering its own products through this chain, since 2006. This helped Sephora to expand easily in the US markets, as it was already present in around 600 locations around US. The products can be viewed and bought from their online site Sephora.com. One unique feature is the ‘Pin it’ option, where the selected products can be shared on Pinterest. Apart from self-managed sites, other retail sites like amazon also offer these products. Sephora is present across the major countries of the world, including USA, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, etc.
A total of 2500 stores in more than 30 countries across the world.
Sephora Promotion & Advertising Strategy:
The promotional and advertising strategy in the Sephora marketing strategy is as follows:
A unique feature of online sales include ‘Pinterest’ where the customers can pin their favorite products and favorite colors, share it on the wall with others. These shares are viewed and attract a lot of customers. Hence, a unique combination of online reach and word of mouth Being a luxury brand, Sephora follows push strategy for marketing and promotion. Through unique tactics like offering an experience of tutorials and guides in the store, endorsements, etc. the brand believes in attracting customers rather than pushing for sales. Promotion also involves offering free samples for the women to try on. The samples are given through stores itself and thus, through actually sensing the products, the customer’s willingness to buy increases. Over the years, Sephora has evolved as women’s favorite brand, with various brand stories developed around it. Hence the brand name and labelling itself works as promotion for other sub brands, inside Sephora. Ads include mostly print ads in the magazine cover. Celebrities and models featuring in ads is also not uncommon. Also, print catalogues are sent to the stores like Beauty insider. The company's official website is an ecommerce portal offering its entire product portfolio for online shopping & shipping to the customers residence. Hence this completes the marketing mix of Sephora.
About Sephora:
Sephora is a cosmetic brand, dealing with specially women’s segment of cosmetics. It is a subsidiary of Louis Vuitton (LVMH), and owns around 300 brands of different range. The name is derived from ‘Sephos’ meaning pretty and ‘Zipporah’ meaning Beautiful wife. Sephora started as a fragrance chain, and moved towards other cosmetic products. With its diverse set of products, which comprise around 15000+ variance, it offers one of the widest range in cosmetic and beauty products. The main competitor of Sephora include brands like Ulta.
While localized departmental and beauty stores are also major competitors. It stands out due to the diversified and innovative ideas both for products and sales.
This article has been researched & authored by the Content & Research Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.
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