Business Marketing

Business marketing is the practice of individuals, businesses, commercial businesses and organizations marketing their products or services to other individuals, companies and organizations that work in adopting the merchandise as their own for their own personal consumption, use them as components in products or services they offer, use them to support their operations or resell them.

Sephora markets to their customers in various ways. Not only do they market to individuals but they help other business market, for example they help the business of Smashbox market. Sephora uses methods of advertising, business merging and organizational events.

The Marketing environment

Sephora's targeting market: Females and Males of any AGE and RACE.

Celebrities and socialites have a major impact on today's society. Sephora knows how we try to maintain the flawless perfected looks that celebrities PORTRAY. When Sephora comes out with new products, trends and make up ideas they know that we can not resist being that almost everyone in society strives for a flawless look. I mean when you think about it, who really turns down perfection!?

Sephora cosmetics has a keen eye when on latest fashion trends when producing their products. They have such a keen eye because they know that as time goes on and generations past fashion changes. Sometimes fashion moves forward and sometimes the fashion of today are trends seen yesterday. Which ever way you look at it Sephora knows our lifestyles change so they make sure their products change to accommodate our way of living.

Demographic factors:

Race: All around the world you find and you see different people of different races, cultures and languages. Because of the diversity in our society Sephora makes products that go with all skin types (Dark to fair) also Sephora has stores in countries other than the United States.

Age:  Sephora has a huge selection of make- up being that the ages of their customers range from about 10 and up. For the younger generation(10 to 15) Sephora has a huge selection of Lip balms, lotions and nail polishes. For teens (16 to 25) Sephora has a huge selection of almost everything ranging from Lip stick, Lip gloss, Blush, Eyeshadow, Mascara etc. When it comes to adults( 25 and up) Sephora specializes in a lot of Anti-aging products.

Technical Factors:

In this day and age it is all about technology. Sephora knows this so to keep everyone up to date they have their website WWW.SEPHORA.COM not only do they have their website they also have a their Facebook page WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/SEPHORA on their facebook you can find upcoming sales, advice, a link to their twitter page and also ways to get gift card and etc. Also you can check out their Youtube page WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/SEPHORA on there you will see advertisement for upcoming products and a lot of tutorial videos.

 

Segmenting and Targeting Markets

A market is people or groups with needs or desires and the ability and willingness to buy. A group of people or groups that lack any one of these characteristics is NOT a market.


A market segment is group of people or organizations who share one or more characteristics that cause them to have similar product needs.


A marketing segment has to meet certain criteria's. Those criteria's are:

• Substantiality
• Indentifiability and measureability
• Accessibility
• Responsiveness

Gender, income status, age and race also plays a role and has to be considered.
Most people who buy Sephora products are females. There are a few men who do buy Sephora products. Though the female consumers outnumber the men buy alot Sephora still remembers to reach out to the men audience.
With age its also important for SEPHORA to reach out and make ads and commercials that are age appropritate because Sephora customers age vsries from the ages of 10 and up. With family income Sephora makes it a mission to make their products affordable. With all the tactics that SEPHORA does the responsiveness of the customers are always positive. Even celebrites love SEPHORA.

Sephora Presents Spring 2011 Trends: Romantic Neutrals, Elegant Pastels ...

Romantic Neutral Makeup:

Elegant Pastels Makeup:

Sephora Presents Spring 2011 Trends: Vivid Brights and Luminous Golds

Vivid Brights:

Luminous Golds:

Sephora Presents Spring 2011 Trends: Bold Cheeks and Orange Lips

MODEL WITH BOLD CHEEKS:

MODEL WITH ORANGE LIPS:

François NARS + Sephora (SPRING 2011)

Sephora Presents Josie Maran Argan Oil

Developing and Managing Products

New products, are important to sustain growth, increase revenues and profits, and replace obsolete items.

Sephora does a good job staying on top of what should be sold and how to go about. Almost everyday new ideas are brought about in the products they create. As time goes on Sephora reveals and comes out with new products (a product new to the world, the market, the producer, the seller, or a combination of these). Sephora gets new ideas from many different places. Sephora tries to sell not only different products but they also try to come out with new colors, shades, fragrances and etc. Sephora gets their creativity and inspiration from Fashion Designers and Seasons. As time goes on trends change usually trends change by the season so Sephora  makes it their mission to come out with looks and shades that go with the current trend and fashion of the season. Being the fact the society is big on trends, the way Sephora goes about there products is through yearly evolution. As evolution takes place Sephora customers remain happy and satified.

WINTER MAKEUP TRENDS:

SPRING MAKEUP TRENDS:

SUMMER MAKEUP TRENDS:

AUTUMN MAKEUP TRENDS:

Sephora debuts their new products on ther website www.sephora.com. On top of that their new products are also talked about in numerous magazines like Cosmopolitan, Essence, Allure, Glamour and of course Sephora's own magazine titled SEPHORA. You can also see the debuts of Sephora's new products on facebook at WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/SEPHORA. On their facebook page you can find alot of info. Sephora also has tabs and links on their page where you can view Offers, Reviews, Discussions and there's a link to access there Twitter page too. With the cosmetic market on the rise Sephora continues to create and release new ideas and products.

Integrated Marketing Communications

Integrated Marketing is the coordination of a variety of promotional vehicles (e.g., print/broadcast advertising, public relations, direct marketing, in-store promotions) and multiple stages in a promotional campaign to ensure that the marketing message is consistently received by the greatest possible number of people in the target market.

Sephora is very successful when it comes to intergrated marketing. To survive in any company or business, you must have effective Promotion (Communication by marketers that informs, persuades, and reminds potential buyers of a product in order to influence an opinion or elicit a response.)




Promotional Strategy - Is a plan for the optimal use of the elements of promotion: Advertising, Public Relations, Personal Selling, and Sales Promotion. Sephora expertises in all these elements.




With Advertising, you can find Sephora advertisments on billboards, the internet, magazines etc...




With Public Relations, Sephora's team keeps a good image of Sephora. When you here about Sephora you do not here any negativity. The reason being is because Sephora's Public Relation team stays on top of their image.




With Sales Promotion, Sephora promotes new products, coupons and sales. You can actually print out sephora coupons online and sign up for alot of offers tht help you save money.




Competitor advantage is the set of unique features of a company and its products that are percieved by the target market as significant and superior to the competition. The features include High Product Quality, Rapid delivery, low prices, Excellent Service, or a Feature not offered by the Competition.




Since Sephora is indeed a cosmetic company they have a lot of competition. Like any company they see competition is a way to advance a head. Instead of copying what other companies do, they take other companies mistakes and make them wonderful ideas. For example, lets say it takes two days to recieve a Revlon product that was ordered online, Sephora will make it that if you order their product online it will only take a day to recieve. Or another good example and Fact is low prices thats Sephora offers. Both Sephora and Mac offer a Hello Kitty line. The major difference between the two lines is the price. Sephora offers Hello Kitty Lip Gloss for $16, while MAC (one of Sephora's many competitors) offers Hello Kitty Lip Gloss for $27.49... A HUGE difference in price and a major factor when it comes where a person will shop.

Not only does Sephora stores expand Sephora products, they also help expand other products as well. In Sephora stores you can find SEPHORA brand products but in Sephora stores you can also find brands like Stila, Smashbox, Lorac, and Lancome. With that being said Sephora's integrated marketing communication strategy is great because you can now look at Sephora stores as a place that holds a cosmetic army because the brands that Sephora stores offer work together to make Sephora a great place to shop and find what you are looking for.

Product Concepts

Sephora sells a variety of different product. After reading up on different types of products, i've come to the conclusion that Sephora specializes in Shopping products, specialty products and unsought products.

Shopping products - A product usually more expensive than a convience product and is found in fewer stores.
Now when it comes to cosmetics,you can find them in a lot of places, pharmacies,discount stores,beauty supply stores and etc...but when buying a sephora product the stores you can buy them at decreases.When buying a sephora product one must go to a sephora ,macys or bloomingdales.

Speciality products- When consumers search extensively for a particular item and are very reluctant to accept subsititues.
Now sephora offers a lot of products, now to focus on sephora lip glosses, sephora offers a variety of different types of glosses and shades. I feel sephora offers speciality products through experience. The last time I was in sephora a lady was looking for a certain lip gloss from sephora that was made for people with dry lips, sephora didn't have it and the lady's friend suggested going to a different cosmetic store and the lady said no that she would either order the product online or come back tomorrow.

Unsought products- A product unknown to the potential buyer or a known product that the buyer does not actively seek.

Sephora always offers new products but sometimes the product isn't known by everybody. Being that i am a loyal costumer of sephora i recieve emails about new products weeks in advanced but if you aren't a loyal costumer you wont know about certain products until they get advertised.

Sales Promotions and Personal Selling

Sales Promotion is marketing communication activities, other than adversting, personal selling and public relations, in which a short-term incentive motivates consumers or members of the distribution channel to purchase a good or service immediately, either by lowering the price or by adding value.

On my last blogpost I talked about Advertising.

ADVERTISING offers a consumer a reason to buy, while SALES PROMOTIONS offers an incentive to buy. For example, Sephora could be promotiong a new lip gloss on a commercial today and because the lip gloss is new that gives me a reason to buy it, because I would want to try out the new product. Now two weeks could pass and Sephora could be promoting the SAME product but now they could be selling it for half price, that would give me the incentive to buy it, because not only is the product still new, it is now cheaper.

There are alot of Consumers and Sales Promotion goals.

• Type of buyer: Loyal Customers which are people who buy a certain product all the time. (I consider myself a loyal customer and I am pretty sure the staff of the Sephora on 42nd st. would agree)
• Sales Promotion Examples: Loyalty marketing programs such as frequent buy cards or frequent shopper clubs. (I have a Sephora shopper's card and whenever I purchase anything from Sephora I am guarenteed 5% off my next purchase. I also get emails from Sephora about new products and upcoming sales.)
• Desired Result: For the consumer to stay a loyal costumer. 
   

• Type of buyer: Competitors customers which are people who buy a competitor's product must or all of the time.
• Sales Promotion Examples: Sampling products so that future consumers can get a feel of the product and what a company is offering. (In Sephora stores before you purchase a product they have samplers around, and tools that you can yuse to sample a product)
• Desired Result: To pursuade the consumer to switch to your company.

• Type of buyer: Brand Switchers which are people who buy a variety of products in the category. (Usually these are people who don't have a preference if they like make up they will buy make up from any cosmetic store.)
•  Sales Promotion Examples: Any promotion that lowers the price of product, such as coupons. (Lower prices may be likely to give a person the incentive to buy the product a company is selling.)
• Desired Result: To get the consumer to buy their product.

•  Type of buyer: Price buyers: Which are people who consistently buy the least expensive brand.
• Sales Promotion Examples: Coupons, refunds and or trade deals that reduce the price of the brand to match that of the braind that woukd have been purchased.
• Desired Result: Appeal with low prices or supply added value that makes price less important.

Sephora offers a lot of Sales promotions.

Sephora offers a variety of coupons, rebates and premiums.

Coupons: A coupon is a certificate that entitiles consumers to an immediate price reductions when they buy a product.

Last week when I bought my super shimmer lip gloss from sephora, I brought in a coupon that takes off $2 dollars. The lip gloss was reguarly priced at $10, so with my $2 I saved and my 5% perent reduction from using my sephora card, I only paid about $6 dollars for the lip gloss

Rebate: Rebates are similar to coupons, they offer the purchaser a price reduction, because the consumer must mail in a rebate form and some proof of purchase, the reward is not immediate.

Premiums: Premiums are an extra item offered to the consumer usually in exchange for some proof that the promoted product has been purchased. (Sometimes at Sephora when I buy a certain product or product or products I get a free gift. This past week I bought $30 worth of lip gloss and blush because of my purchases I was given a free blush brush.)



Me and my free Blush Brush I received from Sephora. Also, in case anyone is wondering I am wearing Sephora's line of "Colorful Mono Eyeshadow" the color I am wearing is "City Fog 02" it sells for $12 and the blush I am wearing is Sephora's collection of "Blush me! Mono" the color I am wearing is "Framboise Attraction 3" it sells for $12.



Advertising and public relations

The company of Sephora is a well known cosmetic company. You can find advertisements for Sephora all over. They invest about $100,000+ on billboard ad's around the world. They advertise and market themselves in magazines, posters, billboards,blogs and etc. With Sephora staying on top with their advertising techniques Sephora's popularity is on the rise and staying on top.

Retailing (Shopping at Sephora)

So today was my short day at school and I decided to do a little shopping. Of course I decided to go to Sephora because Sephora is one of my favorite stores. I hopped on the 2 train and got off on 42nd-Times Square. I went to a Sephora store and went on a hunt for my Sephora's Super Shimmer Lip Gloss. When I entered the store I was greeted by one of the many sales associates. Karen (which was the sales associate, I always look at name tags) first told me about the new items in stock and if I would like to try a sample. I took my time and looked at the samples (I am definitely going back to buy some Sephora Nude Lip plumper tomorrow). Anywho she then asked if there was anything specific that I was looking for, I told her I was looking for Sephora's Super Shimmer Lip Gloss, she proceeded to take me to the section where that specific lip gloss is. She then asked me what color am I looking for and I told her RED VELVET. Unfortunately that color was sold out, instead of Karen pushing other products on me, she gave me two options. The first option was to order the lip gloss online. Then she reminded me that there was another Sephora store down the block that should have what I was looking for. Before I left she took the time out to call the other Sephora store to see if the product I wanted was in the stock this way I wouldn't waste time making an unneccessary trip. Thankfully the other store had it and in less then ten minutes I purchased the item I wanted. It was a great Sephora experience, I definitely have no complaints.



 

Consumer decision making

The cosmetic industry is expanding and with so many companies on the rise Sephora comes up with new gimmicks and products to keep consumers wanting more. When you think of make-up you usually think of teenagers or women, but Sephora products are timeless. Sephora came up with "Hello Kitty at Sephora". This line appeals to all ages. Hello Kitty was introduced in 1974 (it was introduced in 1976 in the United States). With her feminine and fun appearance she is found irresistible by a female of any age (even though it was originally aimed for the pre-adolescent female market). With that bit of information on Hello Kitty you can see why Sephora decided to incorporate Hello Kitty into their line of products.Some lip products you can get from the Hello Kitty line are:

• Hello Kitty Lip Balm - $9.00
• Hello Kitty Sweet Gloss - $16.00

Developing a Global Vision (More information)

On my last blogpost I focused on the Breast Cancer Awareness that Sephora contributes to. The major fact that I forgot to mention was the "GLOBAL" aspect of the company. Sephora has stores in many places outside of the United States. You can find Sephora stores in France, England, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Monaco, Romania, Czech Republic, Russia, the United States and ETC. Sephora also caters to the countries because Sephora makes an effort to try and translate their products names, ingredients and directions to the language of the country they are selling to. Also, Sephora is partnered with a other stores so it makes their global effort expand. When you see a Macy's or Bloomingdales, if you go to their cosmetic section you are sure to find Sephora's line of cosmetics.

Developing a Global Vision

Sephora is aware of beauty needs of females all over being that they are a cosmetic company. Sephora may be a cosmetic company but they support so much more then just looking good. Sephora supports Breast Cancer Awareness. In support of Breast Cancer Awareness Sephora has a line of "Pink" Products. Whenever a "Pink" product is puchased, Sephora gives back a portion of the money to Breast Cancer research. Each product has a different donation amount.

When Puchased

• Sephora's Fusion Beauty LipFusion Color Shine in Kiss ,which costs $38, five percent of the profits of this gorgeous shade will be donated to the Breast Cancer Awareness Foundation. Here is a list of some other products that helps with the awareness when purchased.
• Clarins Lip Colour Tint in Pink Sorbet, which cost $19.00, 15 percent of the sales of this lip-smacking gloss to the Evelyn Lauder Breast Cancer Foundation.
• Sephora BCA Mini Kabuki Brush, which cost $10.00, the net proceeds from each sale will be donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
• Stila BCA It Gloss Trio, which cost, $34.00, a portion of proceeds will benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
• LORAC Perfectly Pink, which cost $25.00 a portion of proceeds will benefit the National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund.
• DuWop Power Kiss, which cost, $22.50 a portion of proceeds go to Cancer and Careers, an organization that inspires career women with cancer to charge ahead.

 As time goes on Sephora's line of "Pink" products is expanding. I only took the time to tell you about their lip gloss line but Sephora's line of "Pink" products consist of everything from lip gloss to lotions. Sephora is not only expanding beauty, they are also spreading AWARENESS.

Ethics and Social Responsibility

Sephora's ethics go hand in hand in how they continue to expand their company and the way they they target their customers. You can find Sephora stores all over the world. In each store, you see diversity. Sephora does not discriminate in the people that they hire at all or who they sell to. Race, Religion, Gender none of that matters when applying to a Sephora store. This also corresponds in how they sell to customers. When looking in magazines or even at the billboards of a Sephora advertisment you see different people. Sephora targets any females, they just do not cater to one look. When working in a Sephora company, whether its one of the many Sephora stores or one of the headquarters, you will be sure to see different people and even hear different languages. Regardless of the diversity these people come together to help make Sephora better. In order to make sure the work space is at its best. Sephora updates there code of ethics once every few years. Before updating it they take a survey and the survey helps determine what should be changed or kept the same in their list of ethics. Sephora started doing the surveys back in 2000. The reason for this was to make sure that their code of ethics and their policies weren't too vague or complicated. Their policy seems to be a success because the success of Sephora has been growing and continues to grow with time. And Sephora continues to use that same code of ethics when advertising to the public. Sephora discriminates no one, and sells to all.

Strategic Planning for competitive advantage.

Most people are aware of the cosmetic company SEPHORA. That is because Sephora's strategy of advertisement is would I would like to call GENIUS. Sephora has a variety of products. Sephora sells perfumes, eye shadows, nail polishes etc. My favorite product of all is their lip glosses. The reason is because of the variety of lip glosses. Now I know that other cosmetic companies like MAC offer a variety of lip glosses, but Sephora's variety expands to more than just shades of colors. In 2008 Sephora's team of marketers and executives went around to a chain of stores including Macy's and J.C Penney. They found out about what customers look for when buying lip gloss and also things that prevent sales. The discovery was that most of the prevention of sales was not because of the lip gloss but because of certain insecurities that female shoppers have about themselves.

DISCOVERIES/FEMALE THOUGHTS:

• Some females feel that because their lips are too small, some lip glosses don't look as good on them as they would on a female with fuller lips.
• Some females feel that their complexion is too light or too dark for certain shades.
• Some females deal with dry and cracked lips and feel that lip gloss will make it worse.
•  Some females think that lip gloss wears off too quick.
• Some females prefer lipstick.

After finding out the thoughts of females and potential buyers Sephora expanded their lip gloss and took it to new limits. Sephora now creates lip gloss that helps with with a lot of the insecurities that were stated above. Sephora offers a variety of lip plumpers, lip gloss therapies (which are lip glosses that contain aloe vera for people who suffer from dry lips), they offer about 250 different shades and tones for different skin complexions, they offer lip gloss that looks like lipstick and they offer lip last lip gloss (which is lip gloss that doesn't wear off quickly) Sephora's strategic planning is a success because they ask what the consumer wants and then Sephora provides. From a 2010 survey in Allure magazine 4 out of every 5 females choose SEPHORA over MAC.

The history of SEPHORA.

"To build the most knowledgeable and professional team of product consultants in the beauty industry, Sephora developed 'Science of Sephora."

Sephora was founded in France by Dominique Mandonnaud in 1969. Sephora was orginally called Shop 8, but Dominique Mandonnaud re-named Shop 8. In 1993 Mandonnaud merged the Biblical name, Zipporah (Moses' wife), with the ancient Greek word "Sephos" which means pretty. Sephora stores specialize in selling cosmetic and beauty care products. Sephora was founded in 1969. That one store later expanded to about 750 stores and 21 different countries. In 1996 Sephoras' perfume outlet was opened in Paris. That outlet is the biggest perfume outlet in the world. In 1997 Sephora was acquired by LVMH a well established conglomerate based in Paris. Though Sephoras' perfume store was opened in 1996, the first official Sephora store was opened in New York in 1997. The marketing branches of this store were also located in New York City.

A LOOK IN TIME:

• 1969: Dominique Mandonnaud founded Shop 8
• 1993: Dominique Mandonnaud re-named Shop 8 to "Sephora"
• 1996: Sephora opened the biggest perfumery in the world. In Paris, on Champs-Elyseès
• 1997: Sephora, was included by LVMH group and it included Marie-Jeanne Godard sign.
• 1998: Sephora inaugurated the international business development plan in New York, in Soho
• 1999: Sephora landed on Internet and began selling on-line on the site www.Sephora.com, available in the USA.
• 2000: Sephora received the prestigous Retailing Innovator of the Year award.
• 2009: Sephora’s success keeps on spreading all over the world, with 560 stores in Europe, 226 of which located in France, 216 in North America, 110 in Italy. Sephora is the most innovative beauty chain in the world.